The regional qualifiers for the first Minor of the new season commence next week in six different regions.
StarLadder i-League Invitational Season 3 is the first ever Dota 2 Minor and it comes with a $300,000 prize pool and the first qualifying points towards an invite to The International 2018. Although we are just a few days ahead of the regional qualifiers for the first Dota event played on a new qualifying system for the next International, Valve are still to clarify the details of this system and how much each of these Minors and Majors will be worth in points. With plenty of info still anxiously awaited by the whole professional scene, some teams chose to skip the first Minor. According to StarLadder, Virtus Pro, for instance, respectfully declined the invite to the first Minor.
While the North American, European and Chinese open qualifiers for SL i-League Invitational S3 haven’t started yet, all three being scheduled to take place this coming Saturday, on the 9th of September, StarLadder revealed the teams that will play in the South America, Southeast Asia and CIS regional qualifiers.
SEA, CIS, and SA regional qualifiers attendees
| Southeast Asia | CIS | SA |
|---|---|---|
 Fnatic |  Team Empire |  Midas Club Elite |
 Mineski |  Natus Vincere |  Mad Kings |
 TNC |  Team Spirit | SG Esports |
| WG.Unity | Vega Squadron | Elite Wolves |
| Fire Dragoon | Gambit Esports | ?Digital Chaos.SA |
| Execration | M19 | Infamous |
| Clutch Gamers | Double Dimension (OQ winner) | Luccini Gaming (OQ winner) |
|
| XAKOHCHE (OQ runner-up) |
|
The regional invites for North America, Europe, and China are expected to be revealed after the open qualifiers for these three regions will also be over. Starting next Monday, on the 11th of September and lasting until the 17th of September; all six regions will play for a spot into the main event. Winners of each region will join two directly invited teams, yet to be announced, to the LAN event which will be held at the CyberSport Arena in Kiev, October 12-15. The entire regional qualifier process for SL i-League Invitational S3 will be broadcast in English by Beyond the Summit, in Russian by SLTV and in Chinese by ImbaTV.
