StarLadder will have an American edition in their ninth season, in which one team will qualify for the playoffs in Kiev. Amongst the teams playing for a spot in the division is Team Dog with MiSeRy, Pajkatt, DeMoN, Fogged and Mason.
Hours ago, StarLadder announced a bit of information regarding their upcoming season. After eight successful seasons, the ninth will contain a division for teams of North and South America. The last time teams from America were seen competing in StarLadder was season three, after which new rules decided to not include teams outside Europe anymore. The reason was because teams qualifying would cancel their playoff attendance anyway due to the trip being too expensive. All playoffs of the event have taken place in Kiev, Ukraine. But now the countries in the west mark their return to the StarLadder tournament, this time playing their own eight-team division, from which one team will travel to Kiev.
The first roster of EG.Dota2 - MiSeRY, Pajkatt, Fear, DeMoN, PlaymatE (in this picture with stand-in Xiaoluo instead of PlaymatE)
Six teams are invited straight to the season whereas another eight will play for the remaining two season spots. Amongst those eight teams is Team Dog, consisting of only familiar faces - namely the faces of ex-LGD.int players MiSeRy and Pajkatt. They have teamed up with former EG members DeMoN and Fogged. Joining as their fifth is Mason, a skilled player mostly known to people within the North American Dota 2 community. They will play their debut tomorrow night at 01.30 CET (7.30pm EST) versus ixmike88's Wild Witch Doctors. Remains to be seen whether or not the involved players will attempt to reach The International with the new team. Although being arguable too late for a direct invite, they still have a shot of participating in the qualifiers. What is going on with the Dota team over at Evil Geniuses is still unknown but it seems the current one is over as they are not participating in any of the American tournaments going on (TKO, joinDota League as well as StarLadder).
StarLadder season 9 - American Division - participating teams
S A D B O Y S
Revenge eSports
Swageinteiger
eHug
Denial eSports
Team Liquid
Qualifying team #1
Qualifying team #2
StarLadder Season 9 - American Division qualifiers - Bracket
The qualifiers for StarLadder's American leg starts tomorrow night at 22.00 CET (4pm EST) with Isurus going up against About Tree Fiddy (also known as Dignotoss). Matches will be casted by BeyondtheSummit over at StarLadder's official English channel as well as by the regular StarLadder crew for Russian audiences.
