WITH THE DPC SEA Tour III entering its final week, the race to a The International (TI) invitation is in full swing, with teams needing to dig in deep for their last chance at DPC points.
As of writing, only Boom Esports is guaranteed a spot at the final DPC Major of the year, the Arlington Major, the final Dota 2 tournament with DPC Points on the line. Only two slots remain up for grabs for Southeast Asia, but five teams need that Arlington major lifeline to guarantee their direct invite.
Boom Esports
Boom has already earned their spot at the major, yet they still need to earn a few extra points to guarantee a direct invite. Currently, they’re guaranteed at least 922.5 points if they finished second at the DPC.
The team needs to hope that RSG can pull Talon down in their final DPC match to earn the first seed and an additional 200 points, enough to push them pass the guaranteed threshold of around 980. However, if Talon does survive the RSG challenge, Boom's fate is still in their hands as they face Talon in a tiebreaker for the first seed of DPC Tour III.
Fnatic
Fnatic currently stands at 820 DPC points, or 870 if the DPC ended now. A lot is riding on the boys in orange this week as they both need to win their matchup against T1 and hope for a favorable outcome in the Talon vs RSG series on Thursday.
Fnatic currently has a record of 4-2 in the DPC leader board and a win against T1 on Wednesday guarantees them at least a tiebreaker for the final major slot. Fnatic needs to win against T1 and hope for an RSG win to force a triple tiebreaker at least second seed.
If Fnatic manages to be the last one standing, they’ll have 1020 DPC points and a possible TI direct invite. But a Talon win and a T1 win means a triple tiebreak for the final DPC slot.
T1
T1 needs a lot of things to go their way if they want a direct invite to Singapore. The team currently stands at 328 DPC points but is guaranteed to go up at least 378.3 if the DPC finishes the way it is.
Needless to say, the team needs to go to the Major in Texas if they want a direct invite. But simply going to Texas is not enough the team needs to finish in at least 5th to 6th place if they are to have a chance for the invite... and at least third if they want to guarantee it.
But getting to Texas is already a task in itself. They need to beat Fnatic on Wednesday and hope for a Talon win to force the three-way tiebreaker for the final DPC slot against Fnatic and RSG.
Talon
A newcomer to the DPC both as an organization and a Division I squad, Talon needs the heavens to align if they hope to grab that TI direct invite.
Talon’s fate rests on their hands, as beating RSG this Thursday means a guaranteed Major slot and a tiebreaker against Boom Esports for the top seed for Tour III. However, a loss against RSG and a Fnatic win means a triple-threat tiebreaker for the two remaining DPC spots.
Right now, the squad is guaranteed of finishing at least fourth in Tour III with 100 DPC points. But finishing first means 500 DPC points, a necessity for a squad that currently has zero. If Talon were to finish first, they still need to finish 5th to 6th in the Arlington Major to earn an additional 515 DPC points. Safe to say that Talon needs that Major slot, and then a hell of a run, to avoid the regional qualifiers for TI.
RSG
Another Division I newcomer, RSG also needs to move heaven and earth to earn their TI direct invite. Right now, they are guaranteed fifth with 50 DPC points, so going to the Major is a must for the Malaysia-based squad.
The squad needs to beat Talon on Thursday to open up a tiebreaker for the second seed to earn themselves as much as 300 DPC points. Supposing everything goes well for RSG, they’ll need at least a third-place finish to earn 670 DPC points to have a chance for an invite. But winning it all means a guaranteed invite.
The rest of the DPC SEA teams
As for the rest of the SEA DPC teams, their quest for a TI direct invite is over, with no chance of earning additional DPC Points available. However, their road to TI is still open, but they’ll need to go through the hell that is regional qualifiers.
They’ll need to win the qualifiers to earn a direct spot in The International group stage. But finishing second or third means they’ll still go to Singapore for the new Play-in stage. The play-in stage will be the greatest challenge, as teams will battle the second and third placers from the five other regions, with only two making it to the group stage of the DPC.
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