Mineski is the sixth and final invite to ESL One: Birmingham 2018, ESL announced on Monday. They will join the previous invitees Team Liquid, Newbee, Virtus.Pro, Evil Geniuses, Vici Gaming and five other teams that have yet to qualify for Britain’s first ever premier Dota 2 event.
None other than @MineskiProTeam complete the #ESLOne Birmingham direct invites - welcome to the UK!https://t.co/eA04Nl3cdN pic.twitter.com/FtP8wzUexm
— ESL Dota2 (@ESLDota2) April 10, 2018
The news isn’t really that surprising as one SEA invite was expected and confirmed by the Vice President of ESL, Ulrich Schultz. Mineski was easily the obvious choice as they are just coming off of an incredible run at DAC 2018. Mineski secured its first Major trophy in the Dota Pro Circuit. In the current DPC rankings, Mineski ranks fourth, well above Newbee and Vici Gaming who were also invited to this event.
Some were expecting the final invite to ESL One: Birmingham 2018 to go to Team Secret, as they are the 3rd best team in the Dota 2 Pro Circuit, but the European team looks like they have dodged the event. Because of Team Secret's success, they’re virtually guaranteed an invite to The International 8, meaning that they have the luxury of not attending every single Dota 2 event in order to earn themselves an invite.
Now, six more teams will be added to the roster through the qualifiers, which are scheduled to run April 19-22 across all six regions. Invited teams for those qualifiers have not been listed yet. ESL One Birmingham will take place May 23-27. It is the second to last Major on the Dota Pro Circuit before TI8 qualifiers.
Cover sourced from Perfect World