NAR and Arrow Headed to The International

The Americas and SEA qualifiers are in the books. There have been plenty of games to watch over the past week with many of them turning out to be amazing. If you missed any of the action, I'll try to give you an overview of what happened in both qualifiers. Americas Qualifier The group stage went about as planned with the favorites North American Rejects and Team Liquid grabbing the top 2 spots. However, after securing a spot in the playoffs, Team Liquid decided not to play 100% in their final game, a game that still had implications on the playoffs. Of course, Team Liquid lost which ended up forcing a three team playoff between Sneaky Nyx Assassins, Team eHug, and Union Gaming. Team eHug forced that tiebreaker by going 4-1 on day 2 of the group stages after starting off at a huge disadvantage because of the forfeit in their first match of the group stages against Union. The tiebreaker went in favor of the Sneaky Nyx Assassins as they beat both eHug and Union. The Peruvians, Union Gaming, edged into the playoffs by beating eHug. Which meant that Sneaky Nyx Assassins and Union would play in the first round of the losers bracket for the 3rd time in the qualifiers; bad news for Union since they lost both games against SNA in the group stage. The only real shocker for the playoffs were Union Gaming. Everyone expected NAR, Liquid, and SNA to make it that far but the general consensus was that people thought the Peruvian team to make it would be Revenge, not Union. The Rejects made quick work of Liquid in the upper bracket final, sending Liquid to the losers bracket to face the winner of Union and Sneaky Nyx. NAR did a fantastic job of controlling TC's Mirana and Viper in that series, keeping the #2 on Liquid below 400 GPM in both games. The lower bracket semifinals were between SNA and Union. SNA got off to an early lead in the series with USH's Tiny and SNA's Brewmaster going a combined 20/0/29. The Peruvians struck back int he second game with a game that went past the 60 minute mark where they did a good job of keeping USH from gaining any momentum with Mirana, a hero that he had a lot of success with in the first game of the qualifier with a 10/0/9 performance against Shadows of the Past. The cancer was real in the third game as SNA brought out the Phantom Lancer, Keeper of the Light, and Nature's Prophet strategy. The uncontrollable split-pushing from PL and Prophet combined with some great Flamebreaks from ixmike to keep Union from teleporting, sealed the deal for SNA to meet their former teammates in the lower bracket finals. Play Video Video: Kirsed The lower bracket finals were not as good of a story for Sneaky Nyx Assassins. Team Liquid's Qojqva and Bulba ruled the first game with Mirana and Dark Seer. The second game ended up being a stomp for Liquid and they moved to the finals for a chance to go to the main bracket at TI4 or if they would end up in the play-ins. The series went back and forth between NAR and Liquid. NAR took game 1 by winning the laning phase pretty hard against what was a safe tri-lane with an Invoker in the 1 position for Liquid. The 2nd game was exactly different with Liquid grabbing Ursa for TC and Morphling for Qojqva which could be considered the ideal heroes for Liquid. However in the third game they drafted Ursa again but without the needed protection which allowed NAR to punish him early and cripple him for the rest of the game. NAR went on to take the game in 29 minutes with solid play. Liquid did bounce back though. In the 4th game, Liquid had Bulba back on Dark Seer and Qojqva on Shadow Fiend which gave Liquid the comfort and power needed to take the game. They found themselves with a big lead early and eventually found the win despite NAR holding on for a long time due to the clearing ability of an Aghanim's Scepter Keeper of the Light. Unfortunately there were some terrible network problems and game 5 had to be postponed a day. When the game was finally played, this play basically secured the win and a spot in the main event for NAR: Play Video Video: Kirsed Southeast Asia Qualifiers The Southeast Asia qualifiers were really the story of Arrow Gaming and MVP Phoenix. They dominated the group stage which was a surprise because many thought Korean Dota to be behind the rest of the SEA region. Arrow came away with first place with an overall record of 12-3. Play Video Game 2 of the upper bracket final between MVP Phoenix and Arrow Gaming The star performer of the regional qualifier was Arrow's mid laner, ddz. He finished the qualifier, 1st in kills per game (12.4), 4th in deaths (3.0), 5th in GPM (576, his teammate was 2nd in this category), and 1st in XPM (611). He had this type of consistent performance while playing a range of heroes. He played everything popular in the mid lane for the current meta ( Brewmaster, Dragon Knight, Invoker) and added his own flavor with ( Dark Seer mid, Tusk, and Tinker). The Dark Seer mid was against MVP Phoenix's QO on Templar Assassin in game 1 of the finals, and the lane wasn't even close. Oh and he dominated the lane with a rushed Hand of Midas. Notes Mirana (71 games) and Shadow Demon (66 games) were the two most picked heroes over the two qualifiers When picked together, Mirana and Shadow Demon went 17-6 In the Americas Qualifier, USH on Shadow Fiend had the highest GPM (828) against CNB. He did that with an Eye of Skadi as his 3rd item followed by Butterfly and Manta Style In the SEA Qualifier, MiTH.Trust LaKelz on Wraith King had the highest GPM (853) Rubick was a popular, successful pick in the SEA region. The Grand Magus was picked 20 times and had 15 wins. Oh and we got this amazing play from Zephyr's SexyBamboe: Play Video Have you watched any of the qualifiers? Do you think North American Rejects and Arrow have a shot in the main event? What is your favorite game so far in the qualifiers?

Go, North American Rejects! One of the few NA teams with players I like. By the way, Mirana is no doubt the trend of this patch, and I think Lycanthrope is overrated (he has a pretty even W/L ratio, around 50%), though competitive players started experimenting with new builds and items - especially the Armlet of Mordiggian - and that makes me happy. Plus, he's played as a mid a lot of times and that's a point in his favor.

By the way, was Bamboe playing mid when he got that rampage with Rubick? I missed that match. And I also missed the 853 gpm Wraith King.

PS: Told you Ancient Apparition was going to fall off the meta. :D

Im still sad becouse CNB wasn't able to go to TI4. :(

If you watch the clip, you can clearly hear the announcer say "best Offlane Rubick" 8{3

I'm sad because no British Teams at TI#anynumber T-T

...at least we have Pyrion 8{D

ARROW GAMING!!! Can't help but cheer for my country's team :DD