Just a few more days until The International 2012 qualifier tournament starts to decide the last two spots for the wild card slots in the west and east. Like the east, the western side has a lot of familiar faces that are easily good enough to be part of The International 2012 but each one of the eight teams remaining are still gunning for that last spot, that just comes to show you exactly how high level the tournament will be when it is all said and done and all the teams have been chosen. Teams from the west are from various parts of the western world, from USA to Russia. From Sweden we have Keita Gaming and Team Infused. Russia has Virtus Pro and zNation. The United States will have Quantic Gaming representing them in the qualifiers along with Mortal Team Work of France, Mousesports of Germany and NEXT.kz of Kazakhstan.
Let's have a quick review of the eight teams. Starting with the Russians, Virtus Pro. They've been around for a while and were once considered the best team in the world for DotA. Although they have yet to make a splash in the Dota 2 scene, they are looking to change that. With the recruiting of the Russian Veteran, Yaroslav "NS" Kuznetsov, and the German super star Kuro Salehi "KuroKy" Takhasomi, they will have the much needed fire power to make it far. Despite being new to the scene, with their experience and lineup they'll be a tough opponent. zNation on the other hand will have to get their game together if they want to make it out of the earlier stages in this qualifier tournament. Although they have been in a rather bad slump, their last win was against a high ranked Team TTB in the JeeDota2 event. If they can find their game again they will have as good a chance as any other team.
Next up, the Swedes. The two teams, Keita Gaming and Team Infused are on the same boat. Both haven't played in many significant tournaments but the few smaller ones they've played, they have placed either top or 2nd. This qualifier tournament will likely be a good test to see exactly how they handle the higher pressure for these kind of events. Quantic Gaming from the United States is also in a similar situation. They recently got a whole new roster last month which includes five players of a previously known team exGosu. They placed 1st in the joinDOTA OPEN I tournament and managed to beat the already qualified rivals, Evil Geniuses.
Mortal Team Work (German based team with a majority of French players) recently beat Keita Gaming in The Arena 2. They also beat the American team Complexity Gaming who managed to upset the tournament favorites, Darer, to win it by a landslide. Their only problem has been their lack of consistency in tournaments this year as they've gone 4-5 so far. Team Mousesports from Germany has been quick on the rise in the Dota 2 scene as of late. They were once a European powerhouse in DotA but left the game due to internal conflicts. Three years later they are back in the game and have been doing great so far. NEXTkz from Kazakhstan have placed respectable positions in recent tournaments but have yet to win a singmajor tournament since joining Dota 2. They have upset bigger teams back in their DotA days and have continued doing so lately as they beat a couple already qualified teams as of late such as Moscow Five and Evil Geniuses.
Many teams have not made a big splash in the Dota 2 scene but will definitely try changing that in this tournament as they all fight for the wild card slot. The fact that not much is known about how well many of these teams can compete in Dota 2 will make these qualifiers interesting.
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About the author: Saturo |
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