image courtesy of ESL One
ESL announce the first two out of ten teams to be directly invited to head to the Genting 2018 Minor
While ESL One Genting 2018 is still just under two months away, the event has its regional qualifiers taking place throughout December – and while six teams will gain entrance to the tournament through these qualifiers, another ten will receive a direct invite. The first of these direct invites was announced earlier today and it went the way of the Russian team, Virtus.Pro. While a second was announced just a few minutes ago and it went to Team Liquid.
Virtus.Pro
Currently sitting at the top spot in the Dota 2 Pro Circuit Points rankings, VP have had an extremely strong season – beginning with their brilliant performance which secured them the title at ESL One Hamburg 2017, the first Major tournament of the new season. While the team have not taken part in many of the minor tournaments that have been scattered throughout the previous weeks, their haul at the Major has kept them comfortably ahead of everyone else on the Pro Circuit Point rankings.
Team Liquid
After their win at TI7, Team Liquid have not faded away, continuing their fine performances at a host of Dota 2 Minors and the ESL One Hamburg 2017 Major, which saw the team take 3rd/4th place. The European squad sit in the 3rd position in the Pro Circuit Point rankings, just a few hundred points behind Team Secret – and will be looking to close that gap in the coming events.
ESL One Genting 2018
After an extremely successful event in 2017, ESL One returns to Genting from January 26th-28th 2018, bringing with it Malaysia’s first ever Dota 2 Minor. 16 teams from around the globe will descend on the amazing Arena of Stars in Genting’s Highlands Resort and battle for a total prize pool of $400,000 and 400 Pro Circuit Points. While the regional qualifiers will see 6 teams making their way through to the main event, 10 more will be through direct invites – 2 of which are now secured by Virtus.Pro and Team Liquid.
Virtus.Pro and Team Liquid will both be in action this weekend, as they enter the second Major of the season, DreamLeague Seaon 8 - but more invites for ESL One Genting are sure to roll out throughout the coming weeks, so keep an eye out.
