Team Liquid Win The China Supermajor
Image by PGL
Team Liquid finally win their first Major title in a close 3-2 victory over Virtus.Pro in the grand finals. While they had already clinched a TI8 invite back at Epicenter XL, the 1st place finish also grants a $555,000 cash prize. The reigning TI7 champions swept through the group stages and the playoff brackets in 2-0 sweeps, over TNC, Secret, and PSG.LGD, before the grand finals hill-hill match.
Valve Announces Regional Qualifiers
8. #TI8 pic.twitter.com/Xk3dMgrKMU
— Wykrhm Reddy (@wykrhm) June 9, 2018
With the end of the Supermajor, we have our final eight teams for TI8. VGJ.Thunder controlled their own destiny in the tournament and outlasted Optic just enough to hold onto the 8th invite slot. This year, Valve has scaled the number of invites to regions. Europe, CIS, and South America each have one spot. SEA and China will have two spots advance to TI8. And North America will have 3 spots to advance to TI8. With NA having the most opportunities out of any region, Evil Geniuses’ gamble to change the roster and fight through the open qualifiers might pay off.
A New Ranked Season of Dota
It’s a new, ranked season, with all ranking medals reset. Players will need to play another 10 games to calibrate a new ranking, and though it’ll be based on your previous ranking, Valve notes it’s possible to have a “substantial change in rank.” A much needed change this season is the ability to see your progress towards your next star or rank, only visible to you.
