The first confirmed participants in this year’s International, the annual Dota 2 world championship event hosted by Valve, have been revealed. And all six squads, which include Kiev Major 2017 winners Team OG, should be familiar to new and longtime fans Dota 2 competitive scene.
A total of 18 teams will be invited to Seattle before this year’s Dota 2 championship. The first six were handpicked by Valve, as they have been the last few years, while the remaining 12 will be determined by a series of Qualifier events around the globe. A winner and runner-up from China, Europe, North America and Southeast Asia will each join the line-up before The International begins on Aug. 7. They’ll be joined by the winners of qualifier events in South America and the CIS region; however, there won’t be runner-up spots for those events. The third-place team in China will also receive an invite to Valve’s next Dota 2 event.
They’ll be joined by some of the most recognizable names in professional Dota. The six teams directly invited by Valve include last year’s winners, Evil Geniuses, along with perennial favorites like Team Liquid and Newbee. It’s admittedly a bit weird not to see some fan favorites on the list, the most obvious being the Dendi-led Na’Vi, but we imagine some of those squads will inevitably make their presence felt during the qualifier events.
Here’s the full list of direct invites:
Evil Geniuses
Invictus Gaming
Newbee
OG
Team Liquid
Virtus.Pro
Qualifiers begin later this month. The first round, a series of open qualifiers to determine the final candidates for this year’s Regional Qualifiers, will begin on June 22 and continue through June 25. The regional tournaments will begin a day later and continue through June 29. All of the teams who’ve already been invited to the Regional events are currently listed on the International 2017 sub-section of the Dota 2 website. Teams interested in the open qualifiers can also find links to register for each event.
Dota 2 is currently available on PC and OS X.
Be sure to check back with Player.One and follow Scott on Twitter for more Dota 2 coverage in 2017 and however long Valve supports Dota 2 in the years ahead.
