Alliance and Ninjas In Pyjamas have earned slots at the upcoming EPICENTER Major. These two Dota 2 teams managed to gain entry to the last tournament of the DPC by getting the top two spots at the recently concluded StarLadder Imba TV Dota 2 Minor Season 2.
Ninjas in Pyjamas started out strong and never looked back. During the Group Stage, NiP faced its only loss against Team Sirius in the first game of their group. NiP then won the next two games in a strong fashion. Up next was Mineski in the Winners’ Match. In the first game, NiP won in under 30 minutes. For the second game, NiP initially took the lead before Mineskie turned things around. There was the expectation that Mineski would even the match, but that was not the case as NiP rebounded and secured the win and the match.
In the Playoffs, the first match for NiP was against Team Anvorgesa. NiP had no problem as the team swept its opponent 2-0. Next up was Alliance, and while NiP took the first game, the match eventually went to Alliance. This led to NiP dropping to the Lower Bracket and going against Sirius again. Unlike in the Group Stage, NiP faced no problems as the team easily defeated Siruis 2-0.
The finals meant NiP again faced Alliance. Despite being a Minor tournament, the match went the distance and showed just how serious the teams are when it comes to competitive play. Alliance took the first game with NiP getting wins on the next two. While NiP got the chance to close the series, Alliance wouldn’t back down and took the win with the game taking one hour. Finally, NiP took the last game to grab the title.
Alongside the slot to the EPICENTER Major, NiP got to take home $125,000 and 120 DPC Points. For getting the second place, Alliance gets an invite to the Major as well, in addition to 100 DPC Points and $100,000 prize money.
The EPICENTER Major begins this Saturday and offers a $1 million prize pool with a total of 15,000 DPC Points. Along with NiP and Alliance, the 14 other teams are:
- Europe
- Team Secret
- Team Liquid
- OG
- CIS
- Gambit Esports
- Virtus.pro
- China
- PSG.LGD
- Royal Never Give Up
- Vici Gaming
- North America
- Forward Gaming
- Evil Geniuses
- Southeast Asia
- TNC Predator
- Fnatic
- South America
- PaiN Gaming
- Infamous
