The International 2016 invited teams
The International 2016 invited teams
This August will mark the sixth installment of the annual International – arguably the largest eSports competition ever. It will feature 16 top teams in the world competing for the continually growing prize pool, which currently reached $12.4 million.
This year only 6 teams have received direct invites to the tournament. It is a significant decrease compared to 10 invites that we saw last year and it represents the current state of the competitive scene, which is full of evenly skilled teams.
A direct invite for two-time Major winners OG didn’t really surprise anyone, as they currently are the most dominant team in Dota 2. Team Liquid is no surprise either, since they are the only team that could compete with OG in the last couple of months. The inclusion of LGD Gaming and MVP might be a bit more unexpected, but both squads have performed well at the recent Manila Major and have shown the ability to take down top teams. Natus Vincere rounds it out as the most questionable invite, which can only be explained by them being the sole team in CIS that was able to consistently perform at the top level.
Most notable absentees from the invites are Team Secret and last year’s winners Evil Geniuses, who will need to work their way through the open qualifiers. Both teams made some last-minute roster changes and violated Valve’s roster lock conditions.
You can check the full list of invited teams as well as squads that will battle in the regional qualifiers below:
Direct Invites:
- OG
- Team Liquid
- Newbee
- LGD Gaming
- MVP Phoenix
- Natus Vincere
Regionals (Americas):
- Digital Chaos
- Friendship, Dedication, Love
- Complexity Gaming
- Not Today
- Vultur Gaming
- Drinking Boys
- [open qualifier winner]
- [open qualifier winner]
Regionals (China):
- Vici Gaming.Reborn
- TongFu
- CDEC
- Wings Gaming
- IG
- CDEC.Youth
- EHOME
- IG.Vitality
- [open qualifier winner]
- [open qualifier winner]
Regionals (Europe):
- Alliance
- Power Rangers
- Team Empire
- Ad Finem
- Vega Squadron
- Flipsid3 Tactics
- Virtus.Pro
- No Diggity
- [open qualifier winner]
- [open qualifier winner]
Regionals (Southeast Asia):
- Fnatic
- Rave
- Mineski
- Signature Trust
- Warriors Gaming.Unity
- Execration
- Orange.Taring
- The Mongolz
- [open qualifier winner]
- [open qualifier winner]
The International 2016 will take place 3-13 August. The main event is set for 8-13 August at Seattle’s KeyArena.