The Weekly CourierQualifying Teams Round Out ESL One Birmingham, Paris Saint-Germain Expands To Dota, China Supermajor Announces Invites
ESL One Birmingham Regional Qualifiers
Qualifiers wrapped up this week for ESL One Birmingham, the second to last Major of the season and UK's first. Both team OG and Na'Vi qualified, representing Europe and CIS respectively, at a time when they were under scrutiny for their presumed undeserved invites to the China Supermajor. PaiN gaming, with their newest member, w33, swept Mad Kings 3-0 to win the South America qualifier. LGD.Forever Young edged out a 3-2 victory over iG in the China qualifier. Out of the Southeast Asia qualifier was Team Fnatic, who currently 11th in the Pro Dota Circuit standings, and they will have another opportunity to leap into the top 8. Finally, for the North America Qualifier Optic Gaming bested VGJ.Thunder once again, after beating them in the grand finals at the recent Starladder Minor.
Paris Saint-Germain Partners with LGD
Paris Saint-Germain officially announces partnership with LGD Gaming who will now be known as PSG.LGD #Dota2 pic.twitter.com/VRDCs15pvP
— Wykrhm Reddy (@wykrhm) April 19, 2018
At a press conference in Shanghai, French football club, Paris Saint-Germain, announced a partnership with LGD Gaming. The team's players will be donning PSG branded jerseys, as well as playing under the tag "PSG.LGD". The move follows a trend of major sports organizations investing in esports, from the Golden State Warriors owners pumping $13 million in a LCS franchise to the New York Yankees partnering with Vision esports. PSG will be the first football organization to invest in a Dota 2 team.
China Supermajor Announces Invites Amid Controversy
Only fitting that this DPC system embarrasses itself by ending with PGL/Perfect World inviting both @evilgeniuses who lost their last 2 NA qualifiers and @OGesports to the last and highest value major. OG isn't even eligible for DPC points. Very disappointing...
— Peter Dager (@Peterpandam) April 16, 2018
The ten invites for the largest event before TI8, the China Supermajor, were released earlier this week. As the final major and one that has the most DPC points at stake, it'll be a pivotal event for all teams vying for a top 8 finish on the Pro Circuit standings and an invite to TI8. While some of the invited teams were no surprise, a few others are currently under scrutiny for their place in the tournament. The public outcry has stemmed from community members, pro Dota players (namely Eternalenvy and ppd), and casters. OG, for example, is ineligible to receive a direct invite, so any success will be seen as solely blocking other teams vying for invites.
The discussion about the obligations tournament organizers have to host teams that are popular against teams that have proved their value isn't an old one. But the Pro Circuit has introduced a new wrinkle to the debate. Valve could help fix these events on a case by case basis, as they have in the past, but they may have to induct a more sustainable solution in the future. We'll be following up on this issue in a future blog post.
Noteworthy:
- Team Empire replaces Nix with Naive, a 17 year old wunderkind from Kazakhstan.
- In just a month after picking up the roster, Digital Chaos announced that they'll be releasing them.
- Double Dimension has put together a roster just in time for China WCA 2017. Vanskor, chsrcat, and Cooman will join Ditya_Ra and j4.
1st mann
that china dota supermajor invite is really messed up.
I will never understand the outcry over OG and NAVI invites. It is not only fair from DPC rankings, but also popular teams that attracts viewers.
People are just throwing around random stats, that would be in favor of their favorite team being invited.
Being ineligible for TI invite is not something that should stop invites to Majors, as if it was not already bad enough already to make roster changes...
Error: VGthunder and VGstorm are different teams
Wait, wunderkind is an English word?
Well, its not really, it was adapted like kindergarden & Schadenfreude, because such words never existed in the english language or sound a bit weird ( Wonderchild, wonderkid? weird.). And always remember, the english language evolved from the "angelsachsen" part of todays Germany.
In all sports. The most popular teams get the greatest coverage. It’s called a business. Personalities and team affiliation are important if you want to make money. Guess what happens if you don’t make money. Then no tournament. It’s fine line that has to be walked between competitive integrity and profitability.
@Qazior, @Pos 1 +2: The term "wonderkid" have been used in (association) football to describe a talented young player that have the potential to be one of the best players in the world in the future. I think it originates from the simulator game Football Manager.
About the Supermajor invites: did anyone notice that the invited teams were ranked 1-10 in the DPC points BEFORE Dota 2 Asia Championships? If you guys read Wyk's comment in his Facebook post, it was mentioned that the Supermajor organizer have already sent the invites before DAC.
that ESL logo on his dick