StarLadder i-League Invitational S5 Invitations

Julmust

Sweden1492 Posts

March 16 2018 12:15 GMT

SL/i-League
Invites

The qualifiers for StarLadder i-League Invitational Season 5 are in full swing with Fnatic already qualified through the SEA qualifier. Today the event also announced the two invited teams for this $300,000 minor: Newbee and NaVi.

After a strong start to the season Newbee, currently 4th in the DPC standings, have started to show off that they are no gods lately and even missed the playoffs in ESL One Katowice. The team somewhat returned to form last week in Bucharest where they made their way to the semi-finals, eventually falling to VGJ.Thunder.

NaVi's season has featured a lot more downs than ups but they have shown off moments of brilliance. The invite to StarLadder may baffle some as there are stronger teams currently on the scene but the local fanbase in Kiev more than warrants an invite for these local heroes. NaVi is currently ranked 7th in the DPC standings.

StarLadder i-League Invitational Season 5 will take place in Kiev, Ukraine, between the 11th and 15th of April.

Source:
https://starladder.com/en/news/sl-i-league-invitational-newbee-and-navi-receive-the-invites

Gaial

United States285 Posts

March 16 2018 13:10 GMT

Navi is the most undeserving team with all these invites; only has high DPC because of a trade.

Atoissen

Norway812 Posts

March 16 2018 14:55 GMT

I Agree... But if there is one lan they probably deserve an invite to its probably SL, as its in Ukraine.

plasmidghost

United States9449 Posts

March 16 2018 15:56 GMT

Surely there were better teams to give an invite to

NInoff

Bulgaria780 Posts

March 16 2018 17:00 GMT

Seems like Liquid decided not to defend their title. Pretty stacked spring program i assume.

calippo

Sweden1582 Posts

March 16 2018 18:24 GMT

how do you deserve to be invited to a LAN because the tournament is in a specific country lmao, well done CIS LADDER

Oukka

Scotland299 Posts

March 16 2018 18:36 GMT

On March 17 2018 03:24 calippo wrote:
how do you deserve to be invited to a LAN because the tournament is in a specific country lmao, well done CIS LADDER

Because the tournaments are a commercial product that the organizers are selling to the attendees and sponsors and viewers? Presumably making sure there is the "home team" to cheer they probably guarantee certain level of ticket sales/views that might otherwise be less certain. And as some folk already pointed out the spring schedule is super tight with Dreamleague, DAC and the MDL tournament and then Epicenter and stuff coming up, too. Teams are very likely to refuse some invites (see case GESC line-up etc.)

WolfintheSheep

Canada9755 Posts

March 16 2018 18:42 GMT

Next season we will have 4 team minors so even Navi can't dodge their gifted points.

Toadesstern

Germany1126 Posts

March 16 2018 22:27 GMT

all the big teams go to minors? People complain about how small teams have no chance to grab a couple points here and there and it all comes down to getting one or two lucky top4 finishes SOMEWHERE (VGJ is literally 6th place with a single tournament finish right now) because Secret+Liquid+VP+ Newbee/Vici take all the top4 points unless some weird bracket shit happens.

Teams besides those aforementioend get an invite instead because it's a minor and tops teams are busy? People complain about invites not being worthy and surely someone else better should have gotten that invite.

Can't make them all happy. I for one welcome this Navi invite. I'm sure you could make an argument about which of the "smaller" teams to invite but like mentioned above, it's in the Ukraine so I see nothing wrong with Navi being the ones to get an invite.

Gaial

United States285 Posts

March 17 2018 01:03 GMT

#10

On March 17 2018 07:27 Toadesstern wrote:
all the big teams go to minors? People complain about how small teams have no chance to grab a couple points here and there and it all comes down to getting one or two lucky top4 finishes SOMEWHERE (VGJ is literally 6th place with a single tournament finish right now) because Secret+Liquid+VP+ Newbee/Vici take all the top4 points unless some weird bracket shit happens.

Teams besides those aforementioend get an invite instead because it's a minor and tops teams are busy? People complain about invites not being worthy and surely someone else better should have gotten that invite.

Can't make them all happy. I for one welcome this Navi invite. I'm sure you could make an argument about which of the "smaller" teams to invite but like mentioned above, it's in the Ukraine so I see nothing wrong with Navi being the ones to get an invite.

Navi got direct invites to Katowice and Bucharest, two majors based on location, and they didn't make the playoffs in either (including a 13-16th place finish). This isn't good for the scene. Maybe allow an additional CIS invite from qualifier. If Navi wins that, then fine. However, CIS teams would a tleast get experience playing a better team.

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