Dota 2 The International 2018 Direct Invites, Qualified Teams and Their Rosters

Talal Rafi
The international 2018 DotA 2

Image courtesy joindota.com

Dota 2 The International 2018 is the sequel of one of the biggest eSports tournaments of all time, arranged by Valve corp. themselves, with surreal prize pool breaking its predecessor record every year. In addition to the top 8 teams of the world earning a direct invite to The International 2018, through hardship, teamwork and loads of practice 10 teams became eligible of participating in the upcoming TI through their regional qualifiers. Let’s list down all of the teams participating in TI8 main stage.

Contents hide
1 Dota 2 The International 2018 Directly Invited Teams
1.1 Virtus Pro (DPC #1)
1.2 Team Liquid (DPC #2) [Defending Champions]
1.3 PSG.LGD (DPC #3)
1.4 Team Secret (DPC #4)
1.5 Mineski (DPC #5)
1.6 Vici Gaming (DPC #6)
1.7 Newbee (DPC #7) [The International 2017 Finalists]
1.8 VGJ.Thunder (DPC #8)
2 Dota 2 The International 2018 Qualified Teams
2.1 OG Dota 2 [Europe Qualifier]
2.2 Winstrike Team [CIS Qualifier]
2.3 Team Serenity [China Qualifier]
2.4 Invictus Gaming
2.5 Fnatic [Southeast Asia Qualifier]
2.6 TNC Predator [Southeast Asia Qualifier]
2.7 VGJ.Strom [North America Qualifier]
2.8 EG [North America Qualifier]
2.9 OpTic Gaming [North America Qualifiers]
2.10 PaiN Gaming [South America Qualifier]

Dota 2 The International 2018 Directly Invited Teams

Since the introduction weekly patches by IceFrog this TI will be very interesting to watch. The heart of Dota 2 Natus Vincere for the very first time in history is not going to be attending TI which shook the whole Dota community breaking the hearts of many Dota fans around the globe. I mean TI without Dendi is quite unsettling.

Virtus Pro (DPC #1)

Virtus pro is one of the versatile, unpredictable and strongest teams in Dota. The team has young and talented blood who almost never fails to deliver. Despite losing in the lower bracket round 4 in the main event of TI7. They did not lose their composure and they destroyed in the majors and minors gaining ridiculous amount of DPC points having total of 12,1372 which is astounding if you ask me. On February 1st, Lil swapped with NaVi.RodjER. The rest of the rooster remained unchanged.

Team Liquid (DPC #2) [Defending Champions]

Team Liquid is considered to be the strongest, unpredictive, the most versatile team to ever exist but it was not this strong as it is now. Although they produced great results in the past but unable to cross top 8 in TI. In early 2017, since Miracle- joined the team performed poorly but shortly they recovered after GH-God joined the team. Many people say they are like the better version of Alliance of 2013 (They were considered the undefeated wall  back then, as they won multiple tournaments along with TI3, the best TI tournament ever played.). According to SumaiL,

“Team Liquid is the hardest to draft against.”

The hero pool of players of liquid is so versatile that you just cannot ban their best heroes and win easily. Revolving around the oldest and extremely experienced Dota 2 player Kuroky (The only player to play 4 times in TI finals). Losing in the very first match against Invictus Gaming made the fans quite upset and scared as they were the fan favorites to win the finals. It is said Team Liquid had the most crazy lower bracket run and destroyed every other team in their way on their road to the finals where they, for the very first time in Dota 2 history, made a clean sweep of 3-0 (best of 5) against Newbee and lifted the Aegis of champions!

Although not wining any major they consistently placed 2nd or 3rd for 7-8 months (No team has ever performed this well in their prime) earning them 9459 points.

Will Team Liquid defend their champion title and become the first team ever to win two Aegis? Well you will have to wait till August to find out.

