TI5 European Qualifiers will kick off on Friday, May 29, at 12:00 CEST. The nine invited teams along with the qualified one will compete over four days to attain the coveted spot at the most prestigious event of the year.
UPDATE (August 9):
Evil Geniuses are your TI5 champions! Grand Finals VODS, summaries, pictures and highlights: here.
Ten teams – Ninjas in Pyjamas, The Alliance, Burden United, Na’Vi, Vega Squadron, 4 Anchors and Sea Captain, Power Rangeres, HellRaisers, London Conspiracy, and Yellow Submarine, 50 players, 11 represented countries. Four of the players competing in the TI5 European Qualifiers have attended all four previous The International championships.
UPDATE (day 3): Na’Vi defeated 4ASC, 2:1, securing themselves a trip to Seattle and a spot in the qualifiers’ Grand Finals. Vega eliminated NiP, 2:1, and will now move forward into the Lower Brackets to face 4ASC. Matches start on Monday, June 1, at 14:00 CEST, with the Lower Bracket finals, followed by the Grand Finals. Check out the brackets in our detailed day 3 recap.
UPDATE (day 2): Na’Vi, 4 Anchors & Sea Captain and Ninjas in Pyjamas have advanced to the playoffs. The fourth team to advance will be decided on Sunday, May 31, at 12 CEST, between London Conspiracy and Vega Squadron. Check out the standings and brackets in our detailed day 2 recap.
UPDATE (day 1): Na’Vi and 4ASC top their groups. Alliance ended their best-of-two series with draws, Na’Vi pulled off an over 80-minute long game – the longest in the TI5 qualifiers until now, and underdogs London Conspiracy and Yellow Submarine surprised everyone with their strong plays and upsets. Read our detailed day 1 recap.
TI5 European Qualifiers format
- The ten teams have been divided into two Round Robin groups of five.
- Top two teams from each group will advance to a double elimination bracket.
- The first place team will start in the Upper Bracket.
- The runner-up team will start in the Lower Bracket.
- The first place team from the TI5 European Qualifiers will advance to the main event in Seattle, Washington, August 3rd through 8th, at the Key Arena.
- The second place will compete against the other regional runner-up teams in a Wild Card series in Seattle, for the final two TI5 spots.
TI5 European Qualifiers streams
The TI5 European qualifiers will be broadcast in English as part of the “Mega Hub” coverage provided by Twitch and the PGL studios. The Mega Hub coverage will bring 35 Dota 2 personalities under the same roof.
The following Twitch channels will provide coverage of all of the matches:
- main casting stream: TI5sange
- secondary casting stream: TI5yasha
- third casting stream: TI5skadi
- lounge stream: TI5mango
The TI5 European Qualifiers series will begin at 12:00 CEST on Friday, May 29, and end on June 1st.
TI5 European Qualifiers Group A
Group A past encounters (since January 2015)
- 4 Anchors & Sea Captain 4 : 1 Burden United ▶ 5 matches ▶▶ 80% winrate
- 4 Anchors & Sea Captain 0 : 2 Alliance ▶ 2 matches ▶▶ 0% winrate
- 4 Anchors & Sea Captain 3 : 3 Power Rangers ▶ 6 matches ▶▶ 50% winrate
- 4 Anchors & Sea Captain 1 : 4 Ninjas in Pyjamas ▶ 5 matches ▶▶ 20% winrate
- Burden United 1 : 1 Alliance ▶ 2 matches ▶▶ 50% winrate
- Burden United 1 : 1 Power Rangers ▶ 2 matches ▶▶ 50% winrate
- Burden United 4 : 1 Ninjas in Pyjamas ▶ 5 matches ▶▶ 80% winrate
- Alliance 11 : 3 Power Rangers ▶ 14 matches ▶▶ 79% winrate
- Alliance 4 : 6 Ninjas in Pyjamas ▶ 10 matches ▶▶ 40% winrate
- Power Rangers 10 : 11 Ninjas in Pyjamas ▶ 21 matches ▶▶ 48% winrate
The first group of the European TI5 Qualifiers seems to be a level playing field. However, based on their recent performances, Alliance and Ninjas in Pyjamas are considered to be Group A’s front runners.
