TI6: More Qualifiers Are Good, But Does Region Matter?
With every year that passes, the competitive scene becomes fiercer and stronger, as more teams and player arise to aim for the top. As a result, it becomes increasingly more difficult to determine which team is the best, let alone which teams deserve direct invites to events. So when it comes to the most prestigious event of them all, The International, there are a variety of opinions as to who should be invited.
Valve has not set any clear rules as to who they wish to invite and what they base it on. In fact, Valve has not clearly defined what The International is even about. Is it truly the pinnacle of Dota 2, the tournament that honors and celebrates the absolute best of the best in the world, or is it a gathering of the best teams worldwide with a portion of regional representation and balance?
Ever since Valve split the qualifiers into 4 regions prior to TI4, every region has gotten the same amount of spots--a direct spot for the event and a spot in the wildcard play-ins. The Majors continued that tradition, except that wildcard play-ins were removed and instead each region got two direct spots (with fewer direct invites). Manila had another spin on this concept with only 4 regional qualifier spots.
Now, TI6 has drastically changed everything and provides each region with 2 direct spots for the event as well as 1 spot for the wildcard play-ins. A total of 12 teams will travel to Seattle after having played the qualifiers, more than ever before.
Is this direction into more qualifiers really good? And should every region really receive the same amount of spots, disregarding their comparative strengths?
Trend towards qualifiers
Recent events have shown that qualifiers are very much necessary, as some teams can not only ride momentum, but also thrive with more match practice and from the underdog position. At TI5, CDEC-Gaming entered the event through the wildcard play-ins and placed 2nd, while the other Wildcard winner MVP.Phoenix placed top 8 as well. OG even won the Frankfurt Major as the European qualifier and Liquid placed 2nd in Shanghai after qualifying, while Newbee placed 3rd in Manila.
Some may argue that there are just as many negative examples of qualifiers, and there are, but the trend is clearly pointing towards more qualifier spots
Up until TI5, only 2/11 teams that got into a Valve event through qualifiers placed top 8, while 6/11 teams even placed last. At TI5 and the Majors, 9/26 qualifier teams made it into the top 8 of their events, though another 9 teams still placed last.
The trend definitely speaks in favor of more qualifiers, but what about the regional distribution?
Regional Spots boost the respective scenes
Before we argue whether or not every region should receive the same amount of qualifier spots, it is important to know what these spots mean.
For regions like South-East Asia and North-America, where the scenes aren’t as competitive and strong, these qualifier spots can change everything. A direct spot for TI not only guarantees a lot of money ($55,000 for last place at TI5), it also provides every team with a healthy amount of experience.
Looking at the SEA region specifically, teams such as TnC or Signature.Trust--if they were to qualify for TI6--have yet to have a notable LAN attendance under their belt. In a qualifier, where Fnatic is the only notable opponent, both teams could potentially travel to Seattle and compete against the best--if not in the actual event, then in scrims. The sheer experience of travelling together with the team and talking to players from across the world is invaluable. MVP.Phoenix travelled to several LAN events prior to TI5, but the team never stood a chance against international competition. The experience they were able to grab from attending those events however allowed them to become a top tier team worthy of a direct invite.
Another great benefit of attending big events such as TI is the exposure. The aforementioned teams are likely still unknown to the Western audience, though all of these teams still have their own stories and experiences that are worth sharing and knowing. Exposure to these teams could easily increase their Western presence and fanbase, which in return would help with sponsors and tournament interest.
So what speaks against an equal distribution of regional slots?
Europe and China too strong
As much as teams like Mineski are talented enough to do well in their own regional qualifiers, they have shown that they are far from ready for international competition. Twice did Mineski fail to exceed expectations in front of their home crowd and their performances didn’t seem to indicate any progress. It’s true that over time they could develop into a team worthy of that spot, like MVP has, but at the moment, that is not the case.
