How did the main qualifying years go - summing up the qualifiers for The International 10
Yuriy SheremetThe International 10 was supposed to be the main event of the esports summer, but the World Cup was moved from Stockholm to Bucharest. The big Dota will have to wait until October of this year, and to make it more fun, we suggest recalling the closed qualifiers for that very TI. Still, they turned out to be surprisingly cool.
But, in a barrel of honey there was a place for a fly in the ointment. We are talking about how the main qualifying years went, what made us happy and what annoyed us.
Sad anniversary
The closed qualifiers for The International 10 ended last, but I want to start with them. The European region has given us a sea of emotions and feelings, but there is one that overshadows the rest. Sadness.
For the first time since 2011, The International will not attend KuroKy. You can have different attitudes towards Kuro, but I think no one will deny the fact that without him TI will feel a little “different”. KuroKy was a stronghold of stability at The International, but this DPC season has replaced methodology and stability in Europe. KuroKy didn't hold out, but they did. They are OG.
OG lights are on again
Worse than the absence of KuroKy and the company at The International could only be the absence of the current and part-time OG champions at the anniversary tournament. The lesser of evils happened and OG went to the anniversary TI.
And they did it in their own way. Unrestrained, cocky and overly confident.
After a terrible season, a lot of changes in the roster, the departure of “apostle” Ana, OG still managed to reignite the same “fire” that burned in themselves during The International 18 and 19. And if I expected this from the backbone of OG, then here SumaiL was a very pleasant surprise.
Proclaimed king by OG themselves, SumaiL, hungry for victories, quickly "joined" OG and made the lion's share of the contribution to the victory in the closed qualifiers. Perhaps he will be able to take Ana's pedestal, before which many players were in awe.
Strong regions or major flaw of the season
The closed qualifiers for The International 2021, among other things, turned out to be surprisingly close. In all regions, although there were the main applicants for the permit, who received it as a result, not all of them received it for nothing.
Only one final in North America ended 3-0. This is rather an exception to the trend, since there is a huge difference in the level of play in the region, even in the top division.
In South America and China, the finals ended 3-1. In both cases, we got the favorite defeat on the first map and a comeback on the next 3.
In the CIS, Southeast Asia and Europe, it all ended with a full-fledged Bo5, which is what one would expect from an event as important as the qualifications for The International. But does it sound so great?
Close finals and equal confrontations during the qualifiers, is this a sign of competitiveness or lack thereof? We will receive an answer to this question only in October, and already now it can be stated that the current DPC system is a very controversial thing.
Closed qualifiers as the culmination of the DPC system
The dissatisfaction with the DPC system lasted all year and during the 3 months of waiting for TI you will hear more than once about the flaws of the new Valve system from the media people of the Dota community and read more than one material on news resources. And this material is no exception.
This system encourages the existence of that very divide within the regions. This system is killing international competition. This system makes intermediate championships unnecessary. This system breaks down the tournament infrastructure in the discipline.
Digging into it more, you will most likely find its other disadvantages. There is still plenty of time before TI kicks off to listen to the ideas of esports figures and develop a more logical system.
Perhaps then we will not get a situation when 2 teams from the second division get into the TOP-3 of the CIS, having to play for a year, hoping only luck in the qualifiers. Perhaps then we will get a situation where the TI19 finalists are forced to play right through in the final of the lower bracket of the European qualifiers.
To avoid all of the above, it is enough to perform well throughout the year. The problem is that the teams from the second division have only six months to do this, because first you need to get into the elite division, and then there to prove your competence. Nigma, occupying the TOP 5-6 in the second (out of only two) majors of the season, fly past TI, since the conditional beastcoast, having missed the first major and taking off at the start of the second, got a slot due to their performance in a not very strong region. Weren't Nigma good enough in Season 2? Wasn't TNC good enough in Season 2?
It seems that there were, but the fact is the system is built in such a way that it is easier to play regional qualifiers for the Major than to play in the Major itself. And this is sad.
The qualifiers for The International were supposed to be a prelude to the main event of the year, but what happened in the end?
If everything went according to the original idea of Valve, and Sweden allowed to host a grand esports event, in a month we would receive The International and look at the teams that went through the hell of qualifying in action. However, we got a huge gap of 3 months, and it is not clear what will happen during this period.
Will Valve allow roster changes before The International? Will there be a big patch? What should teams outside the DPC system do? And in general, will the format of the seasons remain the same?
After the qualifications ended, we got a ton of questions that only Valve can answer. A lot of work awaits the "valves" in the near future. Still, 3 months is a huge period that can change a lot.
Obviously, most of the squads that fail qualifiers will suffer changes. Many of them may leave Dota altogether, while others will have to wait for The International to end, after which a wave of reshuffles will cover the discipline again.
It remains for us to take the role of observers and wait for Valve's decisions. We are no strangers.
Yuriy Sheremet – Expert in mobile gaming and esports among shooters and MOBA games.
At EGamersWorld, Yuriy, as in 2020 when he joined the portal, works with content, albeit with adjustments to his area of responsibility.