The European Boston Major Qualifiers got off to a flying start on Thursday, October 27th, at 10:00 CEST. The eight invited teams, along with two qualified ones, will compete over the two coveted spots available at the Boston Major.
Get up to speed with the Boston Major Qualifiers schedule, format, participating teams, and streams!
Ten teams – Ad Finem, Alliance, Escape Gaming, Team Liquid, Na’Vi, Team Secret, Vega Squadron, Fantastic 5 and Imperial Gaming – are on deck in the European Boston Major Qualifiers.
The Boston Major will be held between December 7th-11th, at the Wang Theater, in Boston, USA, with a set prize-pool of $3,000,000. Sixteen teams will compete in the main event hosted by PGL and Valve. Wings Gaming, Digital Chaos, Evil Geniuses, Newbee, EHOME, Execration, OG and MVP.Phoenix have already been directly invited to the event.
Boston Major Qualifiers format
The Boston Major Qualifiers format has been adjusted compared to previous Majors. This season, teams will be pitted against each other in a single group, instead of divided into two groups. Another significant change, teams will face each other in a best-of-one round robin. The top four teams in the group stage will advance to a best-of-three GSL-style playoffs bracket. Two teams per region will qualify for the Boston Major. Thus, there will be two phases to the Boston Major Qualifiers format: group stage and playoffs.
Boston Major Qualifiers group stage
- Only one group per region
- Round-Robin
- Best-of-one matches
- 1 point for wins
- 0 points for loss
- Teams placed 1st-4th advance into playoffs
Tiebreakers: Teams tied for 4th place in the group will play a tiebreaker match. If teams are tied for other places in the group, the winner will be determined based on head-to-head results.
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Boston Major Qualifiers playoffs
- 1st place team chooses 3rd or 4th place team as an opponent
- 2nd place team competes against remaining team
- GSL bracket format
- Best-of-three series
- Two teams qualify for the Boston Major
European Boston Major Qualifiers schedule
The EU+CIS region will have eight invited teams and two qualified teams competing.
October 27th, 10:00 CEST: Ad Finem vs Imperial || Alliance vs Fantastic Five
October 27th, 11:00 CEST: Natus Vincere vs Team Secret || Ad Finem vs Fantastic Five
October 27th, 12:30 CEST: Imperial vs Virtus.Pro || Alliance vs Vega Squadron
October 27th, 13:30 CEST: Ad Finem vs Virtus.Pro || Fantastic Five vs Vega Squadron
October 27th, 15:00 CEST: Imperial vs Team Secret || Alliance vs Natus Vincere
October 27th, 16:00 CEST: Imperial vs Team Liquid || Alliance vs Escape Gaming
October 27th, 17:30 CEST: Ad Finem vs Team Secret || Vega Squadron vs Natus Vincere
October 27th, 18:30 CEST: Ad Finem vs Team Liquid || Natus Vincere vs Escape Gaming
October 27th, 20:00 CEST: Team Secret vs Alliance || Vega Squadron vs Imperial
October 27th, 21:00 CEST: Virtus.Pro vs Fantastic Five || Team Secret vs Vega Squadron
October 27th, 22:00 CEST: Vega Squadron vs Virtus.Pro || Ad Finem vs Alliance
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October 28th, 10:00 CEST: Escape Gaming vs Virtus.Pro || Team Liquid vs Natus Vincere
October 28th, 11:00 CEST: Imperial vs Alliance || Ad Finem vs Natus Vincere
October 28th, 12:30 CEST: Escape Gaming vs Team Secret || Team Liquid vs Vega Squadron
October 28th, 13:30 CEST: Natus Vincere vs Virtus.Pro || Vega Squadron vs Escape Gaming
October 28th, 15:00 CEST: Escape Gaming vs Team Liquid || Ad Finem vs Vega Squadron
October 28th, 16:00 CEST: Virtus.Pro vs Alliance || Fantastic Five vs Imperial
October 28th, 17:30 CEST: Virtus.Pro vs Team Secret || Fantastic Five vs Natus Vincere
October 28th, 18:30 CEST: Ad Finem vs Escape Gaming || Team Liquid vs Alliance
October 28th, 20:00 CEST: Virtus.Pro vs Team Liquid || Fantastic Five vs Escape Gaming
October 28th, 21:00 CEST: Natus Vincere vs Imperial || Team Secret vs Fantastic Five
October 28th, 22:00 CEST: Escape Gaming vs Imperial || Team Liquid vs Fantastic Five
October 28th, 23:00 CEST: Team Secret vs Team Liquid
Boston Major Qualifiers coverage
The Boston Major Qualifiers will be covered by Beyond the Summit: stream #1, stream #2, stream #3, stream #4.
