The European online qualifer stage for EMC finished with the top three teams of the round robin travelling to Moscow to play each other again and were originally going to be competing against the Chinese online qualifier Newbee, but due to passport issues they couldn't make it. LGD then replaced Newbee, but they too have dropped out, so it will be an all Western affair as Hellraisers have been confirmed to be playing by a tournament admin. The three teams from the EU qualifier will be Virtus.pro Polar, Natus Vincere and Team Empire. Each team will be playing for upwards of $60,000 in the LAN tournament, so with new lineups since TI4 they will all be keen to assert themselves.
All the teams and players involved have had plenty of experience playing with each other over the years and they all have the potential to be loose and aggresive.
The Teams
Natus Vincere
After a dissapointing run at TI4 and WEC, not making it past the second round in the latter, the Ukranian titans of eSports will be looking to make a bigger impact in this LAN, which is a little closer to home. In Moscow, Na'Vi will definitely be looking to finish near the top as there are only four teams competing and they have the prestige of an old school team to back them up. However, they are without their fan-favourite captain, Puppey. Dendi, Xboct and Funn1k are the only two remaining team members from the team's past. Fans will want to see that fng can fill Puppey's shoes as the new captain and if he can draft the team to victory in EMC.
The month of September has looked a little shaky for the team, losing to Team Secret, Puppey's new team, and their chances of ESL One New York are fading. But the few games against Empire recently have been convincing and controlling, something followers of the team are used to seeing. It remains to be seen wether they will cope with the last few days of the five man push the current meta has seen. They have seen, though, some success with picks like Wraith King, Puck and Silencer being played in combination. They have even tested out the core Silencer, with Xboct using the Aghanim's/Refresher build to great effect. A surprising pick has been the core Gyrocopter, which is a real throwback to the team's glory days of the 1v5 ability he can provide in the late game. However, as with many of their games, if they don't get the right start, they have the potential to struggle from behind. They lost their games with Xboct on Gyro, as Team Secret never really allowed him to get going. They seem best when fng and Vanskor can play strong early game supports like Enchantress and Rubick, which allow Na'Vi to hit the ground running, which they will want to do at EMC.
| Team Roster | Notable/Signature Heroes | Team Achievements in 2014 | GosuRanking |
| Artem 'fng' Barshak (C) |    | 1st - StarLadder Season 8 | 10th in World |
| Danil 'Dendi' Ishutin |    | 1st - Dota 2 Champions League | Common Picks in 6.81 |
| Gleb 'Funn1k' Lipatnikov |    | 2nd - DotaCinema Captain's Draft Invitational |  |
| Alexander 'XBOCT' Dashkevich |   | 7th/8th - The International 4 | Overall Winrate in 6.81 |
| Ivan 'Vanskor' Skorokhod |    | 99 matches played (58%) |
Hellraisers
Probably now considered to be the wildcards in this tournament, Hellraisers replaced LGD at the last minute when they pulled out of the tournament. As the underdogs, Hellraisers will in theory have an uphill battle at EMC. Purely statistically, they have not had that great a run of matches in 6.81, only managing to produce a 36% winrate. But the team is more than capable of playing well and getting the results they need. Formerly known as "Relax, you're doing fine", the team name haas done fairly well in 2014, placing decently in some smaller tournaments despite their unimpressive winrate.
Dread and Artstyle provide some experience to the roster and Arstyle's unexpected Riki actually managed to do work against the Na'Vi lineup. This result proves that they realy can be a force to be reckoned with. They managed to put together a lineup that included currently popular heroes like Brewmaster and Skywrath Mage, but added a twist with the Riki pick. Similarly, to Goblak for VP.Polar, Artsyle as a lot of experience in the DotA scene, so we could easily see some crazy picks that add just enough confusion for the other team to udo them. Even though the other teams are techincally 'better' in terms of results and stats, there is no reason why Hellraisers couldn't make an impact at EMC. The key for Hellraisers is to throw as many curveballs as they can to try and unsettle the big names they are up against.
