by Max Marion-Spencer
In the wake of Valve’s International 2016 Regional Qualifiers, the regional rivalry between North America and Europe boiled over, web comics and memes were made, and everyone was deemed in no uncertain terms to be “salty.” The regional qualifiers were notable in a number of dramatic ways. Evil Geniuses, the previous year’s International champions found themselves in the open qualifier, the North American qualifier was about as bipolar skill-wise as imaginable, and after the European qualifier was as competitive as the North American qualifier as comedic, players and personalities from NA and EU butted heads on social media.
Champions in the Open Qualifier
Evil Geniuses adjusted their roster during the time period that rosters were supposed to be locked. As a result, they forfeited any chance of receiving an invite to the International, or the International regional Qualifiers. Only the Open Qualifiers offered them the opportunity to defend their title at this year’s event. Their new roster included their previous long-time offlaner Universe, Zai in a four-position support role, and Fear back in the one position. They would find themselves competing amongst amateur-stacks and pub-stars alike. Surviving the gauntlet of eight best-of one matches prior to the semifinals, Evil Geniuses were able to dispatch of Perky Pepperoni’s and the wryly named team “EG BULBA” in order to secure their spot in the regional qualifiers.
Had they failed to qualify through the open qualifiers, Evil Geniuses would have been the first standing champions to not return to the International. Even Newbee, who slumped notoriously after their International victory in 2014 were directly invited back to TI5 in 2015. Newbee would bomb out entirely, placing in 13th-16th, evidence that they arguably never should have been invited in the first place, which may have influenced Valve and led to them adjusting their attitude to this policy.
A lopsided affair
Digital Chaos and Complexity, who were regarded as potential direct invites to TI, awaited Evil Geniuses in the regional qualifier. Accompanying them, Void Boys made it through the second North American Open Qualifier, while FDL and two entirely inconspicuous teams, DrinkingBoys and Vultur rounded out the motley crew of seven teams. Notably, Valve decided to limit the number of regional qualifier spots to seven, five invites and two spots from the open qualifiers.
Valve stuck to their guns and punished the North American region. No teams that made roster changes during the roster lock period were directly invited to the regional qualifier. Instead of ten teams participating in the qualifier, there were only seven. As a result, the quality of the games played in round robin seemed farcical. Expectedly, the two unknowns bombed out, with Vultur winning none of their games and DrinkingBoys only claiming a victory against Vultur.
(Source: http://bennesvig.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/uneven-fight-300×199.jpg)
The problem with the current system is that low-level organizations are not punished for dissolving during roster lock periods, lower-level players are. If the purpose of the roster locks is to encourage stability and protect players, it is within reason to attempt to limit roster changes for high-level teams. On the flip side of that, low level teams without sponsorship are often just loose collections of players rather than a fully-fledged team with organizational backing. Punishing teams for adjusting their roster is effectively only hindering them further, as the instability of changing rosters is already itself detrimental.
Ideally, if there were no teams that Valve felt deserved direct invites, which is certainly plausible given the storied tradition of volatility the NA teams have, they could have potentially opened three additional open qualifier slots. This would have increased the overall level of competition, while not directly rewarding roster shuffling. Instead, the teams that were expected to well were able to smash through the bottom teams without expending much effort at all.
Misguided Criticism
It seems inevitable that every year, around the time the International hype begins to mount, there will be some sort of NA vs. EU feud. Frustrated at the perceived ease of the NA Qualifiers, 7ckngMad tweeted the following:
(Source: @7ckingMadDOTA Twitter)
Of the six direct invites to The International, three of the teams were European. No North American team received a direct invite, though Evil Geniuses, Complexity and Digital Chaos were all considered very strong candidates. Had there been eight invites rather than six, most people speculated that Evil Geniuses (as defending champions) and Alliance or Complexity would have cinched the final spots.
7ckingMad’s complaint is based around a half-truth. Yes, the EU qualifiers were cut-throat, but with three direct invites and two qualifier spots, EU will be well represented regardless of the outcome of their regional qualifiers, as they should be. North America as a region has much less depth, no sensible person would debate that fact. That does not change the fact that prior to invites going out, two to three North American teams were in the mix. The “ratio to qualify” is irrelevant when the North American qualifier had three teams that could all have reasonably been invited directly.
Rather than give teams like Alliance, Fnatic, Complexity, and Digital Chaos direct invites, it seemed as though Valve was content to have them sort through the weaker competition in the Regional Qualifier. Of these four “fringe” teams, all but Complexity were able to secure a spot in the main event, though they still grasped a Wildcard slot.
The Aftermath
Evil Geniuses qualified for the International easily. The NA qualifier was extremely top heavy, while the bottom half of the competition looked out of place. Finally, North American and European fans, pros, and personalities have always been at each other’s throats when the opposing region shows any sign of weakness. We all enjoy a bit of banter, and although tempers flared, at the end of the day, nothing really fell outside of the status quo. For all of the drama surrounding the qualifiers, ultimately the most surprising occurrence was that hardly anything was actually surprising. Ultimately that won’t stop the open and regional qualifiers from being some of the most anticipated and compelling matches of the year.
So, the same time next year?
-Max Marion-Spencer
@bayakadota
https://bayakadota.wordpress.com/