Messy S(EA)cene; The International 2022 SEA qualifiers

The International 2022 SEA qualifiers are set to begin on September 13th, but Team SMG won't be there and other teams will have adjusted rosters. What happened?

The International 2022 SEA qualifiers are coming in hot, but what has really heated up the regional scene is the fiasco regarding the team lineups and the absence of Team SMG, shortly after making roster changes for the purpose of the qualifiers. 

Four months ago they released captain Michael "ninjaboogie" Ross under some controversial circumstances. Then, just three weeks ago made the announcement they benched Ryan "Raging Potato" Qui,  released Johan "pieliedie" Åström from his contract, and added Daryl "iceiceice" Xiang finalizing their roster:

Nai Zheng “MidOne” Yeik
NaNa “Moon” ♪
Daryl Pei Xiang “iceiceice” Koh
Tue “ah fu” Soon Chuan
Wilson “poloson” Koh Chin

But they won't be playing together at all for the qualifiers. 

According to sources close to GosuGamers, PGL notified the teams only three hours before the roster lock to submit their lineups. Three hours during the late night. Several organizations in the region completely missed the message, resulting in them missing the deadline —including TNC, Team SMG, Nigma Galaxy SEA, Army Geniuses, and others. 

The message to the teams was just a courtesy, a reminder of what had already been established based on the DPC 'rules' published on the website earlier. 

Valve didn't budge and seems to have made no exceptions to the rule. Teams had two choices. To revert to their previous/latest rosters that were registered or to withdraw from the event. 

Most teams chose to participate with their Valve official lineups. The chance at competing in the pinnacle of all Dota 2 events was too enormous to pass up. 

Team SMG chose to not participate. 

The International 2022 SEA qualifier teams

• Talon Esports (DPC 300 points)
• T1 (DPC 272 points)
• RSG (DPC 100 points)
• Polaris Esports (DPC 57 points)
• Nigma Galaxy SEA (DPC 28 points)
• Neon Esports (DPC 5 points)
• Execration (Division II 1st place)
• Lilgun (Division II 2nd place)
• Army Geniuses (Division II 3rd place)
• Summit Gaming (Division II 4th place)
• Atlantis (Division II 5th place)
• XERXIA (Division II 6th place)
• TNC Predator (Division II 7th place)

The International 2022 SEA qualifier format

• Double-elimination bracket
• Grand Final is Bo5, Lower Bracket Round 1 are  1 match series, all other series are Best-of-three
• Two teams proceed to the Last Chance Qualifier
• One team qualifies to The International 2022

The International 2022 qualifiers

At the end of the third tour, the top twelve teams by DPC points are directly qualified for The International 2022.

The remaining spots will be decided through regional qualifiers. All teams that participated in the third tour of the regional leagues have a chance to qualify through the regional qualifiers provided that they do not replace more than two players from their third tour's roster. As in the previous season, there will not be any Open Qualifiers. However, all Regional Leagues will have an Open Qualifier tournament for their Division II spots meaning that the third tour's open qualifiers will essentially act as TI Open Qualifiers.

In addition, on 22nd January 2022, it was announced that the second and third-place teams from each region's qualifiers will compete in the Last Chance Qualifier LAN event prior to The International to decide the final two qualification spots - thus expanding The International 2022 from 18 to 20 teams.

The International 2022

The International in Singapore will be the largest Dota tournament in history featuring 30 world-class teams battling out on the road to the Aegis of Champions across 4 consecutive weekends.

• Read more about the schedule and format changes for The International 2022. 

International 2022 is expected to be held in Singapore from October 8th (starting with the offline/LAN last chance qualifiers) through to October 30th with the grand finals.