After a year without The International due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Dota 2 fans can finally rejoice as it’s only 3 months until TI10. After a year of filled with online tournaments, players will now have to return to performing at the grand stage, and what better way than to start at the biggest stage, TI.
Last week, Valve announced that TI10 will now take place at the Arena Nationala in Bucharest, Romania. The battle begins from 7 October until 17 October.
According to the statement by Valve, the Swedish Sports Federation voted not to accept e-sports into its federation. Additionally, Valve’s Dota 2 tournament was denied classification as an elite sporting event. This meant that Visa applications for the players outside the EU would not be approved.
Although there are already 12 teams invited to The International based on their DPC points, six teams had to fight their way through the regional qualifiers to round out the 18-team rosters competing for the Aegis, worth more than $40 million prize.
With that in mind, here are the teams that have qualified for The International 10 through the Dota Pro Circuit.
The International 10 Teams Qualified
| Rank | Team | Total DPC Points |
| 1 | Evil Geniuses | 1,700 |
| 2 | PSG.LGD | 1,300 |
| 3 | Virtus Pro | 1,200 |
| 4 | Quincy Crew | 1,100 |
| 5 | Invictus Gaming | 1,100 |
| 6 | T1 | 1,070 |
| 7 | Vici Gaming | 950 |
| 8 | Team Secret | 950 |
| 9 | Team Aster | 800 |
| 10 | Alliance | 800 |
| 11 | beastcoast | 800 |
| 12 | Thunder Predator | 800 |
EG finished the season with the most points at 1,700 after coming in second at both One Esports Singapore Major and WePlay Esports AniMajor. PSG.LGD comes in 2nd at the table after winning the AniMajor and Virtus.pro at 3rd.
Additionally, the teams that received an invite to TI10, outside of both Thunder Predator and PSG.LGD, won at least one season of the regional league and appeared at least once at a Major. Moreover, Virtus.pro are the only team to have won at both regional league seasons despite having an average performance at Majors.
Though the teams invited to The International deserve it, many fans are left wondering, what of OG? Will fy and Elephant make it as well? Will kuroKy and his band of brothers in Nigma miss TI this year?
Well, the teams will have to go through a sudden death tournament, the regional qualifiers.
The regional qualifiers are the last chance for the teams who are trying their absolute best to make it to TI.
Regional qualifier winners
| Region | Team |
| Europe | OG |
| China | Elephant |
| CIS | Team Spirit |
| SEA | Fnatic |
| North America | Undying |
| South America | SG e-sports |
Team Spirit and Fnatic are no strangers of performing at The International stage. They’ve made appearances at one Major each this season, and they showed up and proved their capabilities at the qualifiers. Undying and SG e-sports were the underdogs and winning the qualifiers show how much they want to compete at a big stage.
OG and Elephant were two teams that fans had high expectations of heading into the 2021 DPC.
The back-to-back defending The International champions, OG were the favourites to get a direct invite to TI, but it wasn’t the case, unfortunately.
Meanwhile, Elephant has put together a super team during a massive roster shakeup with several other teams in China.
However, both teams didn’t make it to a single Major this year and they barely made it out of the qualifiers. Both of the teams were one series away from elimination. But, when it counted the most, they showed what they’re capable of.
OG, with the return of SumaiL, survived two tough battles back-to-back against their rivals, Team Nigma and Tundra Esports. Elephant defeated two high-level teams in Team Magma and Ehome.
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