The European qualifiers are scheduled to take place from May 24th through May 27th. Much like the previous regional qualifiers, two days will be devoted to the round-robin groupstage, with the top four teams qualifying for the playoffs. The third and fourth days will feature the double-elimination playoffs, with best-of-three matches leading to the best-of-five grand final.
The two teams that manage to reach the Grand Final will both be travelling to Seattle. The winner of the final will receive a spot in The International 4 main event, while the loser will have to face the other runner-ups and fight for the last remaining slot in the tournament.
The Teams
Hover over the team images to check the team rosters.
The Kazakh squad NEXT.Kz has been around for quite a while, but they managed to achieve results mostly in minor tournaments. However, they have shown a completely different face in 2014, shattering Empire's winning spree and taking games from the 'biggest' names in Europe. Their most notable achievemnt in 2014 is their second place in TechLabs Cup, but they hope to add one more feat in their list by winning The International 4 qualifiers. It remains to be seen whether their performance will remain solid when the stakes are very high.
The legendary squad MeetYourMakers recently returned to DotA2, signing a squad of solid Danish players, former members of teams such as Mousesports and 3DMAX. The five Danish players have been struggling to find their rhythm in European competitions, having a discouraging 34% overall winrate since the new roster's formation. They recently reached the semi-finals of the ESL One European qualifier, only to get crushed by Cloud9 in their best-of-three battle. Only time will tell if the team can develop the chemistry and coordination required to excel against the strongest squads in both Europe and the world.
Following TI3, the Virtus.Pro organization decided to sign five of the most experienced and accomplished players in Russia, aiming to be the cryptonite of the undefeated Alliance. However, the new team was not as successful as the Russian scene hoped. Playing with no chemistry and no plan, the team kept losing one game after another, resulting in internal conflict between the members. After several roster changes in 2013, the current squad seems stable enough, and will aim to join their compatriots Team Empire in Seattle.
Team DOG was formed in February 2014 by the free agents Pajkatt, MiSeRy, DeMoN, Fogged and smulgullig. The semi-professional international roster had to change several times before stabilizing and gaining a sponsor. Their aggressive playstyle and stable performance lead Team DOG to the main event of ESL One, as well as the TI4 European qualifiers. Their success attracted the German organization Mousesports, and the five players will be holding the signature red banner in their future matches. With a big fanbase and lots of experience in competitive DotA2, Mouz is surely one of the favorites in the battle for the ticket to The International.
Much like their compatriots Team Empire and Virtus.Pro, RoX.KIS had to undergo several roster changes after the end of TI3. Their squad was finalized in February 2014, with Alexey 'Solo' Berezin joining the team once again. Since then, their performance remains at a high level, preserving their unconventional and unpredictable strategies that helped them build their big fanbase in Russia and Europe. During StarLadder IX finals, RoX.KIS showed that they possess the tools to go against the big boys, but they still need a lot of work if they hope to achieve the greatness they seek.
The multi-region organization Aware Gaming recruited the Russian/CIS squad formerly known as Cleave. The five players quite known amongst the highest ranks of European DotA2. Look out for Evgeniy 'XaKoH' Kochetov, a player with high experience and several stand-in appearances for squads such as Team Empire. The Aware Gaming squad surely has the talent and the potential to go far, but they have yet to reach the success they seek in the European scene. Qualifying for The International 4 will be their biggest achievement to date, and it will immensely benefit the career and aspirations of the five members of the team.
Named after the automated chat message provided by the DotA2 client, 'Relax, you are doing fine' was formed back in 2013, replacing the recently disbanded Poseidon in Star Series VIII. The team includes some of the most important names of Russian DotA, including Andrey 'Dread' Golubev and Oleg 'cRazy' Kolesnichenko. However, their accomplishments are relatively minor, with the most notable being their second place in second place finish in CIS Carnage 2014. The players are quite flexible and they are not afraid of deploying unconventional strategies and unusual picks to take down their opponents. Their matches are quite entertaining, and they should be able to provide quite a show for the spectators of the European qualifiers.
ESFX.Power Rangers is one of the few teams from Belarus that managed to make a name of themselves in the European scene. They emerged in 2012, but it took them about a year to get their hands on tournament prize money, through their performances in TechLabs Cup. In 2014, PR faced some roster issues, and they eventually signed Roman 'Scandal' Sadotenkov to replace Vitaliy 'zxc' Domostoy. With Scandal in their ranks, Power Rangers turned into a formidable challenger for the European competitions they entered, and the community gave them the nickname 'The Titan slayers" after some of their unpredictable results against big European opponents. Despite their 69% winrate in April, they have been going through a small slump in May, and they have to regain their form if they hope to travel to the United States this summer.
One of the newcomers of the European scene, Team Coast (formerly known as Monomaniac Gaming) was formed in April 2014 with popular Swedish/Danish players. Only two weeks after the squad's introduction, these players managed to take down some of the scariest opponents in Europe, including Fnatic and RoX.KIS, in several European competitions. They went from being unknown to being feared in only a few days, and they were able to get noticed by Valve as well - thus receiving their qualifier invitation. Many people consider Team Coast the strongest successor of Alliance in Scandinavian DotA2, and we hope to see more from them in the future.
Hehe United is probably the least known participant of the European qualifiers. They first appeared in 2013, and since then they have entered many Western competitions (they were one of the winners of the ESL One open qualifiers). Nonetheless, despite some impressive results, they have yet to achieve something major in the European and International Dota2 scenes. They will get the chance to show what they can do in the European qualifiers of The International 4, against some of the fiercest opponents they can face.
Casting Information
The casting crew for the European qualifiers includes several casters from teams such as joinDOTA, GD Studio and many famous personalities of the eSports world. The members of the European Hub have gathered at the GD Studio for several days now, and they will be working together until the conclusion of the TI4 qualifiers.
The European Hub :
-
Andy 'Draskyl' Stiles
-
Toby 'Tobiwan' Dawson
-
David 'Lumi' Zhang
-
Jorien 'Sheever' Van Der Heijden
-
Austin 'Capitalist' Walsh
-
Ted 'Pyrion' Forsyth
-
Shane 'Shaneomad' Clarke
-
Bruno 'Bruno' Carlucci
-
James '2GD' Harding
-
Jess 'Ruckus' Brohard
-
Salome Soe 'Soe' Gschwind-Penski
-
Jacob 'Maelk' Toft Andersen
-
Rickard 'Skrff' Holm-Melin
-
Johan 'Weppas' Westberg
-
Niklas 'Wagamama' Högström
For more information about The International qualifiers, visit our coverage hub here!
Head over to our wiki page for The International 2014!
> More featured articles
> Bet on matches in May, win luckboxes