4 Anchors and Sea Captain
Trixi, 4 Anchors and Sea Captain
Photo Credits: Andrew Bell
4 Anchors and Sea Captain is an unsponsored 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.
Trixi has attended both TI3 (placing seventh-eighth) and TI4 (placing 13th-14th) with Fnatic.
4 Anchors and Sea Captain has taken first and second places in serveral tournaments, such as EIZO Cup, Esportal, Hitbox EU Championship, and Yard Festival.
4 Anchors and Sea Captain roster
Lasse “MATUMBAMAN” Urpalainen
Sampsa “nemphy” Kutvonen
Kalle “Trixi” Saarinen
Mikko “Vaalix” Ristimäki
Riku “Buugi” Fält
Burden United
SingSing, back when he was still a part of Team Tinker
Burden United is an unsponsored European team created in February 2015 by ComeWithMe, Mynuts, Neqroman, Alaan “SexyBamboe” Faraj, and SingSing, for the ESL One Frankfurt 2015 qualifiers. Only a few weeks later, Paris replaced SexyBamboe.
Veterans ComeWithMe, SingSing and Paris have plenty of TI experience. Paris, also known as Sockshka, attended TI1 as part of team Virus Gaming and the TI2 preliminaries with MTW. He was on team Quantic in 2013, when they qualified for the Wild Card playoff game along with RaTtLeSnAkE, but lost 3-1, thus were unable to qualify for the main event.
ComeWithMe attended The International 2011 with OK.Nirvana.Int. He failed to secure his US visa and was unable to attend TI2 with Mousesports.
SingSing attended TI2 with Mousesports and TI4 with Cloud 9, taking fifth-sixth place.
Burden United’s presence in the European tournaments has been strong. The team won Hitbox EU Championship only weeks after being formed, and has recently placed third in the D2CL Season 5 LAN finals.
Burden United roster
Weh Sing “SingSing” Yuen
Selim “Neqroman” Oynar
Titouan “Paris” Merloz
Alexandru “ComeWithMe” Crăciunescu
Johan “Mynuts” Andersson
Alliance
Akke, during the StarLadder StarSeries 12 LAN finals
Alliance picked up the Swedish rising stars of No Tidehunter in 2013. The lineup’s first under the Alliance tag was at The International 3, where they grabbed first place. In 2014, at TI4, they finished on the 11th-12th place.
After numerous roster changes and inconsistent performances, the team has recently started to pick up momentum again, with the addition of Sébastien “7ckingMad” Debs and the return of Henrik “AdmiralBulldog” Ahnberg.
The team placed fifth-sixth at StarLadder Season XII, qualified for the MLG Pro League LAN finals, placed sixth at the i-League Season 3 LAN finals in Shanghai and is scheduled to attend ESL One Frankfurt 2015.
Alliance have been bootcamping in preparation for the qualifiers.
Alliance roster
Per Anders “Pajkatt” Olsson
Jonathan “Loda” Berg
Joakim “Akke” Akterhall
Sébastien “7ckingMad” Debs
Henrik “AdmiralBulldog” Ahnberg
Ninjas in Pyjamas
Era, during his time in Fnatic
Photo Credits: navi-gaming.com
Ninjas in Pyjamas is a Swedish eSports organization, especially known for their Counter-Strike squad. In 2015, the organization expanded to Dota 2 by picking up Swedish team LAJONS, featuring former Fnatic player Adrian “Era” Kryeziu, as well as four other Swedish players who had been playing together on team HON.
LAJONS was founded in September 2014 for the Golden eSports League Season 2. Era parted ways with Fnatic following TI4, after some medical complications had caused controversy and a rift in the team’s professional relationships.
On February 23, 2015, NiP dropped Joel “Apemother” Larsson and picked up Linus “Limmp” Blomdin, also a HON player. The Swedish team has had a strong presence in the EU scene and has quickly formed a loyal fan base. Ninjas in Pyjamas have placed first in Alienware Area 51 Dota 2 Cup and Esportal Invitational 3, third at StarLadder Season XI, the Major All Stars Dota 2 tournament, and the MLG Pro League, and fourth at the D2CL Season 5 LAN finals.
