The qualifiers for the EPICENTER Major 2019 are over, and 14 Dota 2 teams from around the world are ready to battle it out for the top prize. The EPICENTER is the largest tournament in Russia, and this marks the fourth installment. It is also the last Major tournament for the Dota Pro Circuit 2019 Season.
Since this was the last chance for some of the teams to get DPC points, the qualifiers featured excellent matches and gave fans a glimpse of what to expect for the actual tournament . As a Major tournament, the prize pool offered is $1 million, with a total of 15,000 DPC Points up for grabs.
The team that qualified include:
- China
- PSG.LGD
- Vici Gaming
- Royal Never Give Up
- Europe
- Team Secret
- Team Liquid
- OG
- CIS
- Virtus.pro
- Gambit Esports
- North America
- Evil Geniuses
- Forward Gaming
- South America
- paiN Gaming
- Infamous
- Southeast Asia
- Fnatic
- TNC Predator
For seven of these teams, the tournament is more of a formality as they have already obtained slots to The International 2019. These are Team Secret, Virtus pro, Evil Geniuses, Vici Gaming, PSG LGD, Fnatic, and Team Liquid.
So far, Ninjas in Pyjamas is the only team that has obtained a slot in TI9, but has not qualified for the Major. However NiP is currently playing in the qualifiers for the StarLadder ImbaTV Minor S2.
3 remaining slots on the #EPICENTER Major were distributed by Valve today. Europe and China will each have 3 slots and the last minor of this DPC season will offer 2 direct invites.
— EPICENTER (@epicentergg) May 12, 2019
CIS, NA, SEA and SA regions will each have 2 slots on our tournament.#epicgg #dota2 pic.twitter.com/HQZhSCmhks
Making this year's tournament interesting is that Valve had to step in to make some changes to the tournament. In particular, Valve redistributed the slots available. Initially, 15 teams were expected to go through the qualifier and these were divided as:
- Europe - 3 slots
- CIS - 3 slots
- China - 3 slots
- Southeast Asia - 2 slots
- North America - 2 slots
- South America 2 - slots
- Minor - 1 slot
In most Major tournaments, it was North America that was given three slots. With the exception of EG, NA teams lately have shown rather dismal performance. Thus, there was a call from the Dota 2 community to give one slot to another region. In this case, the EPICENTER organizers decided to give it to CIS.
It was here that Valve stepped in. While Valve agreed that NA would have only two slots, the company decided that CIS should have the same number of slots. Thus, the final slot was instead given to the ImbaTV Minor. This means that the top two teams of the Minor are now given a chance to be part of the Majors.
The Group Stage of the EPICENTER Major is scheduled to begin June 22 with the Playoffs on June 24.
