These are the six teams that seized the moment through the qualifiers for a spot in The International 2022 in Singapore next month.
In Dota 2, teams work tirelessly over the year. Once the DPC season begins, it essentially becomes a year-long qualifier for the pinnacle of all Dota 2 events - The International.
If they fail to secure a spot through their strenuous efforts, they go into full training mode and then put to the test in the most intense and vital qualifiers of the year.
Look, if you had, one shot, or one opportunity
To seize everything you ever wanted, one moment
Would you capture it?
Or just let it slip?~ Eminem
Over the course of two weeks, 76 teams clashed in some long and often ruthless battles with the hopes of being the last team standing in their respective region.
Six teams emerged as representatives of each of the Dota 2 regions. They join the top twelve DPC teams in the group stage.
BetBoom, Hokori, RNG, Soniqs, Talon, and Entity seized the moment and proved they were the best in the region. They are bonafide hopefuls for a playoff spot and an upset to be champions.
BetBoom Team (Eastern Europe)
BetBoom, formerly known as Winstrike became the first team in EEU to secure a ticket to the Stockholm Major, then Team Spirit. At the event, they faired better than the TI 2021 champions and walked home with a 7-8th place finish which gave them $12,500 and 240 DPC points.
In the third tour the team ended in 4th, missing out on the last Major but securing 100 points. This put BetBoom in 16th place overall at the end of the season, narrowly missing out on an invite.
Then in early August, Vladimir "RodjER" Nikogosian replaced Maksim "Forcemajor" Meretskii in BetBoom, which seemed to be the final and winning ingredient for this lineup.
While most fans and analysts had Outsiders to be pegged to take the one slot for the region, BetBoom Team made a comeback from the lower bracket rounds to send Outsiders to the last chance qualifiers.
BetBoom Roster:
Nikita “Daxak” Kuzmin
Denis “Larl” Sigitov
Evgeniy “Noticed” Ignatenko
Vladimir “RodjER” Nikogosian
Akbar “SoNNeikO” Butaev
Hokori (South America)
Hokori didn't have an easy or even notable year. The team finished 6th, 3rd, and 8th respectively in the three DPC Seasons of 2021-2022. But after the final season, they did bring in Edward “Lumière” Guilen and Thiago “Thiolicor” Cordeiro in July 2022, which seems to have done the trick.
Their win comes as a big surprise as not only were Infamous the top seed in the bracket, but they were also unbeaten till they got to the grand final.
However, on the final day of the South American qualifiers, Hokori first beat Tempest 2-0, and then went on to stun Infamous 3-0 to end a flawless day.
Hokori roster:
Edward “Lumière” Guillen
João “4nalog” Giannini
Pablo “Vitaly” Angulo
Thiago “Thiolicor” Cordeiro
Anthony “Gardick” López
Royal Never Give Up (China)
Royal Never Give Up started out the DPC 2021-22 season with a commendable 3rd-place finish in the first tour that yielded a second-place finish in the regional finals. This gave them a whopping 250 points to kick off the season.
For the second tour, they were able to clinch a spot for the Stockholm Major when they finished league play in fourth place. However, unable to travel to the Major, the top four teams from China dueled it out for a share of the 750 Dota Pro Circuit points available in the format of the regional finals. It was here, that they took a disappointing fourth place and failed to secure more points.
Four months ago RNG took fans by surprise by removing their long-standing Malaysian support player Chong “FelixCiaoBa” Wei Lun from the roster in the Spring Tour regional league aftermath. Hu "kaka" Liangzhi was officially welcomed to the team as a replacement.
The change seemed to inject the team with more life and they took an impressive first-place finish in the summer tour league play, granting them 500 points and a place in Arlington.
Royal Never Give Up made an undefeated run through the upper bracket of The International 2022 (TI11) China regional qualifiers to join the group stage battle at the most important tournament of the year.
RNG roster:
Daniel Chan “Ghost” Kok Hong
Yao “Somnus丶M” Lu
Shenyi “Chalice” Yang
Liangzhi “KAKA” Hu
Jian Wei “xNova-” Yap
Soniqs (North America)
Soniqs (formerly Quincy Crew) started out the DPC 2021-22 season strong. In Tour 1, they managed to come out on top of the league play securing 300 DPC points right out of the gate. However, in the regional finals, they took a disappointing third place, earning no additional points.
In the second tour, they narrowly missed out on attending the Stockholm Major.
