Manila Major EU Qualifiers: schedule, groups, team profiles

The Manila Major EU Qualifiers kick off on Tuesday, May 3rd, at 10:00 CEST. The eight invited teams, along with two qualified ones, will compete over the coveted spot at the Dota Major of the spring season.

Get up to speed with the Manila Major EU Qualifiers schedule, participating teams, format, groups, and streams!

Ten teams – Team Empire, Vega Squadron, Virtus.Pro, Team Spirit, No Diggity, Polarity, Power Rangers, Ad Finem, Kaipi and Rebels! – will be competing to represent EU at the Manila Major.

The Manila Major will be held between June 7-12, at the Mall of Asia Arena, in Manila, Philippines, with a set prize-pool of $3,000,000. Sixteen teams will compete in the main event hosted by PGL and Valve.

Team Secret, Team Liquid, Evil Geniuses, MVP.Phoenix, Wings Gaming, ViCi Gaming Reborn, Fnatic, OG, compLexity Gaming, Alliance, Na’vi and LGD Gaming have already been directly invited to the event.

Manila Major EU Qualifiers format

• The ten teams have been divided into two Round Robin groups of five.
• Top two teams will advance to a double elimination bracket.
• Round robin first place teams will face the second place from the other group.
• Grand Final is Best-of-five.
• The first place team from the Manila Major EU Qualifiers will advance to the main event in Manila, Philippines.

Manila Major EU Qualifiers groups

Group A

• Team Empire
• No diggity
• Polarity
• Power Rangers
• Kaipi (Winner of the EU Open Qualifiers #1)

Group B

• Vega Squadron
• Virtus.Pro
• Team Spirit
• Ad Finem
• Rebels! (Winner of the EU Open Qualifiers #2)

Manila Major EU Qualifiers schedule

Tuesday, May 3rd

• 10:00 CEST – Empire vs. KP
• 10:00 CEST – Pol vs. PR
• 12:30 CEST – DiG vs. Empire
• 12:30 CEST – KP vs. Pol
• 15:00 CEST – Spirit vs. AF
• 15:00 CEST – VP vs. RBLs
• 17:30 CEST – Pol vs. DiG
• 17:30 CEST – PR vs. KP
• 20:00 CEST – Vega vs. VP
• 20:00 CEST – RBLs vs. Spirit

Wednesday, May 4th

• 10:00 CEST – Empire vs. Pol
• 10:00 CEST – DiG vs. PR
• 12:30 CEST – AF vs. RBLs
• 12:30 CEST – Spirit vs. Vega
• 15:00 CEST – DiG vs. KP
• 15:00 CEST – PR vs. Empire
• 17:30 CEST – Vega vs. AF
• 17:30 CEST – VP vs. Spirit
• 20:00 CEST – Vega vs. RBLs
• 20:00 CEST – AF vs. VP

Manila Major EU Qualifiers Streams

Manila Major EU Qualifiers streams: English

Manila Major Regional Qualifiers streams: Russian

Manila Major Regional Qualifiers streams: Chinese

Manila Major EU Qualifiers teams

Team Empire

Team Empire arrive in Philippines for ESL One Manila

Team Empire’s new roster is a complete overhaul with five new players. Only hours after being dissolved in the aftermath of the spring Major reshuffle, the squad was rebuilt.

Having qualified back in February with an entirely different lineup, the Russian team was able to retain their place at ESL One Manila and eventually take 3-4th place in the event. Since the change of roster, the team has taken third place in ProDota Cup EU #5 and 4th at WePlay LAN.

The team has been hedging on their new found structure to build them new heights and so far they have not fallen short of their goal.

Team Empire roster:

Roman “Ramzes” Kushnarev
Roman “Scandal” Sadotenkov
Vasily “AfterLife” Shishkin
Yaroslav “Miposhka” Naidenov
Rinat “KingR” Abdullin

Team Spirit

When the team qualified for the Shanghai Major and started appearing in premier tournaments, they started to gain traction and acknowledgement of their potential. Their results were less than expected and internal issues ended up leading to roster changes.

Gleb “Funn1k” Lipatnikov joined Ilya “Illidan” Pivcaev in Team Spirit, rounding out their new roster. Illidan was originally announced to be trying out for the team on March 9th.