Boston Major Qualifiers European contenders
Ad Finem (invited to the European Boston Major Qualifiers)
Ad Finem have been an imposing force in the European region since their inception, when Giorgos “SsaSpartan” Giannakopoulos had once again formed an all-Greek squad, on December 4th, 2015, just in time for the Shanghai Major roster lock.
Ad Finem means “to the end” and the team has always had their sights set on their end goal. They have been a stable and constant fixture in the European Dota 2 scene. Since the all Greek squad was formed, they have not made any roster changes and have been a source of pride for their nation.
Their TI6 qualifier run was thrilling, demonstrating a vast improvement in the team’s level of skill and synergy.
Ad Finem roster:
Giorgos “SsaSpartan” Giannakopoulos
Omar “Madara” Dabasas
Xaris “SkyLark” Zafiriou
Dimitris “ThuG” Plivouris
Verros “Maybe Next Time” Apostolos
Alliance (invited to the European Boston Major Qualifiers)
At the end of August, Alliance officially announced the departure of Gustav “s4” Magnusson, Henrik “AdmiralBulldog” Ahnberg and Joakim “Akke” Akterhall.
s4 joined the new OG roster, while AdmiralBulldog had disclosed via ask.fm that he might take a break until after the Boston Major.
Joakim “Akke” Akterhall and Henrik “AdmiralBulldog” Ahnberg will be remaining with the organization in other capacities. Akke has joined the “Alliance talent”, as the organization will be expanding into Hearthstone and Super Smash Bros Melee. AdmiralBulldog’s role has not yet been specified.
The Alliance new roster remained entirely Swedish, as Jonathan “Loda” Berg and Jerry “EGM” Lundkvist picked up Simon “Handsken” Haag, Jonas “jonassomfan” Lindholm and Linus “Limmp” Blomdin.
Alliance roster:
Jonathan “Loda” Berg
Linus “Limmp” Blomdin
Jonas “jonassomfan” Lindholm
Simon “Handsken” Haag
Jerry “EGM” Lundkvist
Escape Gaming (invited to the European Boston Major Qualifiers)
Escape Gaming © Valve
The European mix made its debut performance in the EPICENTER Moscow EU qualifiers, with Ludwig “zai” Wåhlberg on board. zai was unable to fully return to competitive gaming at that time, due to school commitments. Instead, the team picked up Maurice “KheZu” Gutmann, an addition that seems to have played perfectly into the mix.
The squad defeated Power Rangers in the EPICENTER Moscow EU qualifier, 3:1, and ultimately finished the wild card series in third place, ending their run before the main event.
Since then, they have maintained a solid presence in the European scene, seizing the wild card spot for TI6 and advancing into the main event, where they eventually placed 13th-16th.
The team has made no roster changes this season.
Escape Gaming roster:
Adrian “Era” Kryeziu
Max “qojqva” Bröcker
Maurice “KheZu” Gutmann
Yazied “YapzOr” Jaradat
Troels “syndereN” Nielsen
Team Liquid (invited to the European Boston Major Qualifiers)
Team Liquid at Shanghai Major courtesy of RUHUB
Team Liquid’s new roster was announced to include Amer “Miracle-” Al-Barkawi and Kanishka Sam “BuLba” Sosale.
Jesse “JerAx” Vainikka left Team Liquid after an incredibly successful year and joined up with OG.
The following day, in a very candid and personal explanation, Adrian “FATA-” Trinks revealed that he was taking a break from competitive gaming and had left Team Liquid.
Team Liquid roster:
Kuro “Kuroky” Salehi Takhasomi
Amer “Miracle-“ Al-Barkawi
Sam “BuLba” Sosale
Lasse “MATUMBAMAN” Urpalainen
Ivan “MinD_ContRoL” Borislavov
Na’Vi (invited to the European Boston Major Qualifiers)
Na’Vi during Manila Major Group Stage
After trying out and then finalizing their roster in February, 2016, with Viktor “GeneRaL” Nigrini, Na’Vi began to surge forward with positive results.
