Entity defeated Luna Galaxy 2-0 in the upper bracket final of the Western European TI12 qualifiers to cement their place in Seattle.
Over the past few years, the Western European Dota 2 region has become extremely competitive. Naturally, there are more than a few teams that fail to qualify directly and have to attempt it through the qualifiers. The TI12 WEU qualifiers featured three teams that travelled to Singapore for TI11 – OG, Team Secret and Entity.
OG were eliminated from the qualifiers after losing to Quest Esports in a hard fought series. Team Secret stay alive in the lower bracket and will attempt to secure a spot at The International 2023 (TI12) tomorrow. But the first team that made it through the maze of high skilled teams in Western Europe are Entity! They defeated Luna Galaxy 2-0 in the upper bracket final to seal their place at TI12 without having to face an elimination series.
Luna Galaxy, previously known as D2 Hustlers or D1 Hustlers based on the division they were playing in, were a surprise entrant in the upper bracket final. But they deserved to be there, which they showed in the first game against Entity, pushing them to limit in a game that lasted nearly 63 minutes. It was an even game till the 34th minute when Entity came on top in a Roshan fight, and from there on, built up the net worth lead slowly but steadily.
Game 2 started very favorably for Luna Galaxy, as they racked up a net worth lead of around 6200 gold in just 10 minutes. But Entity pulled it back and managed to finish the game in just under 40 minutes. Both teams used 10 unique heroes in the two games (18 unique heroes in the series), which is refreshing to see in a developing Dota 2 meta.
It has been a tough year for Entity. They parted ways with their long time offlaner Tobias “Tobi” Buchner (who is still in the WEU TI12 qualifiers with Quest Esports), but their new offlaner Kim “Gabbi” Villafuerte Santos is an experienced player and fit in perfectly with the rest of the team. In the TI12 qualifiers, they displayed a level of competency like no other team, just like they had done last year! The only team to take a game from them were Nigma Galaxy in their first of the playoff bracket.
The TI12 qualifiers have nearly come to an end. Only two spots remain – the second spot from Western Europe and the one spot from Southeast Asia. Both will be wrapped up tomorrow, and we can finally gear ourselves for the TI-themed event that Valve promised to drop in September!