Under the guidance of Goblak and filled with many CIS stars, the team was directly invited to participate in the WePlay LAN ultimately taking 7-8th place.

Team Spirit roster:

Ilya “Illidan” Pivcaev
Bogdan “Iceberg” Vasilenko
Andrey “ALWAYSWANNAFLY” Bondarenko
Artur “Goblak” Kostenko
Gleb “Funn1k” Lipatnikov

Vega Squadron

Vega Squadron, courtesy of SL iLeague Invitational LAN

Vega Squadron surprised many when they surged forward, showing strong performances in the TI5 European qualifiers and grabbing the Wild Card Series slot for the biggest tournament of the year. Later, they managed to upset TI5 champions Evil Geniuses in a clean 2:0 sweep and cruised to the ESL One New York grand finals to claim the championship title.

At the end of March, the CIS team made their first roster changes since before TI5. Pavel “9Pasha” Hvastunov was replaced by Rostislav “fn” Lozovoi in the carry role.

The team has been flying under the radar in the last few months and has had limited participation in events, but managed to qualify for the WePlay LAN, seizing second place at the main event.

Vega Squadron roster:

Semen “Cema” Krivulya
Rostislav “fn” Lozovoi
Vladimir “no[o]ne” Minenko
Andrey “Mag” Chipenko
Aleksey “Solo” Berezin

Ad Finem

Ad Finem at the WePlay LAN

Ad Finem have been an imposing force since their inception, when Giorgos “SsaSpartan” Giannakopoulos had once again formed an all-Greek squad on December 4th, in time for the Shanghai Major roster lock.

On January 31st, the team seized their first championship title under the Ad Finem banner, in the ProDota Cup Season 2.

Taking several second and third place finishes, the Greeks have been a formidable opponent to all teams that have crossed their path. It is no surprise that the team was invited to attend WePlay LAN to replace Fnatic, when the SEA team withdrew due to visa issues. They ultimately took 7-8th place at the main event.

Ad Finem roster:

Giorgos “SsaSpartan” Giannakopoulos
Omar “Madara” Dabasas
Xaris “SkyLark” Zafiriou
Dimitris “ThuG” Plivouris
Verros “Maybe Next Time” Apostolos

Rebels

VANSKOR

Ivan “VANSKOR” Skorokhod was originally announced to be part of Black^’s Avengers! Dota team. One day after the official announcement, it was revealed that he was kicked from the team, only two days before the Manila Major and TI6 rosters became locked. In the end, Black^’s team – Avengers! Dota – has failed to register for the Major.

VANSKOR put together a mix of Russian players, called Rebels. The team has taken first place at NXTGAME Invitational #2 and ProDotA Cup Europe #5.

Rebels roster:

Ivan “VANSKOR” Skorokhod
Daniil “MeTTpuM” Gilev
Maksim “Shachlo” Abramovshkikh
Oleg “tmw” Kolesnichenko
Vadim “Sedoy” Musorin

Kaipi

At the end of August, after TI5, bOne7 put together a mix with Asuna, Bufni, Beesa, and kikoni. They went by the name of Kaipi.

Less than a month later, Alexandru “Comewithme” Crăciunescu and Antonio “canceL^^” Mihai were brought on after Kiril “Kikoni” Minkov and Salvador “Asuna” Khamis parted ways with the team.

On March 14th, 2016, the team welcomed WehSing “SingSing” Yuen and Sébastien “7ckngMad” Debs to the lineup. Since then, canceL^^ has left the team and has been replaced by Alaan “SexyBamboe” Faraj.

Kaipi’s new roster includes Cosmin “Masakary” Nechifor as a replacement for recently departed 7ckngMad.

Kaipi roster:

WehSing “SingSing” Yuen
Alaan “SexyBamboe” Faraj
Armand “bOne7” Pittner
Alexandru “Comewithme” Crăciunescu
Cosmin “Masakary” Nechifor

Virtus.Pro

Sergey Alexandrovich “G” Bragin © Steffie Wunderl/ ESL

Their Storyline: The Virtus.Pro organization is at the top of the Russian esports scene. With Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov investing $100 million into ESforce, a company owned by VP owner/CEO Anton Cherepennikov, VP are definitely in the limelight. Although the CIS squad came in a commendable 5th-6th place at last year’s International championship and walked away with close to 1.2 million dollars, they struggled after that to find acceptable results moving forward.

