DreamLeague Season 8 regional qualifiers come to an end with Fnatic prevailing over TNC in the grand finals to claim their first Major participation since their latest roster change.
DreamLeague might not be the first Dota Pro Circuit Major appearance for Fnatic but it certainly is their first spot earned via regional qualifiers. The Malaysian based team had an awful start of the season, failing in all the qualifiers. Regardless of their lack of results, they were lucky enough to get to participate at the ESL One Hamburg Major from October, where they were summoned as replacements for HappyFeet, who couldn’t secure visas, and at the DotaPit Minor where again they represented the SEA region as replacements for Mineski. As much as their fans wished for a LAN setup to change the team dynamics displayed in the qualifiers, that didn’t happen and Fnatic placed bottom two at both of the events.
Four days after DotaPit concluded Fnatic took the decision to replace their mid laner at that time, Steve 'Xcalibur' Ye and welcomed Abed 'Abed' Yusop to their ranks. On the 9th of November Fnatic officially announced the change and on the same day, they entered a new batch of Minors and Majors qualifiers, this time around with much more success. From 9th to 12th of November Fnatic fought in the Dota Summit 8 SEA qualifiers and secured their first Minor tickets via upper bracket matches and after a 3-2 victory over Mineski in the grand finals.
Fnatic’s next big test came with the DreamLeague Season 8 qualifiers, and again they passed it with flying colors. Fnatic swiped 2:0 through TNC in the opening series, took down 2:1 Mineski and defeated TNC once again, this time 2:1 in the grand finals.
DreamLeague grand finals were far from being a walk in the park for Jacky 'EternaLEnVy' Mao’s squad. Fnatic started on the wrong foot with a demoralizing loss in game one where they never had any kind of control on the game and were facing a grim scenario after the GG was called at a 21 -5 kill score in TNC’s favor. However, game two was all Abed’s Storm Spirit show, who wiped the floor with TNC to push the series in decisive game three. Abed was given Storm Spirit in game three as well, but things didn‘t go as smooth as in the previous match. TNC held the gold and experience lead up to the 35 minute mark when Fnatic won their first big team fight and started to recover from a 10k gold deficit. Ten minutes later TNC admitted defeat and Fnatic claimed the tickets to the one million dollars DreamLeague Major.
DreamLeague’s long qualifier process concluded tonight with the SEA bracket and the full participants list is as follows:
Team Secret
Team Liquid
Newbee
Evil Geniuses
Infamous
Na'Vi
Virtus.Pro
Fnatic
DreamLeague Season 8 Major prize pool and Dota Circuit Points (DCP) distribution:
1st place: $500,000 + 750 DCP
2nd place: $200,000 + 450 DCP
3rd place: $100,000 + 225 DCP
4th place: $70,000 + 75 DCP
5th-6th place: $45,000
7th-8th place: $20,000
DreamLeague Season 8 is set to take place December 1-3 in Jönköping, Sweden at the Elmia Exhibition and Convention Centre. Don’t forget that the one million dollars Dota Major is part of DreamHack Winter 2017, which is an established esports festival that’s more than worth attending. For those interested to start the winter season celebration with DreamHack Winter 2017, the tickets for live audience start at ~$23 (200SEK) for a one day pass and can be purchased from here.
