The first day of the Shanghai Major EU Open Qualifiers has come to an end. Thirty-two teams are left to compete for a spot in the European Regional Qualifiers. Out of the remaining teams, Steak Gaming, MamasBoys, STARK, London Conspiracy, Big Red Machine, AD Finem, Clique, Danish Bears, YeS, E-Lab, ATN, Spin2Win, and Kaipi are still in contention. The 32 remaining teams will continue battling for the regional spot starting at 13:00 CET, tomorrow, on January 4th.
The first round of the Shanghai Major EU Open Qualifiers has left 32 teams with hopes to continue their journey to China. More than 1000 teams were sent home early to practice and try their luck again in the second set of the Shanghai Major EU Open Qualifiers, starting on January 5th.
The winners of the Shanghai Major EU Open Qualifiers will advance to the Regional Qualifiers, which will take place between January 7-10.
With 1024 teams registered and trying to play on the FaceIT platform at once, the servers had difficulties and the event was delayed for 1.5 hours.
Once the matches got started, the games seemed to carry on without much of a hitch.
Steak Gaming, MamasBoys, STARK, London Conspiracy, Big Red Machine, AD Finem, Clique, Danish Bears, YeS, E-Lab, ATN and Kaipi have all survived to see the second day.
One of the first notable teams to be eliminated was Burden United, who fell to Recovery Position, led by Titouan “PARIS” Merloz and his French peers.
In the Round of 64 of the Shanghai Major EU Open Qualifiers, Big Red Machine defeated PRIES, YeS eliminated No Logic Gaming, London Conspiracy bested Power Rangers, STARK wiped out 4FC, ProDota were taken out by ENSO and 20 CM crushed COOKISS.
The Shanghai Major will be held between March 2-6, at the Mercedes-Benz Arena, in Shanghai, China, with a set prize-pool of $3,000,000. Sixteen teams will compete at the main event hosted by Perfect World and Valve.
Progress can be followed in the FACEIT brackets, as teams continue their journey tomorrow.
Shanghai Major EU Open Qualifiers streams
A couple of channels and casters will be covering selections of games from the European, American and Southeast Asian Shanghai Major Open Qualifiers. The following spreadsheet will be updated throughout the four days of Open Qualifiers.
- BeyondTheSummit’s stream
- MoonduckTV’s stream
- ODPixel’s stream
- Xyclopzz’s stream
- MusicBlade’s stream
- CygnusCasting’s stream
- MithosDota’s stream
- PerilousGaming’s stream
- Turbo’s stream
- DragonDrop’s stream (on HitBox)
Shanghai Major EU Open Qualifiers notable registered teams
Shanghai Major Open Qualifiers notable European contenders (1024 teams registered):
- MamasBoys (former 4Clovers & Lepricon)
- Burden United
- Big Red Machine
- Siberian Valenki Black
- Ad Finem
- London Conspiracy
- E-Lab
- PRIES
- ProDota
- 4FC
- COOKISS
- DK Bears
- No Logic Gaming
- Arcade.Power Rangers
- Spin 2 Win
- YeS
- Team Clique (MantisQ, StalCat, watafaka)
- Steak Gaming
- Team 20cm (Neqroman, klasynky)
- ATN
- Recovery Position
- STARK
Shanghai Major Open Qualifiers
Much like for the Frankfurt Major, there will be two opportunities for teams to compete in the Shanghai Major Open Qualifiers. Two rounds of Open Qualifiers will be hosted – the first will take place between January 3-4, while the second is set for January 5-6. Teams are able to register and participate in both sets of events.
Shanghai Major EU Open Qualifiers schedule
1st round of the Shanghai Major Open Qualifiers
Day 2 – January 4th:
Europe
Start time: 13:00 CEST
Rounds played: Round of 32 (Bo1), Round of 16 (Bo1), Round of 8 (Bo1), Semifinals (Bo3), Finals (Bo3)
Notable Shanghai Major EU Open Qualifiers contenders
Some of the teams that registered to the Shanghai Major Open Qualifiers were not directly invited to the Regional Qualifiers due to roster changes or simply did not make the cut for the already stacked regional list. Many notable teams were left to qualify in the Shanghai Major Open Qualifiers. Among them, there are some quite strong teams that are expected to create an atmosphere of fierce competition in the brutal best-of-one brackets.
MamasBoys (former 4Clovers & Lepricon)
Pajkatt at ESL One Frankfurt. Credits: Patrick Strack/ ESL
In late March, after Goblak left Na’Vi, he put together a new team with some other known teamless professional players. However, multiple roster changes resulted in much instability and thus difficulty achieving major success.
4C&L did not advance beyond the first day of the TI5 Open Qualifiers and, only a few days later, the team faced its third roster change in less than two months, with the additions of Jerry “EGM” Lundkvist and Omar “w33” Aliwi.
Both EGM and w33 have walked away from the team since then, with w33 joining Team Secret and EGM returning to Alliance.
