For those who might have missed the most important news from the past week in the competitive Dota2 scene, here is a short recap.
Tournament news:
Invictus Gaming are the DAC 2017 Champions
OG and Invictus Gaming fought each other last week in Chiana for the DAC 2017 trophy. While OG had a relatively unhindered run through the upper bracket in the playoff stages, for Invictus Gaming, their path to the grand finals was filled with peril but they took down everyone in their path including a dominating performance against Newbee in the lower bracket final.
EPICENTER 2017: Qualifiers and main event format announced
The main event is due to take place from June 9-11 and will be hosted at the VTB Ice Palace sports arena in Moscow featuring ten teams from around the world. Of these ten teams, six will receive a direct invite to the tournament while the remaining four slots will be filled by qualifier winners. The open qualifiers will occur in two parts; the first from April 21-23 and the second a week later from April 28-30. The first of these will feature teams from America, SEA and CIS regions while the second part will see Europe, America and SEA teams fighting for a chance to be part of the EPICENTER action. There will also be a separate qualifier round held for the China region. From these, the winners will advance into the closed qualifiers which take place from May 6-14 in a double elimination bracket format.
StarLadder i-League Invitational 2 is just around the corner
The StarLadder i-League Invitational 2 will feature only eight teams comprised of both direct invites and squads that will emerge battled and bruised from the online qualifiers. No team information has been released as of yet.
The main event will be held in Shanghai, China between May 18-21st with some of the top teams in the world competing for a piece of the $100,000 prize pool. The online qualifiers will kick off April 14th.
Mars Dota 2 League to be held a few weeks before The International
After scheduling difficulties earlier on, the Mars Dota 2 League organizers have finally booked their fifth season to be held on July 5-9th. The organizers have announced that the participating teams would be revealed soon, many of whom have already accepted their invite.
Team announcements:
Mousesports picks up SsaSpartan & Co
Mousesports has made their re-entry into Dota 2 after a two year hiatus by sweeping up the all Greek squad, formerly known as Ad Finem. Mousesports has a reputation for picking up teams solely for the purpose of having representation at The Internationals, and dropping them at the first sign of sub-par performance. While this may cause alarm for some, inside sources report that the Greeks have everything under control and are being well taken care of - boosting their confidence in their future and potential results.
Mousesports 2017 roster:
Giorgos "SsaSpartan" Giannakopoulos
Omar ’Madara’ Dabasas
Xaris ‘SkyLark’ Zafiriou
Dimitris ‘ThuG’ Plivouris
Verros ‘Maybe Next Time’ Apostolos
In a rare and surprising announcement delivered live on EggNetwork Facebook Live, Fnatic announced their new lineup. Djardel "DJ" Mampusti, Gavin Kang 'Meracle' Jian Wen and Kim 'QO' Seon-yeob have made the trek to Malaysia and round out the Fnatic TI7 hopeful roster.
Fnatic roster
Gavin Kang 'Meracle' Jian Wen
Kim 'QO' Seon-yeob
Chong Xin 'Ohaiyo' Khoo
Yong-min 'Febby' Kim
Djardel 'DJ' Mampusti
While no comments or official announcements came out from the team or its captain, Theeban '1437/Rose' Siva says in his short video that the exit 'hasn’t been a peaceful one' for either him or Avery 'SVG' Silverman. 1437 doesn’t offer any other details on the matter.
Until new updates, NP’s roster stands as follows:
Jacky 'EternaLEnVy' Mao
Arif 'MSS' Anwar
Kurtis 'Aui_2000' Ling
Pittner 'bOne7' Armand – coach
Prodota Gaming acquire majority of NoLogicGaming
Prodota Gaming have once again undergone a near complete overhaul of their roster - absorbing four members of NLG. Once again, the roster has been rebuilt and centered around Garter. The Kosovan player remains as a constant fixture under the banner and has been with the organization for over a year - surviving the multiple rotations that have plagued Prodota Gaming. This will be the third major adjustment since the new year.
Prodota Gaming current roster:
Ylli ‘Garter’ Ramadani
Greg ‘Keyser’ Kallianiotis
Neta ‘33’ Shapira
Milan ‘MiLAN’ Kozomara
Alexei ‘j4’ Lipai
Vega roster for DreamLeague revealed
Only one week ago Vega Squadron announced they intended to rebuild their entire squad around captain and support player CemaTheSlayer - dropping the rest of the squad. G was part of the squad that was released - now being the only member to return to the organization. The new roster is not considered set in stone at this time. This composition will be particiapting in the upcoming DreamLeague season 7qualifiers that the organization was invited to prior to disbanding.
Vega Squadron current lineup
Ilya 'Alohadance' Korobkin
Sergey 'G' Bragin
Vasily 'Afterlife' Shishkin
Airat 'Silent' Gaziev
Semion 'CemaTheSlayer' Krivulya
ChuaN is back in business; Vici Gaming and LFY undergo roster changes
With the dust settled over the big Chinese victory from last week in Shanghai, Vici Gaming is ready to welcome ChuaN to their ranks. He will be replacingDDC who is now moving forward, and will join LGD Forever Young. While Vici Gaming hasn’t been able to qualify to DAC 2017, LFY was the first Chinese team to claim a spot into the main event. But they finished the event in the bottom four, which might be the main reason for a mid-season roster change. DDC is replacing White at LGD Forever Young.
| Vici Gaming roster: | LGD Forever Young roster: |
 Yang 'END' Pu | Du 'Monet' Peng |
| Zeng 'Ori' Jiaoyang | Xie 'Super' Junhao |
| Zhou 'Yang' Haiyang | Xiao 'Jixing' Zihao |
| Xu 'Hym' Zhi |  Leong 'DDC' Fat-meng |
| Wong 'ChuaN' Hock Chuan |
