The regional qualifiers for The International 2018 have been fiercely underway over the last few days and the SEA regional qualifier finally has figured out its top 4 teams who will be heading into the playoffs to determine which two teams will qualify for the biggest Dota 2 tournament of the year.
The Open Qualifiers for the SEA region saw 5 teams: Entity Gaming, Sterling Global Dragons, Battle Arena Elites, TNC Tigers, and Alpha Red, join TNC Predator, Fnatic and BOOM ID in the Main Qualifier bracket. The 8 teams played through a number of best-of-one matches as they were all vying for the two SEA regional spots in The International 2018. At the end of today’s play, four teams were clearly at the top and would move into tomorrow’s playoffs while the other 4 teams fell by the wayside.
With Pingvincek on his Huskar leading the charge, @EntityGamingIND make it to the playoffs demolishing Battle Arena Elites
— AFK Gaming (@afkgaming) June 23, 2018
They now join @TNC_Tiger, @TNCProTeam, @FNATIC in The International 8 SEA Regional Qualifier playoffs.
Congratulations!! pic.twitter.com/XBgbLxVL7U
After Day 1’s proceedings saw the elimination of Sterling Global Dragons and Alpha Red, BOOM ID kicked off the day with a must-win game against Fnatic. However, Fnatic secured their spot in the playoffs with an unorthodox draft featuring Sven - Lina - Mirana as the cores.
Entity Gaming and Battle Arena Elites played in the most significant game of the day. The winner would move on to the playoffs while the loser would be eliminated. Pingvincek was the MVP of this matchup as he completely wrecked the Battle Arena Elites squad in under 30 minutes and securing a place in the playoffs.
Hence TNC Predator, TNC Tigers, Fnatic, and Entity Gaming would move forward as their battle for the 2 spots in TI8 for the SEA region begins tomorrow. Both Entity Gaming and TNC Tigers have performed exceedingly well making their way through the Open Qualifiers, continuing their form through the regional qualifiers and making it to the playoffs.
The playoffs kick off tomorrow morning for the SEA crowd with TNC Predator and Entity Gaming starting off the day at 12:00 pm SGT | 09:30 am IST followed by Fnatic versus TNC Tigers at 3:00 pm SGT | 12:30 pm IST. Both series are best-of-three and will not see any eliminations just yet but losing their first series will place them in the lower bracket – where elimination will loom.