The team is currently bootcamping and has recently acquired Limmp’s brother, Rasmus “Chessie” Blomdin, as a coach.
Ninjas in Pyjamas roster
Adrian “Era” Kryeziu
Linus “Limmp” Blomdin
Jonas “joanssomfan” Lindholm
Simon “Handsken” Haag
Elias “Sealkid” Merta
Power Rangers
Power Rangers is a Belorussian team that was founded in 2013. After several roster changes over the last two years, the team continued to push forward in the European and CIS scene.
This year, Power Rangers has had a string of difficulties affecting their roster, starting with the departure of Maxim “Shachlo” Abramovskikh in February, followed by the loss of sponsor ESFX.Tv in mid March and the separation from Akbar “SoNNeikO” Butaev who left to Na’Vi, on March 25.
On April 27, the team added Rinat “KingR” Abdulin and Kirill “Sunlight” Kachinsky.
In the past year, Power Rangers had a couple of second place finishes in several Esportal, and InsideDOTA tournaments.
Power Rangers roster
Dmitry “Ditya Ra” Minenkov
Kirill “Sunlight” Kachinsky
Eugene “chshrct” Kostroma
Alexei “j4” Lipai
Rinat “KingR” Abdulin
TI5 European Qualifiers Group B
Group B past encounters (since January 2015)
- Natus Vincere vs. London Conspiracy ▶ 0 matches
- Natus Vincere 5 : 5 HellRaisers ▶ 10 matches ▶▶ 50% winrate
- Natus Vincere vs. Vega Squadron ▶ 0 matches
- Natus Vincere vs. Yellow Submarine ▶ 0 matches
- London Conspiracy 0 : 2 HellRaisers ▶ 2 matches ▶▶ 0% winrate
- London Conspiracy 0 : 2 Vega Squadron ▶ 2 matches ▶▶ 0% winrate
- London Conspiracy vs. Yellow Submarine ▶ 0 matches
- HellRaisers 2 : 3 Vega Squadron ▶ 5 matches ▶ 40% winrate
- HellRaisers vs. Yellow Submarine ▶ 0 matches
- Vega Squadron 2 : 0 Yellow Submarine ▶ 2 matches ▶▶ 100% winrate
London Conspiracy have no wins versus HellRaisers and Vega Squadron – the only two teams from their group they have faced in the past months. Natus Vincere have not faced three of the teams from Group B at all since the beginning of the year, while YeS has only played versus Vega Squadron twice and lost both times.
Natus Vincere and Vega Squadron seem to have the upper hand in the second group of the TI5 European Qualifiers.
Na’Vi
Dendi, during last year’s D2CL LAN finals
Natus Vincere, Latin for “born to win”, is a Ukranian multigaming organization which was founded in 2009. In 2010, they picked up a Dota 2 division consisting of Goblak, Alexander “XBOCT” Dashkevich, Andrey “Mag” Chipenko, Deff-, and Axypa. However, two months later both Mag and Deff- left and were replaced with Danylo “Dendi” Ishutin and Ivan “Artstyle” Antonov.
Due to the numerous recent roster changes and inconsistent performances, Na’Vi did not receive a TI5 direct invite. The organization has always been an ever present fixture at the event. Na’Vi won first place at The International 1, and second place at TI2 and TI3. Last year, at TI4, the team slipped to 7th-8th place.
Their last roster change occurred on April 5, when they welcomed back Gleb “Funn1k” Lipatnikov and Ivan “ArtStyle” Antonov.
The team has recently been bootcamping in order to improve their performances and team cohesion.
Natus Vincere roster:
Ivan “ArtStyle” Antonov (captain)
Gleb “Funn1k” Lipatnikov
Daniil “Dendi” Ishutin
Alexander “XBOCT” Dashkevich
Akbar “SoNNeikO” Butaev
HellRaisers
Dread, HellRaisers
HellRaisers is an eSports organization with teams in both Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Dota 2. At the end of August, HellRaisers picked up the team “Relax, you’re doing fine”, which was originally founded in 2013 by Andrey “Dread” Golubev.