Soniqs managed to repeat their first season feat and finish 6-1 in the league. However, both EG and TSM.FTX had an identical result and the regular season final standings had to be solved via a three-way tiebreaker. Former QC lost to both of their adversaries in the best-of-one tiebreaker format and missed the chance at playing at the upcoming Stockholm Major.
For the third tour, Soniqs were once again forced into tie-breakers but this time they came out in 2nd and landed their place to compete on their home field at Arlington Major.
But something just didn't work for them there. The team came in last in their group. Without securing a single series win, the NA team became the first to be eliminated from the entire event and never got to step foot on the main stage.
Soniqs showed up in full force on the final day of the TI11 North American qualifiers. They overcame their 0-2 loss to nouns earlier in the qualifiers to hammer them 3-0 in the grand final.
- Read Soniqs destroy nouns to win the TI11 North American qualifiers and secure a place in the group stage
Soniqs roster:
Yawar “YawaR” Hassan
Quinn “Quinn” Callahan
Rodrigo “Lelis” Santos
Arif “MSS” Anwar
Adrian “Fata” Trinks
Talon Esports (Southeast Asia)
Damien "kpii" Chok and crew had an amazing DPC storyline starting from division 2, promoting to division 1, getting second place in the region, and earning a spot at the Arlington Major. The team is actually slightly ahead of T1 in DPC points.
Although they only placed 13-14th at PGL Arlington Major and 9-10th at ESL One Malaysia, kpii had reported that GosuGamers that they were just not disciplined enough, something that will need to change if they want to set foot on The International 2022 stage.
After a few slumps on last month’s LANs, Talon Esports found their stride when it mattered the most and despite being pushed to a decisive game 5, they claimed the one ticket to The International 2022 (TI11) via SEA regional qualifiers.
Talon Esports Roster:
Nuengnara “23savage” Teeramahanon
Rafli Fathur “Mikoto” Rahman
Damien “kpii” Chok
Worawit “Q” Mekchai
Brizio Adi “Hyde” Putra
Entity (Western Europe)
Of all the tiebreakers, the 4th-5th place decider for Western Europe DPC Tour 2 was definitely the most tense one, as Entity and Team Secret went head to head in a best-of-three battle to decide which one would to the final Major of the year.
In the end, Entity denied Team Secret the spot at PGL Arlington Major. They then turned heads at the event with their standout run, taking second place in the groups and an overall 5-6th place finish.
Entity then messed with everyone's plans and made a clean, undefeated run through the upper bracket matches in the Western Europe International 2022 qualifiers with clean 2-0 executions over Alliance, Team Secret, and Team Liquid.
And then another 3:0 sweep over Team Secret in the grand finals, once again denying the former EU giants the highly coveted regional slot.
Entity Roster:
Ivan “Pure” Moskalenko
Daniel “Stormstormer” Schoetzau
Tobias “Tobi” Buchner
Vladislav “Kataomi`” Semenov
Dzmitry “Fishman” Palishchuk
Teams heading to The International
Invited Teams
PSG.LGD (China)
OG (Western Europe)
Team Spirit (Eastern Europe)
beastcoast (South America)
Team Aster (China)
Thunder Awaken (South America)
BOOM Esports (Southeast Asia)
TSM (North America)
Tundra Esports (Western Europe)
Gaimin Gladiators (Western Europe)
Evil Geniuses (North America)
Fnatic (Southeast Asia)
Qualified Teams
- Soniqs (North America)
- Hokori (South America)
- Entity (Western Europe)
- BetBoom Team (Eastern Europe)
- Royal Never Give Up (China)
- Talon Esports (Southeast Asia)
Last Chance Qualifier Teams
nouns (North America)
Wildcard Gaming (North America)
Infamous (South America)
Tempest (South America)
Team Liquid (Western Europe)
Team Secret (Western Europe)
Outsiders (Eastern Europe)
Natus Vincere (Eastern Europe)
Xtreme Gaming (China)
Vici Gaming (China)
Polaris Esports (Southeast Asia)
T1 (Southeast Asia)
The International 2022
The International in Singapore will be the largest Dota tournament in history featuring 30 world-class teams battling out on the road to the Aegis of Champions across 4 consecutive weekends.
TI11 is expected to be held in Singapore from October 8th (starting with the offline/LAN last chance qualifiers) to October 30th with the grand finals.
- Read more about the schedule and format changes for The International 2022.
On 22nd January 2022, it was announced that the second and third-place teams from each region's qualifiers will compete in the Last Chance Qualifier LAN event prior to The International to decide the final two qualification spots - thus expanding The International 2022 from 18 to 20 teams.