The Ukrainian team went on to gain some commendable results and managed to secure their first championship title in two years at SLTV iLeague StarSeries, after besting Team Secret, 3:1.
Despite a 13th-16th place finish at TI6, the team decided to remain intact.
Na’Vi roster:
Danil “Dendi” Ishutin
Akbar “SoNNeikO” Butaev
Dmitry “Ditya Ra” Minenkov
Ivan “Artstyle” Antonov
Viktor “GeneRaL” Nigrini
Team Secret (invited to the European Boston Major Qualifiers)
Puppey, Team Secret, at ESL One Manila © ESL
Secret were among the first to announce their roster for the upcoming 2016 fall season.
During the drop period, Artour “Arteezy” Babaev, Jacky “EternalEnVy” Mao and Sam “Bulba” Sosale parted ways with the team – eventually joining Evil Geniuses, Team NP and Team Liquid, respectively.
The new lineup includes three SEA players – former MVP.Phoenix members MP and Forev, and ex-Fnatic player MidOne – as well as two European players and members of the team’s previous roster, Puppey and pieliedie.
Team Secret roster:
Clement “Puppey” Ivanov
Johan “pieliedie” Åström
Pyo “MP” No-a
Lee “Forev” Sang-don
Yeik “MidOne” Nai Zheng
Vega Squadron (invited to the European Boston Major Qualifiers)
Cema
At the end of August, Vega completed their lineup with Bogdan “Iceberg” Vasilenko in the midlane role. Earlier in August, it was revealed that Fng would be joining the organization following the complete dissolution of Virtus.Pro.
Vega Squadron roster:
Semen “Cema” Krivulya
Rostislav “fn” Lozovoi
Artsiom “Fng” Barshak
Andrey “Mag” Chipenko
Bogdan “Iceberg” Vasilenko
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Virtus.Pro (invited to the European Boston Major Qualifiers)
Lil
On June 30th, Sneg1 dissolved the entire Virtus.Pro roster after the team’s lamentable track record last season and failure to qualify for The International 6.
The new roster led by Alexey “Solo” Berezin was revealed early August, prior to the post-TI6 reshuffle.
VP took their first title for the new season in BTS EU series #4.
Virtus.Pro roster
Alexey “Solo” Berezin
Ilya “Lil” Ilyuk
Roman “Ramzes666” Kushnarev
Pavel “9pasha” Hvastunov
Vladimir “No[O]ne” Minenko
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Fantastic 5 (winners of the Boston Major EU Open Qualifiers #1)
Illidan
The team registered for the TI6 open qualifiers with both Ilya “Illidan” Pivcaev and Pavel “9pashaebashu” Khvastunov. After qualifying for the TI6 EU closed qualifiers, the team placed third in the group after playing out a three-way tiebreaker against Escape and Team Secret. F5 advanced to the playoffs but were knocked to the lower brackets by Ad Finem and then eliminated by Escape Gaming.
In August, 9pashaebashu left the team for Virtus.Pro and was eventually replaced by Serafim “L0lik_O” Savelyev, in September.
Fantastic Five roster:
Stanislav “BzzIsPerfect” Glushan
Roman “rmN-“ Paley
Vladimir “yol” Basov
Ilya “Illidan” Pivcaev
Serafim “L0lik_O” Savelyev
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Imperial (winners of the Boston Major EU Open Qualifiers #2)
Imperial Dota 2 squad at Bootcamp 2016
The Imperial members have been playing together under the “Danish Bears” tag since August 2015, with the exception Jon “13abyKnight” Andersen who replaced Jure “Pingvincek” Plešej in June. Towards the end of June, they were signed by Imperial.
The Danish squad has had a very strong presence in the regional scene, participating in almost every minor tournament and qualifier. They have typically been able to place in the first three positions. Recently, they have been a formidable enemy, seizing championship titles left and right.
The team managed to win the WESG Global EU LAN finals and will be heading to China in January to represent Denmark.
Danish Bears/Imperial roster:
Marcus “Ace” Hoelgaard
Jon “13abyKnight” Andersen
Mikki “HesteJoe-Rotten” Junget
Danny “Noia” Junget
Christopher “Ryze” Winther
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