The current roster includes Per “Anders” Pajkatt Olsson, who parted ways with Alliance on August 18th, Martin “Saksa” Sazdov who has been first on the MMR leaderboards and most recently a part of Team Moriarity, and longtime member Alaan “SexyBamboe” Faraj.
Most recently, 4C&L have changed their name to MamasBoys and added Mohammad “Hook” Al-Sheikh and Yazied “YapzOr” Jaradat, both former teammates on Balkan Bears.
MamasBoys roster:
Alaan “SexyBamboe” Faraj
Yazied “YapzOr” Jaradat
Per Anders “Pajkatt” Olsson
Martin “Saksa” Sazdov
Mohammad “Hook” Al-Sheikh
STARK
Trixi
Photo Credits: Andrew Bell
STARK is formerly known as 4 Anchors and Sea Captain, a Finnish team formed in September 2014, consisting of Kalle “Trixi” Saarinen (formerly of Fnatic), Lasse “MATUMBAMAN” Urpalainen, Riku “Buugi” Fält, Mikko “Vaalix” Ristimäki and Jesse “JerAx” Vainikka (formerly of QPad). JerAx left in January 2015 to Team Tinker, before he switched to SEA team MVP.Hot6ix and moved to Korea.
At the end of August, Lasse “MATUMBAMAN” Urpalainen left the team for 5Jungz (Team Liquid) and was replaced by Niklas “okcya” Koskinen. STARK picked up the Finnish team at the end of September.
Most recently, the team took second place in the ProDota EU cup, after being swept by Team Spirit.
STARK roster:
Niklas “okcya” Koskinen
Sampsa “nemphy” Kutvonen
Kalle “Trixi” Saarinen
Mikko “Vaalix” Ristimäki
Riku “Buugi” Fält
London Conspiracy
At the end of October, the organization London Conspiracy announced a new roster featuring the Danish and Swedish mix of players put together by Jellopy. The team participated in the DreamLeague Season 4 qualifiers and the Frankfurt Major European Open Qualifiers. They most recently placed 7th in the PGL Dota 2 Pro-AM tournament.
London Conspiracy roster:
Jon “BabyKnight” Andersen
Sebastian “solen” Kjær
Linus “Kefka” Bleckert
Malthe “Biver” Winther
Richard “Jellopy” Hill
STEAK Gaming
Credits: Adela Sznajder/ Dreamhack
On December 2nd, analyst and caster Troels “syndereN” Nielsen announced his return to competitive Dota 2.
He will be playing alongside former NiP players Adrian “Era” Kryeziu and Elias “Sealkid” Merta.
The three well known players are joined by North American professional player Ioannis “Fogged” Loucas. Fogged was most recently a part of High Council of Wizards & Priests.
Trent “sLicKz” Tucker from Australia will round up the team. sLicKz is a former Heroes of Newerth professional who recently played Dota 2 for Banaaaanas, as well as Team Immunity, Zephyr, Invasion e-Sports and Can’t Say Wips.
Steak Gaming roster:
Troels “syndereN” Nielsen
Adrian “Era” Kryeziu
Elias “Sealkid” Merta
Ioannis “Fogged” Loucas
Trent “sLicKz” Tucker
AD FINEM
In early December, it was announced that Giorgos “SsaSpartan” Giannakopoulos created a new Dota 2 squad, consisting of all-Greek members.
SsaSpartan has been joined by his former teammates from London Conspiracy days, Omar “Madara” Dabasas and Kharis “SkyLark” Zafeiriou. Both Madara and SkyLark have played alongside Verros “Maybe Next Time” Apostolos in Golden Boys recently, before Madara departed the team to join No Logic Gaming, in November.
Dimitris “ThuG” Plivouris has originally been a part of No Logic Gaming.
AD FINEM roster:
Giorgos “SsaSpartan” Giannakopoulos
Omar “Madara” Dabasas
Xaris “SkyLark” Zafiriou
Dimitris “ThuG” Plivouris
Verros “Maybe Next Time” Apostolos
COOKISS
COOKISS is a team put together by Eskillz and Steffstyle in December, especially for the Shanghai Major Open Qualifiers. These two founding members were part of the Swedish team LemonDogs.
The two players left LemonDogs in early December, when the team disbanded.
Two other know Swedish players were added to the lineup, alongside German player “KheZu”, a former member of the StayGreen HoN team.
COOKISS roster:
Kevin “Ash” Zetterlind
Staffan “Steffstyle” Solin
Eskil “eskillz” Sundblad
Axel “Pablo” Källman
Maurice “KheZu” Gutmann
Kaipi
Kaipi made their debut during D2CL Season 6. The team had quietly competed in various online tournaments and had been flying under the radar. After some time, Alexandru “Comewithme” Crăciunescu and Alder “Beesa” Beano parted ways with the team.
Kaipi have now officially registered for the Shanghai Major with Sébastien “7ckingMad” Debs and Romanian player Andrei “Keyano” Grigorie as part of the team.
Kaipi roster:
Armand “bOne7” Pittner
Antonio “canceL^^” Mihai
Alexandru “Bufni” Palievici
Andrei “Keyano” Grigorie
Sébastien “7ckingMad” Debs
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