The International 10 Qualifiers – Eastern Europe Predictions

The Regional Qualifiers for The International 10 are scheduled to take place in different time intervals. For Eastern Europe and South America, that interval is June 23^rd – 26^th. I’ll take a closer look at the European event below.

Tournament Details

The Eastern European TI 10 qualifier features 12 teams. There is no prize pool, just one ticket for the $40 million event that will undoubtedly make one of these squads quite wealthy. The complete list of participants is the following:

• Team Spirit
• AS Monaco Gambit
• Natus Vincere
• Team Unique
• PuckChamp
• EXTREMUM
• HellRaisers
• Winstrike Team
• Team Empire
• Fantastic Five
• Nemiga Gaming
• B8

Favorites

Among the 12 teams there are 5 serious competitors. I will analyze each of them below.

Natus Vincere

Na’Vi’s roster is formidable. Three of the 5 players are former Virtus.pro members and the team’s captain is highly experienced. The only weak point is their carry, but even he is decent.

The only problem with Na’Vi is that they finished 6^th in the second season of DPC 2021. Of course, much has changed since then. SoNNeikO and No[o]ne weren’t part of the team and their signing should boost its strength by a lot.

On paper, Na’Vi is the number 1 favorite to win the ticket to The International 10. But to do that they’ll need to defeat the other scary competitor in the race, Team Spirit.

Team Spirit

Spirit looks rather unimpressive on paper. The only member of its roster that is known to be highly skilled is Miposhka. Luckily for the squad, he’s also the captain. And much of Spirit’s success can be attributed to his leadership. Because the other members are nowhere near his level.

Team Spirit finished 4^th in Season 1 and 2^nd in Season 2 of Eastern Europe’s DPC 2021. They also got 2^nd place at EPIC League Season 3 Division 1, 1^st place at Dota 2 Champions League 2021 Season 1, 1^st place at Pinnacle Cup, and 7^th – 8^th place at WePlay AniMajor.

Spirit’s big advantage going into the Eastern European qualifiers for TI 10 is their experience in competing as a unit. With no roster changes in the last several months, the roster is fluent in all of its strategies and has had plenty of time to find a winning formula.

AS Monaco Gambit

Gambit finished both seasons of DPC 2021 in 3^rd place. Based on these results, they should be regarded as a serious competitor in this race. The only problem is that they lack strong leadership and a world-class midlaner. So whenever they compete in something important, they tend to mess up.

Overall, I don’t think that Gambit can realistically win this race. But they could pose some serious challenges to some of the other favorites.

HellRaisers

HellRaisers’ roster includes some of the most famous CIS players of the last 5 years. The best of them are probably Lil and Resolut1on. Unfortunately, we haven’t seen them do something major for a long long time. But they did manage to win 1^st place in the Lower Division of Eastern Europe’s DPC 2021. This result gives me some hope that maybe they can achieve the impossible here.

Winstrike Team

Winstrike finished 2^nd in the recent Pinnacle Cup, which means they’re a serious threat to the other competitors. But, just like Gambit, their odds of winning the race are slim. The team lacks world-class leadership and its players are modest compared to those of the other competitors.

Honorable Mentions

Apart from the 5 favorites mentioned above, you should know that Solo will take part in the tournament with his team, NoTechies. He’s been completely out of shape in the last two years but maybe he can make a comeback at this tournament.

Another former great who will participate in this race is Dendi. His team, B8, has been a complete disaster from day 1. But he keeps on fighting and trying to keep his professional career alive. Or at least, to use his appearances as advertising for his famous Twitch channel. He’s been streaming a lot these past few years and he’s doing quite well in this department.

One last team to keep in mind is PuckChamp. The team itself is not spectacular, but its coach is the mighty Artstyle.

 

Photo credit: Valve