Looking at the EU and China qualifiers, there are a variety of teams capable of competing with the top. Teams such as Empire, Alliance, Vega, VP and Ad Finem have not only proven that they can play well internationally, but have also done so in recent history. Similarly, EHOME, VG.R, Wings, CDEC and CDEC.Y are all capable of competing with the invited Chinese teams and some have even proven to do so internationally as well (VG.R/Wings).
So if qualifier spots boost the regional scenes and teams, but also take away from the quality of the actual main event, what should be done going forward? Keep it the way it is?
LAN Qualifiers the solution?
These 8 teams qualified to the MLG CS:GO Major through the offline qualifier
“The 4th best team in the Europe Qualifier is still better than the 2nd best team in SEA Qualifier” - an argument that is made every time there are the same amount of qualification spots for every region. And it may be true, but right now Valve still values a balanced regional representation more.
There is a way though to help stabilize and boost weaker regions, while still ensuring the best and strongest competition is present at TI: LAN qualifiers.
In CS:GO, the Majors, which are more prestigious than the Dota2 Majors as there is no TI in the scene, have recently adopted the trend of hosting offline qualifiers. Not only is it to allow competition without any lag/ping issues, it also gives teams from weaker regions a chance to prove themselves vs. the tier1-tier2 team of other regions. Offline, or LAN, qualifiers would address the same issues we discussed above: teams from weaker regions would be able to attend LAN events to compete against international opponents, while receiving exposure to their own brand and personalities--even more so than they could during TI, because this qualifier would truly focus on these teams.
It may be difficult to actually host these offline qualifiers, considering there’s a lot of money involved and it would require more time and space, more than there is available right now. With 3 Majors and TI, there is already little room for actual tournaments outside of it. Though LAN qualifiers could be hosted and organized in cooperation with other events. In CS:GO, the offline qualifier for DreamHack Cluj-Napoca were hosted at DreamHack Open in Stockholm, one of DreamHack’s regular events.
While it does work in CS:GO, it’s a bit trickier in Dota 2. In our scene, we are used to bo3 matches and double elimination brackets - neither of these are necessarily standard for CS:GO, where a large portion of tournaments still use bo1 for at least one stage of their events. These LAN qualifiers in CS:GO have accomodated for 16 teams to play out 8 spots over 3 days--an idea that would never work within established Dota 2 standards of bo3 matches, even if they were single elimination.
While offline qualifier in theory could solve a lot of problems at once, they would cause schedule issues and of course be very expensive. If a Major was cut from the circuit to create more space in general, it could be feasible to run offline qualifiers just for TI.
Closing Thoughts
Qualifiers need to exist and there is a lot of evidence that suggests that the more qualifiers we have, the better. It’s important to give every scene its qualifier spots and help get teams to events, but if we wish to have an event with the truly 16 best teams in the world, there are solutions, like LAN qualifiers, to ensure both.
Valve’s invites announcements always spark a lot of discussion, something that will never change if the current “system”--if you can call it one--persists. However, this has been just the first year of the Major circuit in Dota 2 and hopefully Valve has learned a lot from hosting these events in accordance with other organizers, but also by listening to what the community and the pro players want.
The current system in itself still isn’t bad, and yes, a European team that doesn’t qualify may be stronger than a SEA team that will qualify, but ultimately both would be fighting for a spot such as 12-16th. Regardless, every system has room for improvement and it’s on Valve to follow through.
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1st muahahaha
I type this comment in order to prevent (second comment).
Its not a problem for valve. They wanna receive profit. Its not real sport. This is game where the game provider need a profit. They dont care about that. If they do that, SEA and NA who playing dota will decrease
fourth
cinco, to prevent 5th comment. do people even mark the 5th comment?
Get more player interviews cause they are always under prepared and just comically awkward
7th, not bad
8th? Still counting there?
I think invites should be based on average MMR of the team composite on a certain day, like 30 days before the event or something.
