Review of the closed qualifiers for MDL Disneyland® Paris Major
Anton PashencevThe qualifiers for the fourth major tournament, MDL Disneyland® Paris Major 2019, in this rating season have ended up. We will sum up the results of the competition and tell you about the teams that either surprised or made the audience disappointed.
Europe and CIS
Qualifiers in the European region happened pretty predictably and the first two slots to the final stage were taken the expected teams: Team Liquid and Team Secret. But the third quota was a bit harder so we can mark OG, as the guys started to play stronger after Ana returned, but they are still far from the shape of The International 2018. Meanwhile, PPD and the team made an unpleasant surprise leaving after the meeting with The Final Tribe. At the moment NiP have enough points to get to the most important championship of the year but in case of missing this major championship along with the next one, they will get direct invitations.
The elimination round in the CIS passed more unpredictably. The first slot was gained by the players from Virtus.pro easily, but three collectives were fighting for the second slot: Gambit Esports, Natus Vincere and Team Empire. The teams Fng and SoNNeikO became favorites according to the bookmakers but the players had another opinion about it and won any team they met on their way providing themselves with a trip to MDL Disneyland® Paris Major. This way Gambit Esports and Natus Vincere worsened their life as only one of the teams will get to the minor and they don't have enough points to get to The International 2019.
Asia
In China and Southeast Asia, Keen Gaming, Vici Gaming, PSG.LGD, Fnatic and Mineski got the invitations. These are the collectives that visited the previous championship of the major so we can say that the elimination round was pretty predictable. By the way, PSG.LGD, Vici Gaming and Fnatic have provided themselves with a trip to The International 2019.
North and South America
It's not a secret that South America is the weakest Dota 2 region that has been proven by the guys from Butterfly Effec, that got together for passing these qualifiers and gained a slot at the LAN finals easily. By the way, after the elimination round they got contracts from paiN Gaming. The second place was predictably taken by Chaos, that will visit all the majors of this season from South America.
Meanwhile, three slots were prepared for North America and the first of them was taken by the guys from Evil Geniuses, that have already provided themselves with a trip to TI. The other two slots were taken by compLexity Gaming and Team Team, that haven't visited any major this season. And if compLexity showed good results during the season and were one step from getting to the LAN final, Team Team's slot would become a real sensation. Several days before the start of the elimination round EternaLEnVy joined the team and the collective started to look rather stable. We should mark that one more factor of such division of slots became a middling performance of the guys from Forward Gaming, that had reshuffled before the qualifiers.