For the second consecutive year Seattle’s Key Arena becomes the home for the world’s best Dota 2 teams as they go head to head in one of the most prestigious e-sports tournaments to date. Ten teams have already been invited thanks to their merits in the events leading up to TI5 but six slots remain. From each qualifier one champion will receive a direct invite to the main event while the runner ups from the same regions will have to battle it out in a wild card series where only two teams will be granted access to the main event.

The European scene has had its best year yet, long gone are the days with huge skill discrepancies and few dominant teams. Regardless of outcome old names will miss out on what looks to be the biggest Dota 2 event to date.

Each region’s qualifier will start off in with the round robin group stage where the ten teams are split up in half. The top two teams from each group advance to the double elimination playoffs where the top placer of each group is seeded into the upper bracket while the runner up of each group is seeded in the lower bracket. The winner of each regional qualifier is granted access to the main event and the runner up is sent to the wild card series where they will face the other runner ups.

GROUP A

4 ANCHORS + SEA CAPTAIN MATUMBAMAN, nemphy, Trixi, Vaalix, Buugi

The Finnish squad has not had anything noteworthy going on since November of last year when they placed 6th in the second season of DreamLeague. Together with Power Rangers 4ASC are considered the under dogs of group A but the skill gap isn’t so big that we can completely rule out a top 2 finish for the Finns.

ALLIANCE Loda, Pajkatt, AdmiralBulldog, 7ckngMad, Akke

Wind back the clock about two years and Alliance had just completely smashed the best Chinese teams on their own home turf and later went on to win TI3 with a 23-3 match record. The times have not been kind to the Swedish squad who lost s4 after their abysmal finish at TI4. If that wasn’t enough Alliance quickly dropped down in the rankings after losing Misery, Chessie and Bulldog in the latter parts of 2014, even having four stand-ins at times. Since the recruitment of 7ckngMad things started to look better, Alliance now play with a direction and with their stacked roster they are most definitely the big favorite going into the European qualifiers.

BURDEN UNITED SingSing, Neqroman, PARIS, ComeWithMe, Mynuts

A ragtag crew of players that were left without teams late into the season. Qualified to the playoffs of D2CL Season 5 after topping the European group stage and later ended up in third place after beating NIP 2-1. Burden United have an element of inconsistency but if they can bring their A-game they could very well exact revenge on their previous teams and qualify to TI.

NINJAS IN PYJAMAS Era, Limmp, Jonassomfan, Handsken, Sealkid

A team that on patch 6.83 were one of the most consistent teams. The team had a very bad start of patch 6.84 but have shown promise, beating old rivals Team Empire 2-0 in DreamLeague. If that series was to be a sign of progress the opponents of NIP have to be wary, if they are back to their form they had in 6.83 they are expected to place top 2 in the qualifier.

POWER RANGERS Ditya Ra, Sunlight, chshrct, j4, KingR

One of the European teams that qualified to DAC where they were eliminated in the wild card qualifiers. Has since then dropped off significantly and lost two members as Shachlo left and SoNNeikO joined Na’Vi. Power Rangers recent performances with losses against teams who didn’t qualify through the open qualifier makes this team the biggest underdog of group A.

GROUP B

HELLRAISERS Artes, Afoninje, Dread, goddam, Gorec

HellRaisers claim this year has been their run at DAC, since then the CIS squad has been plagued with Visa issues making them unable to travel to many of the LAN’s they qualified to. HR are the dark horse of the group as they have played very little on patch 6.84 but considering their achievements prior in patch 6.83 they should still be considered a potential winner in group B.

LONDON CONSPIRACY Keyser Soze, Madara, SkyLark, SKANKS224, SsaSpartan

Together with Yellow Submarine LC are the under dogs in group B as they don’t have any recognizable names or results beside beating Team Empire and Asus.Polar in the Starladder group stages, unless they can pull of a similar surprise London Conspiracy’s chances are very slim.

NATUS VINCERE XBOCT, Dendi, Funn1k, SoNNeikO, ArtStyle

The legendary team who for three years in a row stood by the Aegis of Immortal before and after the grand finals of the three first TI editions. Puppey and Kuroky’s departure hurt the squad badly who struggled for months to play close to their former level. The team kept changing players and finally settled with former team mate ArtStyle and SoNNeikO, the former player being the new captain and drafter. Their current roster has no offline results and have not yet shown much promise in patch 6.84. Na’Vi together with Alliance are the most experienced and individually strong rosters and thanks to these qualities they still should be considered to be one of the favorites for qualifying to TI.

VEGA SQUADRON 9pashaebashu, No[o]ne, Mag, CemaTheSlayeR, Solo

Vega Squadron were previously known as a struggling tier 3 team but has since their addition of experienced players in Solo and Mag elevated their play making them a potential winner in the European qualifier and perhaps even slightly favored over HellRaisers to make it out of group B.

YELLOW SUBMARINE Miposhka, Barash, Dale, PSM, Fervian

Yellow Submarines are the open qualifier winners. Their chances in the European qualifier are very slim as they are the team with no results to speak of and will play against true Dota veterans.

http://nip.gl/articles/gaming/news/136/the-international-5-european-qualifiers-preview