Two Dota 2 teams from Eastern Europe are now joining the upcoming Stockholm Major. The first slot went to BetBoom Team who had a good start during the playoffs and ended strong. Joining them is none other than TI10 champion Team Spirit.
There's still one slot left and so far Mind Games are waiting for whoever wins in CIS Rejects versus Natus Vincere.
Top Spot
While BetBoom may seem to be a new team, the roster is composed of former Winstrike players. They weren't able to make an impact during last year's DPC. The team was only able to join the playoffs after placing in the top two last season.
During the playoffs, they managed to defeat Spirit 2-1 and then Na'Vi also at 2-1. They managed to keep their momentum going and swept Mind Games 2-0. Their first-place finish in Eastern Europe gives them 400 DPC points. In terms of the overall DPC 2021-22 Ranking, that puts them in 12th place.
Still Strong
Spirit may have started the playoffs on a loss but that really didn't matter much in their journey to get a second-place finish. The team was able to sweep all their opponents at 2-0. First, it was against HellRaisers and then Na'Vi. They did the Mind Games with the second game in their match-up ending in just under 16 minutes.
Disqualified
One team that should have dominated was Outsiders. They're not a new team but the roster name of Virtus.pro used to join the playoffs. There's no question that they had a high likelihood of joining the Stockholm Major. However, the team was disqualified. Organizer Beyond The Summit revealed in the tweet that as a result, all of the team's matches are considered forfeited.
What happened was during a match against Mind Games, Outsiders player Ivan "Pure" Moskalenko drew the letter Z (in pink no less) during a pause in the game. On any other day, that would have been harmless. However, the letter Z has since been associated with showing support for the Russian invasion of Ukraine. While Pure has issued a video statement saying it "happened by accident," many in the community aren't really buying it with some even saying that it didn't really sound like an apology.
What do you think? Was the ban too hard as a punishment or was it just right?
Dota 2 is available on PC.
