The qualifiers for The Summit 4 have been filled with a number of close games, upsets, and exciting Dota. Here is a brief update on who has been eliminated, who sitting pretty in the Upper Brackets, and who is teetering on the edge in the lower brackets of each region.
The Summit 4's qualifiers have brought together some of the best names in Dota right now. Across all of the qualifiers, the overall standard of play has been remarkably high. As a result, there have been upsets, close games, crazy strategies, and early eliminations. Here is a brief picture of where things stand across each of the four regions.
Europe
Who has been eliminated: STARK, 4C&L,Na’Vi, Team Secret, CIS-Rejects.
Who is in the upper bracket: Team Liquid, Team Empire.
Who is in the lower bracket: Alliance, Virtus.Pro, Vega Squadron,(monkey) Business, Ninjas in Pyjamas.
The European qualifiers have seen a number of upsets throughout their play. The most notable occurrence is the elimination of Team Secret. After receiving a bye in the first round of play, Team Secret suffered an agonising 1-2 defeat to Team Empire. This caused them to drop down into the lower bracket. Team Secret then forfeited match against CIS-Rejects, eliminating Team Secret from the qualifiers. This decision was probably made due to an overload of tournaments and flights for the team. Whilst many teams have proven to be insonsistent, Team Liquid and Team Empire have impressed, with both teams only losing 2 games in the tournament so far. The next few days of play will see whether they can continue their strong showings.
SEA
Who has been eliminated: Kingdom, TnC, First Departure, Team123, MVP Phoenix.
Who is in the upper bracket: Fnatic.
Who is in the lower bracket: Mineski, Signature.Trust.
Fnatic have reigned supreme in the SEA qualifiers. Only Team123 have been able to take a game off of them up until this point. Overall, the matches have been close affairs, with most of them going down to the deciding game 3 before the outcome has been established. The most notable exit so far has been that of MVP Phoenix. They lost in the first round to Mineski, but managed to string together some great team performances in the lower bracket, defeating TnC and Team123. However, they stumbled against Signature.Trust, with Lakelz giving MVP Phoenix the scythe of death as Necrophos in game one. In game two, MyPro made Queen of Pain scream louder than March did at TI5 to help Signature.Trust claim victory, eliminating MVP Phoenix from the tournament and keeping Signature.Trust’s dreams of a trip to Los Angeles alive.
Americas
Who has been eliminated: GOD BLESS, Leviathan, unknown.xiu,Void Boys, Not Today, paiN, Team Archon.
Who is in the upper bracket: ROOT Gaming, Digital Chaos.
Who is in the lower bracket: Cloud9, Elite Wolves, High Council of Wizards & Priests, compLexity.
The Americas qualifiers have shown that American Dota is alive and well, and also not without the occasional throw. ROOT Gaming and Digital Chaos have managed to fend off all challengers thus far, maintaining their place in the upper bracket. Digital Chaos even managed to overcome unknown.xiu, who defeated them in the recent qualifiers for the Frankfurt Major. The Peruvian outfit could not repeat the performances they had shown in the Frankfurt Major qualifiers, and were later eliminated by paiN in the lower bracket. Team Archon showed some promise in the qualifiers. Despite being knocked down to the lower bracket in the first round by Elite Wolves, they managed to claim wins against God Bless and Not Today before falling short against compLexity.
China
Who has been eliminated: CDEC Youth, TongFu.
Who is in the upper bracket: VG, EHOME.
Who is in the lower bracket: NewBee, LGD, CDEC, iG.
The Chinese qualifiers have seen the least play thus far, but has still been filled with close games across both the upper and lower brackets. Only VG and EHOME remain in the upper bracket, but they have looked far from invincible. NewBee, who had a disappointing run at TI5, have looked a far stronger team since the return of Hao in September. This better form has shown in The Summit 4’s qualifiers, where they defeated iG 2-0, before losing a hard-fought 2-1 series against EHOME in the second round.
The qualifiers for The Summit 4 are far from over. There are many games still to be played before the teams headed to Los Angeles will be decided. When the dust has settled, 2 teams from Europe, 1 team from SEA, 1 team from the Americas, and 2 teams from China will have qualified. The final two teams in the tournament will be drawn from a community redemption vote and a direct invite granted by the Beyond the Summit team. Keep an eye on GosuGamers to see who manages to make it to The Summit 4 main event!
Headline image from Fnatic
