Issue 18: We have our Arlington Major participants

Fingers crossed China manages to make it to the Major

Jul 21

Here’s your 30-second summary for this issue of Ancient Tidings:

All 18 teams heading to Arlington have been determined
Some familiar names find their way back to the big stage
The Riyadh Masters will serve to whet your appetite prior to Arlington

Tiebreakers! Tiebreakers! Tiebreakers!

Wouldn’t be a Major without teams fighting tooth and nail till they cinch that coveted spot to better secure their chances of qualifying to this year’s TI. As expected, the tiebreakers were some truly incredible Dota; you could really feel the dedication teams were putting in to secure their Major tickets.

Of course, this wasn’t the sole purpose of the tiebreakers. Depending on the TO, some tiebreakers were also played to determine final placing in the recently concluded regional leagues, affecting prize money and the all-important DPC points.

Team Secret vs Entity

Winner of this series goes to Arlington. A high placing at the Major could potentially do wonders for their TI chances… but before preparing for the Major they needed to cross one last hurdle awaiting them.

For a relatively new team like Entity, a Major showing could prove explosive to their growth. For an established team like Team Secret, high placements at Majors are what they’re used to.

3 game series, some incredible games.

Liquid vs OG

No Major qualifications on the line this time around… but who doesn’t like a rematch of these two titans of WEU? The last time they faced off, OG’s young guns got absolutely smacked around by Liquid, did OG manage to turn the tides around this time?

Only one way to find out.

EG vs Nouns and Quincy Crew

Ah yes, Major tiebreakers between EG, Quincy Crew and TSM… as expected. Wait, no, that’s not right. There’s a new contender on the block - the former 4zoomers stacks powered up this Tour around.

Could they break through and prove themselves to be on the same tier as NA’s best?

PSG.LGD vs Aster.Aries

If PSG.LGD hadn’t beaten Team Aster during the regular scheduling of the league, why, China wouldn’t have had a 4-way tie to decide who’ll be attending the Major (RNG were already locked in at first place. The kaka effect, eh?)

This match in particular is pretty different. On one hand, you have none other than PSG.LGD making a last stand to go to the Major… pretty hard to comprehend considering their pedigree. On the other hand, you have their opponents, the B-team of the Aster squad. A team that climbed up from Div 2 with relatively unknown players.

Aster.Aries making it to the Major would be quite the upset.

BOOM vs Talon

Spectacular series. Incredible to see new teams taking charge in SEA. Fingers crossed both these teams perform to their potential at the Major. No jetlag, no sickness. GabeN please let them play like they deserve to.

In the interest of avoiding spoilers (even though this post is really late)… you can check out the teams going to Arlington here.

Riyadh Masters 2022

Do you guys remember the GamersWithoutBorders regional tournaments held a few months back?

Well, those tournaments served as a qualifier of sorts to determine a few teams attending this international LAN, while the other teams were direct invites. What makes this exciting is, of course, that its an international LAN featuring teams like PSG.LGD and RNG, while also having a ginormous prizepool of 4,000,000 USD.

The Arlington Major has a prizepool of 500,000 USD, in comparison.

Here’s who’s going:

PSG.LGD
Team Spirit
Team Secret: With TI-grand finalist, mid player turned carry turned offlaner Resolution standing in for iceiceice.
Team Liquid: With none other than two-time TI winner Ana standing in for Matumbaman.
Tundra: With Daxak standing in for 33, thereby not losing their NP and Visage strats.
Nigma Galaxy: Finally some tier 1 competition for this squad.
TSM: They’re not going to the Major, but they’ll still be experiencing some international competition.
Team Liquid (via GamerswithoutBorders EU and CIS)
RNG (via GamerswithoutBorders Asia)
Deboosters (via GamerswithoutBorders Saudi Arabia)

What do you think of this tournament? Will teams be taking this as seriously as other DPC tournaments? What matchups are you most excited for? Let me (and other readers) know in the comments below!

That’s it for this edition of Ancient Tidings! As always, thank you for sticking all the way to the end; I’ll see you in the next one!

Ancient Tidings