Kiev Major Open Qualifiers – Teams to watch out for in the SEA region

      
WarriorsGaming.Unity or Team Bazaar as they are now called is only in the open quals due to a last minute roster change. They would have received a sure shot invite to the regionals after a respectable run in Boston but Valve’s strict roster locking rules have put them in a bit of a tough spot. Kang left the team early in January and has since then been replaced by Ben. Definitely heavy favorites to win the OQ’s but the tricky bo1 format has been known to bring down even the best of teams.

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     Another Malaysian side, comprising of stars and veterans of the SEA scene will look to fight their way to the regionals. Mineski’s secondary squad called Mineski Malaysia (formerly Mineski X) comprises of will have a mix of veterans from the country teaming up. TI hardened players KyxY and Xtinct will be joined by arguably the most famous player in SEA, Mushi.

See also : Mushi's journey through competitive Dota

Ex WG.Unity players Kang and Alacrity will round up the roster. The experience on kyxy, Mushi and Xtinct will count for a lot as the side navigates the OQ brackets and they will have a lot of eyes on them on the back off the fact that Mushi is in the team as a standin.

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     India’s number 1 team ETE has had a string of bad results against SEA teams recently and will need to up their game by quite a bit if they are to have any shot in the Open Quals. Hopefully, No_Chance and co will have put in the hours and done the homework as they take on SEA’s top sides in the quest to make it to the regionals. They were last seen taking down RRQ from Indonesia in a bid to make it to The Champions Qualifier.

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This team has undergone quite a few number of changes since it was originally started by hyhy and ZSMJ. Chisbug and xfreedom are on the current roster and will most likely be joined by Yamateh and Net. Unfortunately the isn’t too much information on them barring the tags they used to register on Faceit so we cannot confirm the roster.  

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    Evos are one of the few known Indonesian teams in the scene and have been competing in online tournaments against SEA squads. They haven’t really proven themselves in a big way yet but will still be one of the teams to look out for in the OQ’s The Indonesian squad was formerly known as Zero Latitude and their most recent accolades include a 5th-6th place finish at the ProDota Cup Southeast Asia #5 versus SEA Qualifier invitees Clutch Gamers.

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  Former TNC captain Nico ‘eyyou’ Barcelon will lead his band of Pinoys as he looks to make it to Kiev. Joining him are fringe players from the circuit like Benhur and JessieVash. Could definitely pull out a few surprises in the OQ’s if teams aren’t prepared to take them on.

See also : A chat with Nico 'Eyyou' Barcelon

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India’s second squad led by Omkar ‘PassoLL’ Urunkar will also be in the running but they are a relatively new and inexperienced squad. The lineup also features one of India’s rising talents Negi, Padling and Shahbaz and they will be joined by ex BI player, Battosai.

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Who are some of the teams you are looking forward to see in the OQ’s? Will there be any major upsets and unlikely heroes rising out of the chaos? AFKGaming will be covering the Open Qualifiers as the games go live from 15:30 IST so do tune in at twitch.tv/AFKGamingEsports