After most of the team departed between September and October, HellRaisers then picked up Kompas.Gaming’s lineup and replaced “PSM” with “Dread”.
Since then, the team has won a considerable number of tournaments, placing first and second in MSI Dragon Battles, JoinDOTA Masters, GIGABYTE, Battle of Central Europe, Yard Festival, Esportal and fourth at the Red Bull Battle Grounds, where they defeated Team Empire, Na’Vi and Virtus.Pro to qualify for their spot.
HellRaisers roster
Artyom “Artes” Gorobey
Andrey “Afoninje” Afonin
Ivan “Gorec” Kartankov
Dulat “goddam” Seidimomyn
Andrey “Dread” Golubev
Vega Squadron
Mag, Vega Squadron
Vega Squadron is a European professional gaming organization formed on July 10th, 2012 and headquartered in Moscow, Russia. On October 5th, Vega announced their Dota 2 squad consisting of: Sharfik, The_apathy, Unstopp, Shkeeper and CaptainLove. One month later, Vega parted ways with their old Dota 2 lineup and are signed BUHLO-UroPb as their new squad.
Vega Squadron ended 2014 with a big splash into the scene, taking second place in the Esportal Open Qualifiers and first place in the GG League Season 2. The also started the new year with a bang, taking first place in three tournaments within two weeks – MSI Dragon Battle #1, EIZO Cup #12, Gigabyte Challenge #14, followed by a second place in the JoinDota Masters XVI. The team then underwent some roster changes in mid March, with Haled “sQreen” Al-Habbash replacing Maxim “Tpoh” Vernikov in hopes that sQreen would bring more stability to the team. However, only two weeks later, on March 31, Vega announced that sQreen had parted ways with the organization.
Their last roster change was the addition of Aleksey “Solo” Berezin and Andrey “Mag” Chipenko, in April. Solo played with RoxKiss in 2013 until he was removed from the team following a betting scandal. He received a lifetime ban from StarLadder that was later reduced to one year.
Vega Squadron roster
Semen “Cema” Krivulya
Pavel “9pashaebashu” Khvastunov
Vladimir “no[o]ne” Minenko
Andrey “Mag” Chipenko
Aleksey “Solo” Berezin
London Conspiracy
London Conspiracy
London Conspiracy is a British eSports organization founded in early 2013. They added a Dota 2 squad in November 2014, when they signed XtremeXPC International. XtremeXPC International (XPC.Int) was a professional Dota 2 Greek team. They began to be noticed in the scene in May of 2014 when they started to win several back to back tournaments, including GameAlthlon Greece LAN, eGaming 2014 Greece LAN, and Dota Legends.
The team finished seventh-eighth at StarLadder Season XII, their first major LAN tournament The team has had a stable roster since signing with London Conspiracy, except for one crucial roster change that occurred immediately after their invite to TI5 qualifiers, when Xaris “SkyLark” Zafiriou replaced Nikos “ReaLaxXx” Kiazolis.
London Conspiracy roster
Greg “Keyser Soze” Kallianiotis
Omar “Madara” Dabasas
Xaris “SkyLark” Zafiriou
Giannis “SKANKS224” Theodoridis
Giorgos “SsaSpartan” Giannokopoulos
Yellow Submarine
Yellow Submarine is a Russian team that has had a rather strong presence in the Tier 2 scene. The team placed first in the Paysafecard Go4Dota2 Europe Cup #4, and second in the Paysafecard Go4Dota2 Europe Cup #3 and GIGABYTE Challenge #13.
They recently won the TI5 open qualifiers, where they defeated GD Studios in the first round and Moscow 5 in Round of 256.
Yellow Submarine roster:
Dmitry “Barash” Lednikov
Dmitry “Dale” Rudnev
Yaroslav “Miposhka” Naidenov
“Fervian”
Adrei “PSM” Dunaev
The International 5
The International 5 will take place August 3rd through 8th at the Key Arena, in Seattle, Washington, the same venue as last year. The Key Arena has a total seating capacity of over 17,000. The total prize-pool has so far reached $9,231,036.
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