SumaiL to miss TI for second year in a row

A rough competitive year ends in a disappointing way for one of the best mid laners of all time as Team Aster had their road to The International 2023 cut short in the Chinese regional qualifiers by the Division II underdog Team Bright.

Sumail "SumaiL" Hassan started the 2023 competitive year in Western Europe, at Nigma Galaxy, but after spending the first two Dota Pro Circuit tours fighting to either avoid relegation or to promote back to Division I, he took a rather unexpected route.

SumaiL moves to China

Ahead of the second major of the year, SumaiL, who at that time was in Division II with Nigma Galaxy, stood in for Team Aster. Defying the language barrier and the rather short time to prepare for the major, Aster placed top eight in Berlin and managed to actually return to China with SumaiL joining the crew for the rest of the year.  

With the Chinese region always having more spots for majors and the TI itself, SumaiL’s move made a lot of sense. He played the third tour with Aster, qualified for Bali Major and for the 15 million dollars Riyadh Masters event, and it looked like this will mark the king’s return to the TI stage.

However, a few too many roster changes, which implied points deductions for Team Aster, and failure to reach the top 8 at the last major of the year, pushed Sumail’s new team in the Chinese regional qualifiers for TI12.  On top of it, Aster’s mission became suddenly harder when Valve announced just one slot for China for this year’s qualifier. Much like in the WEU, the competition is fierce, and unfortunately for SumaiL, it seems he ended on the wrong part of the bargain. Besides Team Aster, there are Xtreme Gaming, Azure Ray and Invictus Gaming, all with decorated veterans or TI grand finalists on their rosters fighting for the only one ticket available to Seattle.

TI12 China regional qualifiers

It all started well in the double elimination bracket for Team Aster, who made quick work of their first adversaries, to reach the semifinals. But, moving forward, they got knockdown in the elimination rounds by Xtreme Gaming. From there on, Aster survived just one more series before getting upset by Team Bright, who finished the third DPC tour in the last place.

Team AstervsTeam Bright

Team Aster started their series today on the wrong foot, allowing Bright’s carry to focus on his farm on an Anti-Mage and past the 30-minute mark they found themselves in the impossibility of winning any team fight anymore. Nonetheless, SumaiL and Du "Monet" Peng striked back hard in game two, delivering a spotless performance to even out the series.

However, in the third and final game, Bright were able to pick the AM again and punish Aster once more, delivering the biggest upset thus far in the Chinese regional qualifiers for TI12.

Unfortunately for SumaiL, this will mark the second year in a row when he will be missing The International.

Last year, Sumail fell short of a qualifier spot with Nigma Galaxy after losing to Team Secret in the WEU regionals. At TI11 in Singapore, Team Secret would go as far as reaching the grand finals, while for Nigma and SumaiL the year went from bad to worse.