FACEIT Invitational kicks off tomorrow and features eight of the finest European squads battling it out for a $25,000 prize pool
One of the major tournaments before the Boston Major, the online FACEIT Invitational starts off on Monday, with eight directly invited teams competing for three days in a Single Elimination format and a best-of-three Grand Final. Attracting attention of fans all over the globe hyped for the Major and eager to watch quality Dota, FACEIT Invitational will feature three days of intense action as the teams aim to establish dominance in practice for the Major. As Michele Attisani, Chief Business Officer and co-founder of FACEIT aptly puts, “This is one of the last chances teams will get to really practice and gain notoriety before the invites are sent out for the coming Boston Major so we expect some nail biting matches."
Teams attending the tounrnament:
Alliance
Team Secret
OG
Team Liquid
Escape Gaming
Ad Finem
Vega Squadron
Team Empire
A team that will be the center of attention in this tournament will certainly be Team Liquid. Since the roster lock and the addition of Amer 'Miracle-' Al-Barkhawi and Sam 'BuLba' Sosale to their squad, Team Liquid have yet to establish the dominance that the pre-TI 6 roster exhibited. Team Liquid's new lineup is one with massive individual skills and raw talent, especially in the flashy play-making style of the fan favourite Miracle-, and have played only two series since the Fall Shuffle, one of which showed Miracle- overwhelming Vega Squadron with his mid Rubick. Grand-finalists of the last two majors, Team Liquid will surely be keen to use FACEIT Invitational as a platform to show the rest of the world what they have in store for the Major.
Ad Finem and Team Empire are also teams who have not had sufficient chance to prove themselves after the roster lock. Team Empire lost to Vega Squadron in the qualifiers for the Summit 6 and couldn't place well in the group stages of BTS Europe. Similar was the case with Ad Finem who have lived up to the literal Latin name of their roster 'To the End' by sticking together during the Fall Shuffle after TI 6. However, a team to watch out for and definitely one of the stable teams going into the tournament will be OG, who placed 3rd in MarsTV Dota League at the start of this month, losing in the lower bracket only to tournament victors Evil Geniuses.
The tournament will be broadcast on FACEIT's Twitch channel and casted by Tobi 'TobiWan' Dawson and Kevin 'Purge' Godec. The matches start at 14:00 CEST, Monday.
