The China Dota2 Supermajor is the last stop on the Dota 2 Pro Circuit before The International 8. The major has 2250 points and $1,500,000 USD up for grabs. The DPC standings are fairly volatile among the lower scoring teams - this major could easily make the difference between a team earning a direct TI invite and having to fight through qualifiers. With ten teams directly invited, each region only has one slot available through the China Dota2 Supermajor qualifiers. Competition in the North American scene started off fierce last night, and there are still two more days to go until the winning NA team is determined!

Who’s Playing?

Complexity, Immortals, VG.J, and Optic were directly invited to the qualifier while Team Rejects and is GG joined them from the open qualifiers. Immortals and Optic are the only two teams that are actually eligible to earn any DPC points, but that isn’t stopping anyone else from looking to take their spot. Complexity hasn’t announced an official replacement for Kyle, they’re currently playing with Saksa as a stand in. This is their last chance to qualify for a LAN before TI8. VG.J has also made a change; Resolut1on is now playing instead of Timado. The new roster knocked Complexity out of the ESL One Birmingham qualifiers 2-0, but fell 0-3 to Optic Gaming in the finals. VG.J have already qualified for GESC Thailand and MDL, this tournament is their chance for one last practice before facing the TI8 open qualifiers.

What am I Watching?

In the China Dota2 Supermajor qualifiers all six teams will play a best-of-two round robin. Every win is worth one point. A team that goes 2-0 earns two points while a draw awards each team one point. The team with the most points will qualify. According to Sunsfan, if two teams tie then their head to head record will be the tiebreaker. If the teams went 1-1 during the round robin, a decider match will be played. Teams are under pressure to clinch that 2-0 - something evident in last night’s matches.

Day One Keeps Things Interesting With 2-0 Sweeps Across the Board

Complexity started the qualifiers strong, with three of their five series stacked into day one. Even without Kyle on the team, they still dominate is GG with their signature Leshrac, playing fast paced Dota. Optic Gaming proved to be more of a challenge, but nothing that two games of roaming ZFreek Naga couldn’t handle. It looked like the day was going to be the Complexity show, but Immortals kept things interesting. They took a convincing win in game one with a Dark Seer pick - clearly vacuum cooldown needs to be nerfed again. Game two was more of a struggle, with Complexity taking advantage of the new buyback mechanics to prolong the game.

Unfortunately, there weren’t enough Lotus Orbs in the world to save Col from the Immortal push. MP’s Terrorblade even chose metamorphosis range over the sunder cooldown reduction to ensure Immortals could close out the game. \ 

Complexity didn’t have the monopoly on exciting games. VG.J put on quite the show with some impressive wombo combo team fights against Team Rejects. They closed out both their games in under thirty minutes.

Witch Doctor and Bane remain popular support picks while Dark Seer made a few appearances in the offlane. Optic favored Io in both games against Immortals. Terrorblade, Death Prophet, and Sand King had several appearances, but with mixed success. Every team played on day one; they will all go into the second day with plenty of info on their enemies recent drafting strategies.

Days Two and Three Promise to Keep Things Interesting

All of these 2-0s are ensure that the qualifiers stay interesting. Complexity, Optic, and Immortals could end the last day tied with each other, relying on day one games to determine who goes through the China Dota2 Supermajor qualifiers and into the main event. VG.J still have a chance to sweep the qualifiers if they keep up their dominating performance, but they had an easy day one. Day two has them facing Optic and Col with IMT and Is GG on day three. Team Rejects and Is GG have a hard path in front of them. However this, is NA. Anyone can win.

This major will reward over 3000 DPC points to the team that places first. Col, VGJ, Is GG, and Rejects will benefit from LAN experience and prize money, but Immortals and Optic stand to gain the most. A win at this major could easily guarantee a DPC eligible team a direct invite to TI.

The China Dota2 Supermajor qualifiers are the last qualifiers for the North American region before TI, and anyone can take that first place spot. Who do you think will win?

Enjoy this article? Check out our other post about the Dota 2 Pro Circuit Stability!