The TI9 regional invites list has been officially released ahead of the open qualifiers starting on July 3rd.
Valve has released the TI9 regional qualifier invite list along with how many slots per region are available to teams competing in the open qualifiers.
While most of the community assumed that teams which had participated in the DPC events during the year would be invited directly to the closed event, the way some of the regions shook out was a bit surprising to many.
Most noticeable is that the European region, known to be one of the most competitive this season has only two direct invites to the regional affair. The Final Tribe which has been a stable fixture throughout the entire year and Chaos E.C, which has been completely revamped and changed regions. Most likely their invite is due to having previous DPC points but has sparked controversy no less.
With only two teams headed to the closed qualifiers directly, that leaves a whopping six slots available for open qualifier teams to grab. This is the most open the qualifiers have been for Europe in a long time, perhaps ever.
SEA is in the same boat as Europe with only two teams invited and six slots open for the region.
Fans might have also zeroed in on South America qualifiers - specifically Team Ham. Team Ham is Infamous minus Dominik "Black^" Reitmeier, added new European mid player. There is one SA player, Mariano "Papita" Caneda, and both Malthe "Biver" Winther and Oliver "oliver" Lepko have been in the region for months now, having played through several DPC qualifiers and events representing the region.
China has panned out as expected, as well as North America with no surprises there.
CIS region is looking stacked already and has the fewest open slots available - only three which is half their European neighbor. The five invited teams doesn't even include The Pango which just announced their revamped roster including the return of Danil "Dendi" Ishutin.
In the last several years 18 has been the magical number of teams headed for the pinnacle of all Dota 2 events. With 12 invites being handed out, only six teams - one per region- will now end up at TI9 via the qualifiers. The competition will be cut-throat and teams are seeking out any competitive edge.
The International 9
Valve will bring the biggest Dota 2 event of the year to the Mercedes Benz Arena in Shanghai, China —home of infamous Shanghai Major of 2016. The venue is an indoor arena located on the former grounds of Expo 2010 in Pudong, Shanghai, China, with a seating capacity for 18,000 people. Thus far, 12 teams are confirmed to attend - Team Secret, Virtus Pro, Evil Geniuses, ViCi Gaming, Fnatic, PSG.LGD, Team Liquid, NiP, OG, Keen Gaming, TNC Predator and Alliance. The current prize pool has exceeded $25 million (more than $23 million added by crowdfunding) with more than one month still to go until the big event.
