Earlier this year, MVP Phoenix became the first Korean team to win a global Dota 2 event, beating Evil Geniuses 3-0 in the Grand Finals of Dota Pit League Season 4. Many were surprised to see a team from SEA take down last year's International champions in such dominant fashion. But for MVP, this win has been in the making for nearly a year. Beginning with its top eight finish at The International 5, MVP has been putting on a series of impressive performances, including a fourth place finish at the Shanghai Major, where it was knocked out by the same Evil Geniuses team it would conquer only a few weeks later.
Its unexpected performance proved to everyone that MVP has what it takes to compete at the top level, but the detail that makes those tournament successes even more impressive is that it wasn't even invited to those events. As a lower tier team, it had to battle its way through the regional qualifiers, a tournament that gives uninvited teams a second shot at the event, assuming it can beat out its peers.
Since its introduction at The International 2013, the regional qualifiers have quickly become a core component of every major event. It puts a spotlight on new up-and-coming teams, and usually serves as a testing grounds for new strategies. It has created more quality Dota to watch, which is good for spectators. But more importantly, these qualifiers have greatly diversified the teams competing at Valve events.
But has diversifying the competition really had any effect on the competitive scene?
Looking at the results, it would be easy to say it has not. For years, teams coming in through the regional qualifiers have struggled to find success at major events, often finishing in the bottom eight. To some, this is a sign that the regional qualifiers are a flawed system that takes spots away from the most competitive teams and gives them to weaker regions. But Valve had faith in the qualifiers, and it didn't take long to prove their value, thanks to a breakout performance from a little known Chinese team named CDEC.
Similar to MVP, CDEC barely made it into the The International 5, qualifying through the last chance Wild Card tournament. But it was determined to make the most of its shot at the Aegis of Champions. CDEC was strong out of the gate, winning a majority of its sets 2-0 thanks to its aggressive play-style and focus on early team fighting. It exited the group stage with an impressive 9-5 record, second in the group behind hometown favorites EG. It carried this momentum into the main stage, where it beat every opponent 2-0 to secure a spot in the Grand Finals.
It was an unprecedented performance from a team many had never heard of before the event. Although it would ultimately lose to EG, CDEC's run was one of the best storylines of the tournament, one that would have never happened without the qualifiers.
"CDEC's run was the obvious outward sign that parity had arrived, but a lot of people in the scene were very eager to downplay their performance," says Alan "Nahaz" Bester, Dota 2 analyst and stats specialist. "The most important thing is that 'tier two' teams have continued to excel. I've been saying for a long time that the pool of teams capable of competing at an elite level has at least doubled or tripled since TI4, and the evidence for this is now all but indisputable."
It is perhaps thanks to teams like CDEC that Valve started experimenting with even more qualifier spots when it introduced the Dota Majors, the next step in expanding the Dota 2 competitive scene. Up until 2015, Valve held only one event, The International, content to let third parties run the scene the other 51 weeks out of the year.
As The International grew, it became obvious that having one massive event each year was not viable. So after TI5, Valve introduced the Majors. The Majors have helped create a more steady competitive scene, with more events, a more even prize pool distribution, and strict roster locking. But most importantly, it created an international circuit, with one Major in each of the four Dota regions (North America, Europe, China, Southeast Asia). Now every region has a Valve event to look forward to. The International will still be seen as the crown jewel of competitive Dota, but Valve's commitment to giving every region equal treatment should be an example for any other game hoping to expand their audience.
So what's the next step? "The biggest thing it needs going forward is clarity," says Nahaz. "Right now, we have no idea how individual non-major tournaments factor into Major invites, or even if online matches factor in at all."
This lack of communication is apparent at other events, as many of the strongest Dota teams take extended breaks after Majors. "In the month after the Shanghai Majors ended, four of the top eight teams competed in three official matches or fewer," said Nahaz. "In Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, by contrast, five of the top eight teams at the Columbus Major were in action in online matches within seven days after the event."
Due to that lack of communication, the community was buzzing with invite speculation in the weeks leading up to the Manila Major. When the invites were finally announced, almost everyone was surprised to see that Valve chose to give 12 direct invites this time around -- with four spots left for the regional qualifiers.
"A lot of things change during the year -- from team compositions to new results in LAN tournaments -- so we tend to take a more holistic approach to how we do invites," said Valve in the official announcement. "We try to always invite the teams that we think have demonstrated their ability to perform well, either from very strong recent results or from a longer history of top finishes. We also think it's very important for the ecosystem if third-party LAN tournaments are able to have a lasting impact on the Major invites, rather than largely depending on qualifiers."
Fan favorite teams like Na'Vi and Alliance received direct invites alongside powerhouses like EG and Secret. Up-and-coming teams like Complexity and Wings Gaming made the cut, as did MVP. While many were happy to see such a wide variety of teams recognized, there was also a feeling of disappointment in seeing the qualifiers scaled back so quickly. Some fans might look down on the regional qualifiers when their favorite team gets edged out; but without them, teams like CDEC and MVP Phoenix may never have gotten their chance to shine.