Valve finally unveiled the eight teams who will receive their direct tickets to The Boston Major 2016 on December 3-7. After the recent madness involving post TI6 roster shuffle, what can you say about the lineup? Who do you think deserves to win?
WINGS GAMING
The renowned Chinese team who won the TI6 is considered as the most stable team in the scene. Having no changes in their rosters since September 2015, Wings Gaming recently won the Nanyang Cruise Ship LAN against other Chinese teams including Newbee and Invictus Gaming. Despite being undeniably strong, Wings Gaming, however, is not showing interest to smaller LAN events. Probably getting ready for The Major?
CHAOS
Being composed of veteran players, Chaos is the TI6’s 1st runner upholder. The team is known as one of the most influential American team on the scene. However, the team made recent roster changes by replacing their offlaner Moo with Moonmeander. Moonmeander was previously a part of OG, the team who was known for being the first team to win two Valve events. This event will be their first tournament with their new team mate.
EVIL GENIUSES
Having one of the oldest players in the scene, Fear, Evil Geniuses ended up as TI6’s 2nd runner-up. Fear plays the support role in the team, which seemed to have made chemistry with their 17-year-old mid player, Sumail. Fear, however, has decided after the TI6 to retire and play as the team coach instead. Former OG support, Cr1t, is not performing as Fear’s replacement. Evil Geniuses has recently won a premier tournament with their new roster.
NEWBEE
After placing 9-12th in the TI6, Newbee had made huge roster changes by welcoming 3 new members – uuu9, Sccc, and Faith – who replaced Hao, Mu, and Chuan. The recruitment seemed to have paid off since they just won a major event and placed second in a premier event, which may be the reason they secured a direct flight to Boston.
MVP PHOENIX
The Korean squad’s direct invite is currently surrounded with controversy due to the loss of their core players and their ineffectiveness after the TI6. Currently, the team has a losing streak on the record and still in the process of gaining back their momentum. With more than a month of preparation before The Boston Major, MVP still has time to prove that they deserve the invite and bring back their strong form.
EHOME
Sylar and Garder, who replaced iceiceice and Fenrir after TI6, are showing impressive performance within the EHOME team. With their new roster, the team just qualified for a major tournament with $100,000 prizepool. EHOME is one of the strongest Chinese teams in the scene.
OG
Despite being the favourite, OG ended up 9-12th in the TI6, which caused an enormous breakdown within the team. After TI, Only two members have remained in the team, Fly and N0tail, accompanied by newly hired team mates – JerAx, s4, and Ana. The highest achievement with their new lineup so far is placing 3rd in a premier tournament.
The Boston Major’s open qualifiers starts October 23-26 while regional qualifiers will be on 27th to 28th.