PSG.LGD (DPC #3)

Initially started as for The Dream, which won SMM Malaysia in 2009, later that year FTD was sponsored by LGD. The team has been a powerhouse of the Chinese scene ever since. On April 19th 2018, LGD announced their partnership with French football giants Paris Saint-Germain. The team would be known as PSG.LGD. They won their first title at EPICENTER XL, beating Liquid 3-1 in the finals. LGD has one of the best players in the Chinese scene. At the beginning of 2018 xNova joined the team and they found immediate success with the new rooster by qualifying to two DPC events consecutively.

Team Secret (DPC #4)

After the conclusion of TI4, players from Natus Vincere, Alliance and Fnatic formed a team without an official rooster. It was announced that they rooster will participate in various tournaments. The rooster had a very rough start and they produced disappointed results and continuously leaving and joining players the very definition of unstable however with Arteezy and Zai joining the team the team after some losses they win multiple LANs. The team was favorite to win The International 2015 but they got early defeat to the hands of Virtus Pro.

With a lot of changes throughout its formation Team Secret came strong and now considered one of the best teams in the world.

Mineski (DPC #5)

Mineski is a pro-gaming organization, focused on building the Philippine Esports scene by providing coverage and events within the Philippines. Having 2 of the most famous and respected players in the Dota community. Initially the team suffered a lot of defeats but quickly overcame many hurdles and in 2018 they team provided significant results placing from the top 1 to top 5-6 mostly. Earning them enough DAC points to get a direct invite for the TI8.

Vici Gaming (DPC #6)

 Vici Gaming was formed on the 21st of October, 2012. The team initially formed did not had any professional experience before following through a lot of changes (the only team to have this many changes in my honest opinion) throughout many years the team finally stabilized and gave satisfying results. The active roster has 2 of the oldest Chinese players in the current Dota scene.

Newbee (DPC #7) [The International 2017 Finalists]

Newbee earned a direct invite to the TI4 but suffered initially playing at 9th place defeating LGD and Mousesports. However after that they defeated fan favorites teams to progress in the top 8. After that they defeated Vici Gaming and then EG for all Chinese grand finale against Vici gaming where after an initial defeat they took the Aegis of champions by winning with a decisive 3-1.

Newbee is the only ever team setting a record of wins 29 but the streak was later ended by OG. In 2016 the team did not face any fortune and faced piles of loses resulting in the departure of Hao a very amazing player in the Chinese scene.

Newbee was another fan favorite to win TI7 and they asserted dominance in the upper bracket and successfully reaching the finals where they faced very disappointed results with a clean sweep of 3-0 by Team Liquid. After TI7 the team did not show any prominent results. Barely able to earn enough DPC points to get a direct invite to TI

VGJ.Thunder (DPC #8)

The team was created in September 2016. The active roster having one of the few players in Dota pro scene who attended all of TI (ddc). He also attended every Valve supported event except The Kiev Major.

Dota 2 The International 2018 Qualified Teams

There are two types of teams participating in the main tournament. The teams who earned highest DPC points will earn a Direct Invite. Rest of the teams would have to qualify in their regions to play in the main event.

OG Dota 2 [Europe Qualifier]

One of the few teams which had commercial success immediately after forming. Initially formed by all of the former (monkey) Business players and by two players known as Dota brothers (N0tail and Fly). The team had a breakthrough at the Frankfurt major where they defeated TI5 winner and runner-up, EG and CDEC Gaming through 2017 wining the Kiev Major.

OG is the only and will be the only team in Dota 2 to win four Dota major tournaments. They became from underdogs to fan favorites to win TI6, however they faced an upset by losing to the underdogs (TNC pro team). Resulting in major departures of 3 players. Possibility in almost disbanding however the team quickly recovered after the joining of Jerax, s4 and ana.

The team did not get enough DPC points to get a direct invite for TI8 however they managed to qualify to play in the main event.

