Dota 2: TI 9 China Closed Qualifier – Group Stage

ESTNN's Veselin Ignatov walks fans through the Group Stage of China's Closed Qualifiers for TI 9.

After two days of intensive action, the group stage in the Chinese Closed qualifiers for TI 9 is over. This was definitely one of the hardest group stages out of all regions because every single team which took part in the games had a legit chance of qualifying for the biggest event in Dota 2 – The International. Despite that, only for teams managed to go through.

Who lost in the Chinese Ti 9 Closed Qualifier Group Stage?

Newbee

Probably one of the worst performances out of any qualifier team was Newbee. The TI 4 champions had the worst DPC season in their history. Apart from not being able to qualify for most of the big events, they were not performing that well in the various tier two tournaments which they took part in.

Having said that, they decided it was time to go all-in for the TI qualifiers. Unfortunately, nothing changed as Newbee crumbled in the first Open Qualifier. Despite that, they ended up winning the second one and nabbed the chance to play in the Closed Qualifier.

Even though they started with a win against Team Sirius, they looked bad in their other games. In fact, they lost against all of the “stronger” teams in their group. Ultimately, EHOME delivered the last nail in Newbee's coffin. In one of the most interesting games this month, Ferrari_430 broke several records with his Arc Warden against Newbee. After all, it was an epic 93 minutes battle, one of the longest games in professional Dota’s history.

Team Sirius & Team Serenity

Team Sirius is the second team to end up watching TI 9 from home. Sylar and his teammates looked very scary before these qualifiers began. However, they were just unable to utilize their full potential as their gameplan crumbled to pieces. In fact, their only win was versus Team Serenity, who also had a very bad time in the Closed Qualifiers.

Zyd and his teammates earned their spot in the Closed quals after winning the Open Qualifier #2. Despite that, they just couldn’t live up to the pressure.

Team Aster

Last on the list are BoBoKa and Co. Similar to Sirius, they were also big favorites for the first four spots. However, unlike the other teams that lost, Aster actually played decently for most of the Qualifiers. Unfortunately, they lost their last decisive game against CDEC, which pretty much sealed their fate.

Who Won in the TI 9 Chinese Closed Qualifiers?

Invictus Gaming & Royal Never Give Up

Invictus Gaming and Royal Never Give Up grabbed the first and second place in the Group Stage, respectively. IG completely demolished their enemies and finished with only a single loss. Ferrari and his teammates clearly proved that they have set their eyes on the prize. However, we are yet to see if they are able to repeat their Group Stage performance in the Playoffs. After all, Vega did the same in CIS and they stumbled in the playoffs.

As for RNGU, they had a very stable performance. As expected, Monet led his team to victory. After the first few roundspassed, it was clear that RNGU will be one of the four teams going to the playoffs.

EHOME & CDEC

Last, but definitely, not least on our list are two exceptional teams – EHOME and CDEC. Both of them were actually on the edge of not qualifying, but they eventually buckled down and nabbed the wins necessary to move on to the Playoffs. It will be very interesting to see if CDEC will be able to hold their own against the rest. After all, the other teams in the playoffs are definitely stronger, at least on paper. Then again, the situation was very similar during TI 5.