All the direct invites for The International 10 have been handed out with the last one going to South American team Thunder Predator. Thunder joins 11 other teams in the biggest event of Dota 2. It’s safe to say that Thunder finally getting the invite is an excellent story by itself.
Season 1 Darlings
During Season 1, Thunder got a runner-up position at the Upper Division of the South America region. This gave the team placement at the Group Stage of the Singapore Major. With beastcoast, later on, deciding not to attend the tournament, Thunder became the sole SA team.
Thunder ended the Group Stage on top to start the Playoffs at the Upper Bracket. However, against Team Secret, they stood no chance and were promptly brought to the Lower Bracket with a 0-2 loss. It was there that they suddenly caught the attention of everyone.
Their first match was against Team Aster and a lot of people did not put the odds in their favor. Yet they surprised everyone with a sweep and guaranteed 200 DPC points. That didn’t stop there as they later beat Virtus.pro 2-0 to get even more points. Their Cinderella story though would stop at the next stage as they fell to Invictus Gaming at 1-2.
While many cheered for Thunder, they failed to make it for the WePlay AniMajor for Season 2.
Direct Invite
With the good showing in Season 1, Thunder was able to get 600 DPC points. While it didn’t qualify for the WePlay AniMajor, the placement in Season 2 gave it 200 DPC points for a total of 800 points. This put them at 12th place and another interesting story.
As the WePlay AniMajor progressed, more teams were getting direct invites. Just as the Playoffs started, four teams received those coveted direct invites, and a little while two more were handed out.
The last two had beastcoast and Thunder. However, three other teams were also after them, which were Team Nigma, Team Spirit, and TNC Predator. When TNC and Spirit got eliminated, beastcoast got the invite.
All that was left was Thunder and Nigma. When Nigma was defeated by Evil Geniuses, Thunder was now guaranteed to have a TI10 appearance.
The 12 teams with direct invites for TI10, based on rank, are:
- Evil Geniuses (North America)
- PSG.LGD (China)
- Virtus.pro (Eastern Europe)
- Quincy Crew (North America)
- Invictus Gaming (China)
- T1 (Southeast Asia)
- Vici Gaming (China)
- Team Secret (Western Europe)
- Team Aster (China)
- Alliance (Western Europe)
- beastcoast (South America)
- Thunder Predator (South America)
What do you think of the teams that got the invite?
