TI4 Invites are revealed!

Ladies and Gentlemen, with The International 2014 getting closer and closer, Valve finally revealed both their invite format as well as the invited teams. Want to know more? CLICK ME! 

 

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Key Arena, big stage for big battles!

The International 2014 will once again be the most prestigious event of the year with 16 teams battling it out in the KeyArena, Seattle from July 18 to July 21. The first two Internationals promised the enormous prizepool of $1,600,000 with a total of $1,000,000 for the winner. The third edition managed to even top this with a total prizepool of $2,874,380 and first place reward of $1,437,190.

Previous Winners of The International

The International 2011 - Natus Vincere
The International 2012 - invictus Gaming
The International 2013 - Alliance

This year´s International will feature 11 invited teams, 4 that fought themselves through a regional qualifier as well as one wildcard, making the total amount of teams in the main event once more 16.

The English casting will be covered via two regional hubs: one European and one American. Both of them will cover the regional qualifiers over a sixteen day period to feature their unique casting styles. While the European hub will be based out of the GD Studio´s house, the American hub will be based from the Beyond The Summit studio. Both of them will feature a wide array of casters, personalities and talents available.

Valve hasn´t announced their tournament format for the main event yet, but it is rather safe to assume that they will repeat last year´s format. The teams will be split into two groups of 8, where they will play each other twice, determing their seedings in the following double elimination playoffs. While the Top 4 of their respective groups will go to the upper bracket where they will play Bo3 matches, the Bottom 4 of each group will move straight to the lower bracket, where the matches will be played out in a Bo1 format with exception of the Lower Bracket Final which will be a Bo3.

If this is the case the Overall final will be played out in a Bo5 format, with no advantages for the team that came through the upper bracket but the fact that they will only have to play the Bo5 on the final day. Whereas the team that advanced from the lower bracket will have to play the Lower Bracket Final and the Overall Final on the same day, resulting in a maximum amount of 8 consecutive games.

Below you can find a list of all the eleven invited teams, as well as the particiapants of the regional qualifiers. Is your favourite team not directly invited? Don´t worry, they have two chances to qualify for the event, thanks to the wildcard!

What about the qualifiers?

This years Interantional will not feature two but four qualifiers unlike than the years before. Each qualifier holds 10 teams, that will battle each other over the course of 4 days. The first stage of the qualifiers takes place at the first 2 days, where each team will play each opponent in a Bo1 round robin format.

On day 3, the second stage of the qualifiers kicks off. The top 4 will advance into the playoffs where they will face each other in a double elimination format. The top 2 will start in the winners bracket, while the third and fourth place will start in the lower bracket.

The fourth day of the qualifiers will feature a Bo3 consolidation match as well as a Bo5 grand finals, to determine, who will join the ranks of the directly invited.

Invited Teams

Alliance
Cloud 9
Team DK
Empire
Evil Geniuses
Fnatic
invictus Gaming
NewBee
Natus Vincere
Titan
Vici Gaming

May 12 - 15th NA Qualifier

1. CNB e-Sports Club
2. No Earthspirit
3. North American Rejects
4. Osiris Gaming
5. Revenge eSports
6. Sneaky Nyx Assassins
7. Team eHug
8. Team Liquid
9. TOP5
10. Union Gaming

May 16th - 19th SEA Qualifier

1. Arrow Gaming
2. Execration
3. First Departure
4. Mineski Infinity
5. MiTH.Trust
6. MVP Phoenix
7. Orange Esports
8. Rex Regum Qeon
9. Scythe Gaming
10. Team Zephyr

May 20th - 23th Chinese Qualifier

1. CIS Game
2. CNB.cn
3. DT.NGC
4. HyperGloryTeam
5. LGD.CDEC
6. LGD Gaming
7. New Element
8. Orenda
9. Speed Gaming.cn
10. TongFu
 

24th - 27th European Qualifiers

1. Aware Gaming
2. hehe united
3. Monomaniacs
4. Meet Your Makers
5. NEXT.kz
6. Power Rangers
7. Relax
8. RoX.KIS
9. Team Dog
10. Virtus.pro

New to the professional teams or want to refresh your knowledge about the participants? Check out our quick summaries for each team! This isn´t enough for you? Don´t Worry! Before The International commences we'll release a series of articles that will cover the history of each team in depth!