Entire Fall Majors invite list complete - Eight teams receive direct invite

The rolling direct invites for the Fall Majors have started and opened with the two TI5 finalists, Evil Geniuses and CDEC. Sixteen teams will compete at the Fall Majors with only eight teams directly invited. Will the results of ESL One Frankfurt sway the tide? We will be updating the blog live as the teams are announced, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments. 

 

Update: The rolling release of the direct invites has started
  

First invite: Evil Geniuses are the first invite revealed on Valve's official Fall Majors website as expected.

Although only playing once match since TI5, Evil Geniuses finished first at TI5, making their invitation almost a no-brainer. Evil Geniuses have only changed one player since TI5, swapping Kurtis 'Aui_2000' Ling for Artour 'Arteezy' Babaev.

Second invite: CDEC Gaming received the second invite to the Fall Majors and like Evil Geniuses, were an indisputed invite by the community.

CDEC finished second at TI5 after an incredible run through the tournament having come from the open qualifiers. They also recently competed at the ESL One New York where they finished 3-4th.


Third invite: TI5 bronze medalist LGD Gaming are the third invite despite a rocky performance in the aftermath of TI5 following former captain Zhang 'xiao8' Ning 's move to the substitute bench.

LGD Gaming were sent to the lower-bracket at TI5 by CDEC and eliminated by Evil Geniuses in the lower-bracket final, but their third place finish and great performance in the competition including victories against Virtus Pro and Vici Gaming makes them fully deserving of their invite.

Fourth invite: Vici Gaming the fourth place finisher at TI5 were also the fourth invite for the Fall Majors in Frankfurt.

Vici Gaming's form like LGD Gaming has dropped since TI5 and have added Xu 'BurNing' Zhilei to their roster from Invictus Gaming. Their run at TI5 was ended by LGD Gaming, but they were the ones to eliminate RoTK's EHOME who were a formidable force at the event.

Fifth invite: The fifth invite is Vega Squadron, who actually failed to make the main event of TI5 but have done extremely well post-TI5 after keeping the same roster and were the victors of the first major event on 6.85, the ESL One NEw York 2015.

On their road to victory they eliminated TI5 champions Evil Geniuses as well as the new Team Secret in the Grand Finals.

Sixth invite: The sixth invite was the new roster of Team Secret who were runners-up at ESL One New York over the weekend although only finished 7-8th at TI5.

Team Secret changed four players from the roster than competed at TI5, with only captain and drafter Clement 'Puppey' Ivanov remaining on the team, but their performance over the weekend silenced many doubters.

Seventh invite: Virtus Pro were the highest placing CIS/EU team at TI5 and although had an early exit at the recent ESL One Frankfurt after losing to Invictus Gaming have been a stable team.

Virtus Pro did not change their roster post-TI5 and like Vega have stuck to what they know with Artem 'fng' Barshack really blossoming as a draft and captain over the course of the year.

Eighth invite: The final invite for the Fall Majors was EHOME who finished 5-6th at TI5. Since TI5 they lost their captain Fan 'rOtk' Bai and ultimately were forced to replace three of their roster.
  

However, their three new additions have performed phenomenally well and although they did not attend ESL One New York, they did win the Chinese qualifiers for it.

There will be 8 teams directly invited and 8 teams coming from the Regional Qualifiers. A total of 40 teams will be competing in the Regional Qualifiers next week, with 8 slots reserved to the winners of the Open Qualifiers.

- Valve's official post

 

Regional qualifiers teams will also be announced
For those teams who do not receive a direct invite to the Fall Majors there are still 8 invite slots to regional qualifiers available, where they will join the two winners of the regional qualifiers. THe EU, SEA and NA regional qualifiers start this weekend and run from the 10-13th October, while the Chinese qualifiers start a day later on the 11th and last until the 14th October.

 

 

For the SEA Regional qualifiers the biggest surprise is Fnatic, who had the potential to be chosen for a direct invite based on them being the best SEA team at the moment. Meanwhile, the team listed as Team Imagine is in fact Leviathan, who recently reverted to their former team name. No major talking points for either the SEA or NA regional invites.

 

 

It is important to note that both Monkey Freedom Fighters and Team Empire forfeited their possible place due to them breaking the roster lock. Empire's roster for the upcoming qualifiers was posted yesterday. Also for those unaware of the recent sponsorship, STARK is the former 4ASC roster. Notable absence from the EU regionals is ScaryFaceZZZ.  

SOURCES : WWW.JOINDOTA.COM