Valve officially announced the 12 Dota 2 teams that received a direct invitation to the upcoming The International 2019. These are the teams that have shown consistent performance during the Dota Pro Circuit 2018-2019 Season. The teams are:
- Team Secret
- Virtus.pro
- Vici Gaming
- Evil Geniuses
- Team Liquid
- PSG.LGD
- Fnatic
- Ninjas in Pyjamas
- TNC Predator
- OG
- Alliance
- Keen Gaming
Here at Player.One, we've reported the same list, but this was based on unofficial rankings. Still, the teams expected to get said invites are not that surprising given their performance for the past DPC season.
With 12 teams now decided, six more teams are needed in order to complete the roster for the upcoming tournament in Shanghai. The only difference is that these six teams need to go through their regional qualifiers. One team from each of the six regions are given the chance to qualify. The six regions are:
- Europe
- North America
- South America
- Southeast Asia
- China
- CIS
The Main Qualifiers for each region have eight teams battling it out for that one important slot. Around half of these teams have already been invited, with the other half needing to hurdle the Open Qualifier. Open Qualifiers are expected to be conducted from July 3 to July 6. Main Qualifiers are scheduled for July 7 to July 14.
The teams invited for each Regional Qualifier are:
- Europe
- The Final Tribe
- Chaos Esports Club
- Open Qualifier: 6 Slots
- North America
- compLexity Gaming
- Forward Gaming
- J.Storm
- beastcoast
- Open Qualifier: 4 slots
- South America
- paiN Gaming
- Thunder Predator
- Infamous
- Open Qualifier: 5 slots
- Southeast Asia
- Mineski
- BOOM ID
- Open Qualifier: 6 slots
- China
- EHOME
- Team Aster
- Royal Never Give Up
- Team Sirius
- Open Qualifier: 4 slots
- CIS
- Natus Vincere
- Team Empire
- Gambit Esports
- Winstrike Team
- Team Spirit
- Open Qualifier: 3 slots
The International is the biggest event in Dota 2 esports, and this year the tournament is being held in Shanghai. The Group Stage set to begin August 15 and the Main Event on August 20. As of this writing, the prize pool for the tournament has crossed the $25 million mark.
The International also marks the culmination of the 2018-2019 DPC Season, which had a total of five major tournaments held in different locations around the world. The first was the Kuala Lumpur Major back in November of last year, followed by the Chongqing Major in China early this year. It was then followed by DreamLeague Season 11 in Stockholm with the fourth major being the MDK Disneyland Paris Major. The final and recently concluded tournament was the EPICENTER Major in Moscow.