Winstrike Team [CIS Qualifier]

Winstrike is a Russian organization with a Dota 2 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team. In June 20th, Winstrike Team sign the FlyToMoon roster. The team qualified for CIS region by defeating Espada in the qualifiers finals with a decisive 3-1

Team Serenity [China Qualifier]

Team Serenity was formed in September 2017, owned by Y. The team qualified for the main event defeating Invictus Gaming with 2-1

Invictus Gaming

Created by the son of the 10th richest man in China, it was founded in August 2011 as the result of Wanda Enterprise director acquiring Catastrophic Cruel Memory (A famous Chinese Defense of the Ancients team). It has divisions for Dota 2, league of legends, Hearthstone, overwatch and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Following many departures and joining of many players the team won many tournament and TI2 as well. The team earned a direct invite in TI7 where they obliterated the fan favorites Team Liquid with 2-1 however they did not win any further and placed 5th – 6th position.

Fnatic [Southeast Asia Qualifier]

Fnatic is a professional gaming organization with registered offices in England, Australia and the Netherlands. It is considered as a European team. Founded by Sam Mathews with Joris Van Laerhoven and Anne Mathews in 2004. The team has two of the most famous Dota 2 players.

TNC Predator [Southeast Asia Qualifier]

TNC Pro Team is a professional gaming team of Philippine net cafe chain TheNet.Com. Considered to be the best Southeast Asian team. After DeMoN joined the team as captain TNC became first Philippine team ever to qualify for The International since Mineski at TI1. At TI6 they started at lower bracket with 7/7 where they faced Vici Gaming Reborn and they won. Resulting their matchup against the fan favorite OG. After winning game 1 they shook the viewers by defeating the two time major champions despite a 20,000 gold disadvantage at the hour mark. This win is considered one of the biggest upset in the history of The International.

The team qualified for the SEA region by getting 2nd place by defeating TNC Tigers with 2-1.

VGJ.Strom [North America Qualifier]

VGJ.Storm is the subdivision of the VGJ organization. The 2nd team to have a Pakistani pro player YawaR and of the the best NA core player Resolution.

 

EG [North America Qualifier]

Evil Geniuses often abbreviated as EG, is the old North American professional gaming organization. Ever since  formation in 1999 EG is known to have successful players in every competitive game they feature. Also known as the premier gaming organizations with some of the biggest names in eSport signed. EG announced their new dotA 2 rooster including two former dotA players Fear and DeMoN. They team had many former HoN and dotA players and the results was good to mediocre. The team had its ups and downs until they formed a stable team in 2015 with youngest dotA 2 pro player (SumaiL). EG was not favorites for TI5 but their rival team, Team Secret which were in different group. Both team qualified for upper bracket in the main event losing to CDEC gaming and going to lower bracket where they swept LGD gaming to take revenge on CDEC in the finals, beating them with 3-1, CDEC after killing SumaiL Storm Spirit in mid lane decided to do Roshan where universe along with ppd hitting the 6 million dollar echo slam.

One of the greatest The International moments. Resulting them winning the tournament itself. Making Sumail the youngest eSports player to be a millionaire.

After TI5 the team did not perform as they should have and suffered along with Team Secret. In TI6 the team did not get any direct invite. They prepared for burtal open qualifiers. After qualifying for the main event, having a strong start with a 2-0 victory against Newbee they had an intense game 2 with EHOME where they had the most amazing game ever in The International and with dagons and rapier purchase EG managed to win against mega creeps for the first time in TI. EG was the TI7 fan favorite team, however the results were completely opposite as the fans were expecting. Placing them at 10th position.

At the start of 2018 the team has a very rough start as they kicked their old and great player Universe. Afterwards Universe 2 other players also left the team Miserly and Fear. The team qualified for main event by defeating Backstabbers and getting 2nd place after OpTic Gaming for 2nd slot of NA region.

 

OpTic Gaming [North America Qualifiers]

OpTic Gaming is know for its competitive Call of Duty franchise. The organization announced their rooster in 2017 under the captaincy of TI5 winning ppd. The team qualified for main event of TI8 by getting position 3 by defeating Immortals.

PaiN Gaming [South America Qualifier]

paiN Gaming is a Brazilian multi-gaming organization. They currently field teams in League of Legends, Vainglory, Clash Royale, Overwatch and Dota 2. Having the TI6 finalist and pubstar w33 with their core mid player. The dotA community considers PaiN gaming the underdogs of TI8.
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