Then there is a mad scramble at the top prior to the 30 day period where many players are vying to get the highest team composite MMR to avoid having to go to the qualifiers.
kinda agree with +Volmer+, with recent 'system' i think valve want to expand the game with more economic means than profesionalism(for the game). It's still could change tho, but if the 'system' itself is unclear and not transparant then it'll be hard to say a thing imo
I think cutting out some other EU or Chinese team is better than murdering the entire competitive scene in SEA or NA.
the CSGO style of qualifier is better for the best possible combination of the teams playing in the tournament,making the tournament more fun to watch with every single team going toe to toe against each other
but volvo wants growth in every single region,so I doubt that would happen
9th! New RECORD! :O
Btw, Aren't 10 teams and not 12 going to Seattle through qualification? 2 from each region and 2 through wild card
Did you noticr the thread starter write june 23rd lul
"The 4th best team in the Europe Qualifier is still better than the 2nd best team in SEA Qualifier".You actually didn't need this kind of thought IN DOTA if you do realize that the 4th eu best consist of at least 6-7 k mmr stack while the sea with only 5k.TI is all about money man.
Cs:go has lan qualifiers for one main reason - cheats.
18th! Fear it
88th comment wohoo!
22ndst
23rdthndst
This post is such a superficial view of the event. You guys, from Dotabuff, should be more concern about statistic. Economics and trending market strategy are not for you.
Another point is, IS VERY CLEAR that the event is VERY PROFITABLE. If you have a company, you won't do things that make you earn less money as you could.
Go analyze win rate and GPM, disqualified Skim
Of course this is not a real sport coz from the start valve nor icefrog made dota for entertain.
it is the same with the world cup in football, not the best teams join the tourney , the weak from other countries too !!
+Volmer+ and Echo-chan
no professional sport is a sport because it involves profits for companies?
look its good that they are giving SEA a chance (yes im an SEA player).I know that around 70% of sea players are complete useless but look at this way what about the other 30% players who can actually be really really good for example sumail he and i are countrymen but the pint being that its good that valve is giving sea a chance and the good players in sea to go to other teams like EG,secret or seomething else if they get noticed
it's the same in other sports. in football.. UEFA gives the champions from small country in europe to have the chance to compete in champions league.. Are the champions from Albania better from Liverpool or Man United, for instance? No, I dont think so.. But UEFA still give them a chance..
It's not all about a great tournament that have all the best team.. we also need to expand our DOTA community to larger audience..
I think we need to give a chance to every region.. we never know, we might got another "CDEC's story" from SEA and NA..
i say nobody should be invited, everyone should have to start from the bottom every season, every tournment.
29th and expand TI team limit pls VOLVO
SEA mentality. Im not sure what the problem is. Decision making perhaps? Like forcing mid rax without buybacks and aegis. Mineski 4Head
MOAR qualifiers. Just saying.
This Topic is good!! since there's lot of Third party organizers in Dota 2, which can host offline qualifiers for Major or TI.. theres ESL, Nanyang, Starladder , I league and etc.. valve dont neeed to sponsor it just give them slot to MAjor or TI since valve also based Direct Invites in LAN Events
thirty-fifth
bubububird bird bird .. bird is the word
lets pick names out of hat to see who gets invited.
This post really downgrades Dotabuff as a site for community. I really questions the viability of this post for the players out there. Whats the point? Just stick to the stats pls.
WHERE THE FUCK IS 6.88 PATCH ARTICLE?
Personally, I think there should be 2 spots per region, but not necessarily 2 qualifier spots. For example, NA could only have 2 teams competing, if none win the wild cards, but SEA is guaranteed 3. I think there should be only 1 guaranteed qualifier spot for SEA along with the wild card spots, or MVP shouldn't have been directly invited--which they deserved.
i got heartbroken when i found out Gandalf actor was gay
Counterstrike bitch pls gtfo got enought counterstrike morons allready in this game.
Commit to dotto or fuck off!!!
43rd, can I say monopoly?
I dont get it Koddup, but if its mean no sport is professional coz involved companies profit. I think u got wrong idea here, coz there's professional player not professional sport rofl
@Private That really doesn't work either if you think about it because how do you decide who gets to play in those tournaments? Some of the teams playing in those tournaments already have direct invites to TI and then how do the other teams get an invite to that tournament? Through an open qualifier? Then it is the same shit different tournament right?