Twice since then, Virtus.Pro had roster changes in hopes to break their 5th-8th place curse, and both times the team continued on the same trajectory after a short period of time. In a bold and drastic move, the roster has changed composition once again in hopes of a more lasting and permanent change of course for the new season.

Virtus.Pro took 5th-8th place at the DotaPit Season 4 LAN. The CIS team was the first team to be eliminated from the event after being swept up by compLexity Gaming, 2:0.

Coming into the new season Virtus.Pro made drastic changes to their lineup at the end of March, as they announced the addition of both Alexander ”NoFear” Churochkin and Maxim “yoky” Kim to the roster, replacing Alexander “DkPhobos” Kucheria, and Ilya “Lil” Ilyuk. At the same time, the team announced that Airat “Silent” Gaziev had been moved to the substitute role and is currently inactive due to health issues. Their fifth and final position was then filled by Ilya “ALOHADANCE” Korobkin, most recently departed from Team Empire.

Virtus.Pro roster:

Sergey “God” Bragin
Maxim “yoky” Kim
Artem “fng” Barshak
Alexander “NoFear” Churochkin
Airat “Silent” Gaziev (substitute)

Power Rangers

j4, Powe Rangers

On December 28th – Arcade dropped their sponsorship of the team and the Belarus based squad reverted back to their original name Power Rangers. The team had gone through a patch of instability and inconsistent results leading up to the winter season.

Eugene “chshrct” Kostroma and Alexei “j4” Lipai have both been longstanding members of the team since their inception in 2013.

On August 26th, Danil “Bignum” Shehovtsov replaced Ivan “Gorec” Kartankov in the Arcade.PowerRangers lineup as an official team member, adding Turtoi “Ar1se” Ionut in February followed by Dulat “goddam” Seidimomyn in March.

Power Rangers roster:

Eugene “chshrct” Kostroma
Alexei “j4” Lipai
Danil “Bignum” Shehovtsov
Turtoi “Ar1se” Ionut
Dulat “goddam” Seidimomyn

Polarity

In the great reshuffle that took place around the Manila Major team registration period, CIS region went through some significant upheavals including to Virtus.Pro.

Amidst the changes a new lineup was born containing both recently departed Virtus.Pro members Alexander “DkPhobos” Kucheria, and Ilya “Lil” Ilyuk.

DkPhobos and Lil were joined by carry player Paul “9pashaebashu” Khvastunov who was replaced by Rostislav “fn” Lozovoi on Vega Squadron during the same period.

Andrew “Afoninje” Afonin has been added to the lineup as the mid player. He was most recently part of HellRaisers until the organization had separated from the remaining members of their Dota 2 squad.

Rounding out the roster is the second support player, Eugene “Jenya” Kuznetsov. He is an up and coming pub player that is well known within the community. He had stood in for Virtus.Pro in the past as well during HyperX D2L Season 5 against Evil Geniuses.

Polarity roster:

Andrey “Afoninje” Afonin
Alexander “DkPhobos” Kucheria
Ilya “Lil” Ilyuk
Pavel “9Pasha” Hvastunov
Eugene “Jenya” Kuznetsov

No Diggity

Credits: Adela Sznajder/ Dreamhack

After Elias “Sealkid” Merta parted ways with Steak Gaming at the end of January, the team had maintained a low key status. Eventually, Ioannis “Fogged” Loucas left the team and is now registered as a sub for Vegetables Esports, while Trent “sLicKz” Tucker has joined EverNovaS.

Troels “syndereN’ Nielsen and Adrian “Era” Kryeziu continued to play together and formed a new team with Yazied “YapzOr” Jaradat and Max “qojqva” Broecker.

No Diggity made their debut performance in the EPICENTER Moscow EU qualifiers, with Ludwig “zai” Wåhlberg who was unable to return to competitive gaming, due to school commitments. Instead, the team picked up Maurice “KheZu” Gutmann.

Adrian “Era” Kryeziu
Max “qojqva” Bröcker
Maurice “KheZu” Gutmann
Yazied “YapzOr” Jaradat
Troels “syndereN” Nielsen