The Weekly CourierESL One Katowice To Feature Only 4 Teams On Stage, DAC Qualifying Teams Fill Up, Na'vi Rounds Out Roster

By eggs on Feb 13, 2018 00:16 UTC

ESL One Katowice Will Feature 4 Teams On Stage

When The International was first held at KeyArena in 2014--its 4th tournament overall--the format eliminated eight teams before fans saw any teams for the main event. This was quickly changed next year, but the format disappointed fans who traveled to see their favorite teams on stage. While some eliminated players remained to talk with fans and enjoy the tournament, others also left early. Over this past weekend, news came out that the upcoming ESL One Katowice will only show four matches total in front of its live audience at the Spodek Arena in Poland. This includes one quarter final match and two semi final matches on Saturday, and the grand final match on Sunday. After some community backlash that also follows ESL's streaming blunder, ESL issued a statement to address the community's concerns:

"We understand that the amount of matches was communicated on a part of the website which wasn’t obvious to everyone, hence ticket buyers are now disappointed. For that reason, we are looking into ways to add additional content now. The potential options are the addition of the second QF in some form as well as a showmatch on Sunday. We will look into all options after the weekend and then keep you updated on the outcome."

Na'Vi Rounds Out Roster With Lebron

Natus Vincere. #WinterShuffle pic.twitter.com/hn2nZiF85X
— Wykrhm Reddy (@wykrhm) February 5, 2018

Lebron has taken his talents to the CIS team, Na'Vi. The addition finalizes Na'Vi's roster, which saw Rodjer and Sonneiko leave last week. The new team is set to make their LAN debut at ESL Katowice, in a little more than a week from now.

DAC Qualifying Teams Set

The past week teams competed for 10 qualifying spots, across 5 regions, for the upcoming DAC 2018 Major in Shanghai. OG steamrolled through the qualifiers, without dropping a game. The CIS region is still ongoing for it's final match, but so far the qualifying teams are as follows:

North America: Evil Geniuses, Optic Gaming

South America: paiN Gaming

Europe: OG

China: Keen Gaming, LGD Gaming, VGJ.Thunder

Southeast Asia: Mineski, TNC Pro Gaming

Final Teams Invited to Epicenter

The last three direct invites for #EPICENTER XL have now been revealed. Invites were sent to 🇪🇺@teamsecret, 🇨🇳@NewbeeCN and 🇺🇦@natusvincere!

Thus, the list of directly invited teams has been finalized. It will be an EPIC battle, don't you think?😉#epicgg #epicenter #dota2 pic.twitter.com/Rge0t43wdT
— EPICENTER (@epicentergg) February 12, 2018

Newbee, Team Secret, and Na'Vi are the final three teams invited to the Epicenter XL Major. They'll join Team Liquid and Virtus.Pro in Moscow, along with 7 qualifying teams, which will be finalized over the coming weeks.

Noteworthy:

Veteran player Black^ returns to the Dota scene as part of Clutch gamers.
w33, the dynamic midlaner known most for his successful run with Team Secret, joins Penta Sports
LFY completely overhauls their roster in the final hours of the lock. Super rejoins the team as the midlaner. Malaysian players, Ohaiyo and ah fu joins the team as its 3 and 5 positions, respectively. And Yao transfers over to LFY from LGD.

Weekly Courier