Earlier today, after complaints from multiple pro players PGL finally released the list of the teams who are directly invited to the regional qualifiers of The Bucharest Minor.
Bucharest Minor Closed Qualifier Invited teams:
— PGL (@pglesports) November 30, 2018
SA - Infamous Young Playmakers Esports
CIS - Team Empire Hope; Gambit Esports
SEA - Mineski; Boom ID
EU - Ninjas in Pyjamas; OG ; The Final Tribe
NA - TEAM TEAM ; compLexity Gaming ; Plus Ultra / EG
CN - Root ; EHOME ; RNG
We are also inviting Vega Squadron to EU qualifiers . So the EU Closed Qualifiers will feature OG, NIP, TFT, VEGA and 2 teams from open qualifiers.
— PGL (@pglesports) November 30, 2018
However, the invites seem to be inconsistent and are seemingly randomly distributed amongst different teams. PGL has ostensibly used different criteria for different regions. For instance, European teams invited to the Regional Qualifiers include OG and NiP who have presumably been invited to the closed qualifiers thanks to their performances in the events preceding the Major qualifiers.
However, the first Minor of the season: Dreamleague Season 10 has seemingly not been factored in, as both the winner and the runner-up, Tigers and Na’Vi have not received direct invites to the SEA and CIS regional qualifiers respectively.
It looks like the invites for all the regions (except Europe) have been distributed by virtue of their performances in the Chongqing Major Qualifiers.
The NA qualifiers also feature the newly formed Plus Ultra in their invite list. But the tweets from Infamous and Fear seem to indicate that the team has disbanded after they failed to qualify for the Chongqing Major.
GG's to @EvilGeniuses! I have left PU and I am looking for players to start something new under my leadership. Best of luck to all the teams attending the major!
— Clinton Loomis (@FearDotA) November 30, 2018
Ideally, the process and criteria of selecting the Invites for the Major and Minor qualifiers should be released to the public. However, Valve has always preferred to take a step back from third-party tournaments and hence might be reluctant towards issuing inflexible rules for 3rd party tournament organizers.