The 18 teams that will be competing for the title of Dota 2 world champions have been determined.
The full list of attendees was completed on June 25, as the qualifiers for The International 8 concluded. The final contestants from North America, Europe, and Southeast Asia were able to secure their spot at the multi million event after nearly a week’s worth of intense competition.
The last three teams to secure their spot at The International 8 were North American favorites OpTic Gaming, three-time Valve Major champions OG, and Filipino superstars TNC Predator. The 18 teams attending The International 8 aren’t all too surprising, given a majority of them were in the the top 20 when it came to Dota 2 Pro Circuit points.
The full list of teams is as follows:
Qualified via DPC points
- Team Liquid
- Virtus Pro
- VGJ Thunder
- Mineski
- PSG-LGD
- Team Secret
- Vici Gaming
- Newbee
Qualified via regional qualifiers
- Evil Geniuses
- OpTic Gaming
- VGJ Storm
- WinStrike
- OG
- Fnatic
- TNC Predator
- Team Serenity
- Invictus Gaming
- paiN Gaming
Out of all teams that had to qualify, OG’s run through the European qualifier is the most notable. Having lost founding player Tal “Fly” Aizik and long-time offlaner Gustav “s4” Magnusson on May 25, OG had to quickly assemble a makeshift roster for the European qualifier. Despite this OG proceeded to dominate the European qualifier, playing a perfect group stage and only dropping two maps in total during the playoffs.
There is, however, at least one very notable absentee from the list of teams. Legendary Ukrainian team Na`Vi found themselves not even competing for a slot at the tournament as the team was unable to qualify for the CIS regional qualifier, leading to a dramatic exit.
The 90 players in attendance will now have roughly two months to prepare before they embark on the most prestigious journey a Dota 2 player can take.
