Shanghai Major Qualifiers Europe: Team Liquid pushes through to China

Team Liquid is the first team to qualify for the Shanghai Major in China, after besting Team Spirit, 2:0, in the Shanghai Major Qualifiers Europe brackets. They will join OG, Team Secret, Evil Geniuses, EHOME, ViCi Gaming, CDEC, Virtus.Pro, Alliance and now Fnatic (the winners of the SEA Qualifiers) and LGD (the winners of the China Qualifiers) for the main event set to take place between March 2-6, at the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai, China.

One more team from Europe and two teams from each of the other regions will qualify to compete for the $3 million prize-pool.

LIQUID ARE DOING IT! They head to #ShanghaiMajor! Finland MATUMBAMAN Germany FATA- Bulgaria MinD_ContRoL Finland JerAx Germany KuroKy

— Qualifiers Oracle (@Dota2Qualifiers) January 9, 2016

The Shanghai Major Qualifiers Europe have ended their third day with Team Liquid becoming the first European team to qualify for the main event set to take place between March 2-6, at the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai, China.

Team Liquid were able to push their way through Team Spirit, 2:0, in the finals. Having drafted Earth Spirit in the first game for Jesse “JerAx” Vainikka, Liquid managed to eventually claim the victory after an hour long match that was rather back and forth throughout. JerAx’s ES was nothing to ignore and, with a cheeky play, Liquid were able to beat up Roman “Ramzes” Kushnarev and claim the win.

Thus, Team Liquid pushed their way through to win the second game as well, sweeping through Team Spirit, 2:0, for the spot in the Dota 2 Major of the winter season.

Team Liquid had defeated Team Empire earlier in the day, 2:1, dropping the CIS squad to the Lower Brackets. Empire will face Vega tomorrow, who had been bested by Team Spirit, 1:2, earlier in the day. The winner will proceed to the Lower Bracket finals to face Team Spirit.

The matches will resume on January 10th, at 14:30 CET, and are expected to be intense, as the teams continue their quest within the second stage of the Shanghai Major Qualifiers China – the double elimination brackets.

Shanghai Major Qualifiers Europe results

Shanghai Major Qualifiers Europe results, courtesy of RUHUB

Shanghai Major Qualifiers Europe format

• The ten teams have been divided into two Round Robin groups of five.
• Top two teams will advance to a double elimination bracket.
• First place team will start in the Upper Brackets.
• Runner-up team will start in the Lower Brackets.
• Playoffs are double elimination brackets.
• The first and second place teams from the Shanghai Major Europe Qualifiers will advance to the main event in Shanghai, China.

Shanghai Major Qualifiers Europe groups

Dota 2 Shanghai Major Qualifiers groups, courtesy of Dota2RUHUB

Shanghai Major Qualifiers Europe schedule

Sunday, January 10th

• 14:30 CET – Vega Squadron vs. Team Empire
• 17:30 CET – Team Spirit vs. TBD

Shanghai Major Qualifiers Europe streams

The Shanghai Major Europe Qualifiers will be broadcast in English as part of the coverage provided by Beyond the Summit in their “insanity hub”.

• The Beyond the Summit Twitch channel will provide coverage of select group stage matches from all four regions.

The Shanghai Major Europe Qualifiers series have begun at 11:00 CET, on Thursday, January 7th, and will end on January 10th.