| Team Roster | Notable/Signature Heroes | Team Achievements in 2014 | GosuRanking |
| Dread 'Dread' Golubev |   | 2nd - Yard White Festival | 40th in World |
| Toky. |    | 2nd - Dotapit Tournament (2014) | Common Picks in 6.81 |
| Ivan 'Arstyle' Antonov |   | 3rd/4th - Techlabs May (2014) |    |
| ALOHADANCE |    | Overall Winrate in 6.81 | |
| Vitalik 'Dubas' Luhtan |  |
21 matches played (36%) |
Virtus Pro.Polar
Team NVMI: Members from the squad now make up the new Virtus Pro team headed by Goblak (second from left)
Virtus.pro Polar comes into the tournament as possibly the favorite. The team seems to be in stellar form, recently picking up their first tournament win at Dreamhack Moscow. They have plenty of experience in the form of Goblak, Illidan and Dkphobos, despite the freshness of the team itself. Goblak, considered by many one of the best drafters in the West, is famously a big proponent of playing Bane in lineups and you can see this creeping in to their most recent games as VP.Polar. However, they have only had limited success with currently strong heroes like mid Death Prophet, which maybe shows that they are a team that is best when they can throw the other team off with slightly off-centre drafts. When Scandal has played Clinkz and Goblak a romaing support Bounty Hunter, the team has won and managed to out-play their opponents. Goblak really leads the team when he can play that play-making role, such as Chen and Treant, using Nature's Guise to constantly look for openings.
Formerly known as NVMI, this team will be looking to establish itself in the scene, trying to break through the dominance that Team Empire and Na'Vi have built in the CIS region. Triumphing against both teams once more in Moscow would certainly be a statement.
| Team Roster | Notable/Signature Heroes | Team Achievements in 2014 | GosuRanking |
|
Artur 'Goblak' Kostenko (C) |    | 1st - Dreamhack, Moscow | 58th in World |
| Ilya 'IllidanSTR' Pevacaev |    | Common Picks in 6.81 | |
| Roman 'Scandal' Sadotenkov |   | | |
| Ilya 'LilHaRDy' Ilyuk | | Overall Winrate in 6.81 | |
| Alexander 'DKphobos' Kucherya |  | 21 matches played (62%) |
Team Empire
Team Empire is a classic name in the European DotA scene. Being touted to be on of the big successes at TI4 the team must have been dissapointed to fair as well as they did. Placing near the bottom of the finalists, many perceived this placing to be a big underachievement. But they are back and on their home turf in Russia. They have a lot to prove, espescially being in Moscow, so it would be a huge start to the post-TI4 season to make a statement at EMC. They recently announced a slight roster change ahead of the tournament, as mag will be unable to play. The replacement will be SoNNeikO who has been playing for Cleave Gaming since June of this year. He is primarily a support player and will most likely switch with Solo who will go into the core role. Missing their skilled offlaner, mag, could hurt the team going into EMC, as he has been one of their key play makers. Very good on the offlane Nyx and Batrider his presence will be missed, but Solo has more than enough experience in the core role to make up for it.
Another key component in the Russians' arsenal will be Resolut1on, a player that is capable to be a decisive factor in the game. The team certainly will be reliant in him to show his full potential once more, considering the bad form Empire has been displaying as of late. Even rumors about a possible roster change are making the rounds, making it that much harder for the team to perform properly. If they however can block all of that out, Empire will be looking to contest the title.
| Team Roster | Notable/Signature Heroes | Team Achievements in 2014 | GosuRanking |
| SoNNeikO |  |
3rd - DreamLeague, Season 1 | 8th in World |
| Ayrat 'SILENT' Gaziev | | 4th - D2L Western Challenge | Common Picks in 6.81 |
| Andrey 'FLY' Bondareko |    | 1st - Dota 2 Champions League | |
| Roma 'Resolut1on' Fominok |   | 13th/14th - The International | Overall Winrate in 6.81 |
| Alexy 'Solo' Berezin |  | 98 matches played (60%) |
The match-ups will be drawn tomorrow live at the event and the teams will play in a double-elimination bracket with bo3s all around. Check out the EMC event page tomorrow for the bracket. Matches are set to start on September 26 and will be casted by Pimpmuckl & WakeyPixel on the English stream and mob5ter on the Russian stream.
HellRaisers image by Natus Vincere
