Nearly two months have already passed since The International 2019, and the best teams in the world are ready to jump into a battle at the first major tournaments. Two-time champion of TI, OG, Team Secret and former Liquid headed by KuroKy are still having rest, making their audience wait for bombastic announces, so that is why it is not clear who is going to be the best at the first LAN competition.
ESL ONE Hamburg 2019
The tournament with the prize pool 300 000$ will be taking place for three days — from 25 till 27 October. Eight teams got direct invitations and four more became winners of the qualifiers in their regions. Due to some visa problems, two strong rosters IG and Geek Fam will not visit Germany. These teams got replaced by two European rosters.
Experts expect the CIS participants to perform well. Virtus.pro had to pull themselves off DOTA Summit 11, getting deprived of a chance to perform at the Major, so they may not hide their home preparations. Besides, the new roster has something to prove to the audience. Meanwhile, Gambit Esports pretend to the title of Top 1-2 in the CIS region ad the players are likely to use the tournament as full preparation for the first Major.
DOTA Summit 11
As many as eight teams will share 300 000$ at the first DPC tournament in Los Angeles. The winner will get 140 points, 72 000$ and the last trip to the first Major tournament in China. Virtus.pro will not make it to the Minor, and it was disclosed on 17 October.
It is still unknown whether SumaiL will be playing for Quincy Crew at the tournament. According to the analysts, Geek Fam has a good chance of victory — Raven and the team have already won two regional qualifiers to the LAN tournaments. NiP is considered to be the last favorite — Peter Dager proved in the last season that he can aim the team for victory at Minors.
MDL Chengdu Major 2019
The first Major-tournament will be held in the Chinese city Chengdu. Sixteen teams will be divided into four groups — two best teams from each will pass to the play-off by winners and the other 8 participating teams will get to the lower bracket where they are to take part in the bo1 elimination match. The playoff stage will be held by the schedule the audience is used to — double-elimination bracket and the grand final in the bo5 format. The winner will earn 4850 DPC points and 300 000$ as a money reward. Three best European rosters of 2018 will miss the tournament. Also PSG.LGD, the bronze prize taker of the world leadership, will not also perform in China.
Alliance and Team Liquid will be representing Europe. Vici Gaming, Team Aster, and EHOME will define Top-1 in China. Gambit Esports and Positive Guys will defend the reputation of the CIS. Fnatic, TNC Predator, and Team Adroit got qualified from South Asia. Evil Geniuses, Fighting PandaS, and J.Storm gained slots in North America. Team Unknown and beastcoast got quotas in South America to visit China. The last participating team will be the winner of DOTA Summit 11. Despite the absence of many strong teams, we have something to see at MDL Chengdu Major:
ChYuan is coming back to the professional stage together with Team Aster and Sccc. beastcoast are expected to show great results — former «Infamous» will try to develop their success after Top-8 at The International 2019. RAMZES666 will work on the continuation of a series of wins together with his new team EG — the North American roster is considered to be one of the main pretenders to victory. Finally, the guys from Vici Gaming will try to confirm their power. The Chinese team will be performing at the LAN tournament without their previous captain Fade for the first time in a long time, but the players will set their sights on Top-3 of the first Major.
