Here is more information about the TI 12 Western Europe Regional Qualifiers.
The fact that the Riyadh Masters 2023 is over means that most people worldwide are slowly preparing for The International 12. Dota 2’s most prestigious tournament of the year will take place this October. We already know the names of the first 12 teams that will attend the tournament because they’ve secured enough DPC points. However, there are still a few slots to be determined, meaning that it’s time for the TI12 Regional Qualifiers.
After taking a look at the Chinese competitors, it is time to reveal more information about Western Europe, Dota 2’s most interesting region. Even though the best team from WEU already secured their slots, the region has two more slots that must be determined. Naturally, there are a few interesting names we need to take a look at, so let’s go through the TI12 Western Europe Regional qualifiers and learn more about them.
General Information
The most interesting thing about The International 2013 – Western Europe Qualifier is that the matches will take place between 27 August and 31 August. During those days, we will see 11 teams in action.
Interestingly, all teams that took part in the final tour of the 2023 DPC but failed to qualify for TI 12 get a slot here. Furthermore, these teams should not have replaced more than 2 players from their roster in the final tour. All of the participants shown below are selected based on the DPC points they have.
The playoffs of this event will be in Bo3 matches, and the teams that finish first and second will receive a slot for The International 2013.
- Quest Esports
- OG
- Entity
- Level Up
- Luna Galaxy
- KZ Team
- Team Secret
- Nigma Galaxy
- Ancient Tribe
- Alliance
- Into The Breach
Naturally, some of the teams have a lot more chances to exist the Dota 2 TI12 qualifiers as winners, so let’s take a better look at them. With that said, all teams will give everything they have, so it will be interesting to see the final results.
Quest Esports
The first team that definitely deserves to be one of the favorites is Quest Esports. To be honest, the only reason why this squad did not receive a direct invitation is became it came to the scene near the end of the 2023 DPC. Considering its most recent results and overall performance, Quest Esports is one of the favorites to win the TI12 Western Europe Regional Qualifiers.
Despite the squad’s disappointing results at the Riyadh Masters 2023, it finished 4th in Bali, which was a clear sign the team knows what it’s doing. Although ATF is no longer a part of the team, Quest Esports has a promising roster that can win games. It consists of the following names:
- Oleh “kaori” Medvedok
- Omar “OmaR” Moughrabi
- Tobias “Tobi” Buchner
- Tony “No!ob” Assaf
- Aybek “TA2000” Tokayev
The first challenge for Quest Esports will be KZ Team, which is good because the second opponent does not look that scary as well. In other words, Quest has a really good position to win the Dota 2 TI12 qualifiers.
OG
Considering that there is a two-time TI winner in the TI12 Western Europe Regional Qualifiers, it shouldn’t be surprising that this is one of the favorites to win. OG hasn’t had the best season in 2023, which prevented it from securing the required DPC points. Although the team ended 2022 really strong, bzm and the rest haven’t been able to find the formula to succeess this year.
To improve its results, OG made a couple of interesting roster changes. In fact, Yuragi and BZM are the only 2 people that are still a part of the original “new” OG squad back in 2011. Here’s what the team’s roster looks like:
- Artem “Yuragi” Golubiev
- Bozhidar “bzm” Bogdanov
- Dmitry “DM” Dorokhin
- Sébastien “Ceb” Debs
- Kartik “Kitrak” Rathi
There is no doubt that Ceb’s decision to come back to play will positively impact OG’s results. The two-time TI winner has the required experience, and he will give the squad the needed moral boost. Of course, we’re yet to see if this will be enough for winning the Dota 2 TI12 qualifiers.
Nigma Galaxy
The next interesting name that we’ll want to keep an eye on during the TI12 Western Europe Regional Qualifiers is Nigma Galaxy. It’s been a while since Nigma has been a part of the big Dota 2 scene. The team hasn’t been able to recover since the roster changes before TI 8 and is struggling to keep up with the rest. No longer the squad was a part of Division II for a while.
Despite losing the likes of Miracle- and SumaiL, Nigma Galaxy made interesting roster changes. Currently, the roster looks as follows:
- Yuma “Yuma” Langlet
- Kasra “Mikey” Mesbah
- Ivan “MinD_ContRoL” Ivanov
- Maroun “GH” Merhej
- Kuro “KuroKy” Salehi Takhasom
As we can see, Nigma’s current roster is a very interesting mixture of young and experienced players. Kuro, GH and MC have been together for many years now and even won TI 7 with Team Liquid. With that said, the three players decided to acquire two young talents in an attempt to improve their results.
Even though the team is yet to win a big event after the roster changes took place, we think that the Dota 2 TI12 qualifiers might be where we’ll see the roster’s power.
Team Secret
Lastly, we have Team Secret, the squad that’s always one of the hidden favorites. Despite the fact that 2023 has not been Puppey’s best year, Secret remains one of the heavy contenders for the TI12 Western Europe Region Qualifiers. As you probably remember, the team finished 2nd at The International in 2022 and 3rd at The International in 2021, so it has the experience to win.
Speaking of winning, Secret hasn’t lifted the trophy of any big tournament in a while. What’s more, the team has been struggling to keep up with the best and barely made it into Tour 1 of the DPC. With that said, the several roster changes that took place recently should make them a lot more competitive than before.
In terms of Secret’s roster for the Dota 2 TI12 qualifiers, it consists of the following names:
- Remco “Crystallis” Arets
- Armel “Armel” Tabios
- Saieful “Fbz” Ilham
- Daniyal “yamich” Lazebnyy
- Clement “Puppey” Ivanov
Puppey, alongside KuroKy from Nigma Galaxy, is the most experienced player at these qualifiers, so he has to lead his team. Considering that only 2 teams will win a slot for The International 12, it will be interesting to see if Secret will be among them.