There’s good news for fans of Fnatic as the Dota 2 team is headed to this year’s The International 2022, courtesy of a direct invite. Yes, it’s not Outsiders and this has somewhat shaken up the community a bit.
Even before the Arlington Major wrapped up, it was widely reported that all 12 direct invites were already assigned. This was mainly due to the Liquipedia website. While unofficial, the website has been a great help to the community. In fact, Dota 2 statsman Ben "Noxville" Steenhuisen reminded everyone in a tweet that this same website has even "been used as a historic source for Valve to determine invites."
Where did the problem lie? Liquipedia actually put the figures side-by-side on its DPC Ranking tracking. The points are:
- Fnatic
- Liquipedia: 1020
- Valve: 1020
- Outsiders
- Liquipedia: 1020.05
- Valve: 1019
It all boiled down to how the penalties were computed. Teams are penalized when they remove players mid-season, which is what happened with Outsiders. What Liquipedia did was apply the initial value at every penalty step. However, Valve appears to have rounded the values, hence the difference.
For some in the community, the main problem was that there was nothing in the official rules that mentioned rounding penalties or points.
While Outsiders fans may think there’s still time to appeal, it turns out it’s well past that. Valve has officially announced which Dota 2 teams are getting the direct invites, and one of them is Fnatic.
Qualifiers
Teams that did not get a direct invite, including Outsiders, need to go through the Regional Qualifiers from September 3 to September 18, with the winner from each of the six regions joining The International 2022.
Those who fail still have one last shot with the Last Chance Qualifier tournament, scheduled from October 8 to October 12. It's open to those who placed second and third in each Regional Qualifier. However, only the top two teams will join TI.
Going back to the issue, it’s not just a matter of miscommunication. It’s also because Valve didn’t really have a site or page that showed the points and ranking of the teams. In addition, it seems that Valve may have used the tally made by Liquipedia but decided to release a rather arbitrary decision.
What did you think about Valve’s decision?
