From Division II to TI11: The Story of Entity

Entity’s journey to The International 2022 (TI11) is nothing short of a fairytale, as the team will be the first Indian organization to ever make it to TI. However, Entity’s success story was a combined effort from its players and management as it began its journey from the second division within the WEU region at the start of the 2021/2022 Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) season with its acquisition of the Creepwave roster.

From there, the organization earned its promotion into Division I at the end of the first tour and began its rise to glory in the WEU region.

Entity’s journey throughout the 2021/2022 DPC season

Entity started its expansion into the WEU region by signing the upcoming roster of Creepwave in the second division at the start of the 2021/2022 DPC season. At the time, the roster consisted of Remco "Crystallis" Arets, Daniel "Stormstormer" Schoetzau, Tobias "Tobi" Buchner, Vladislav "Kataomi`" Semenov and Dzmitry "Fishman" Palishchuk. The team went on to secure first place in Division 2 at the end of the first tour, earning its promotion to Division I for the second tour of the 2021/2022 season.

Hardships and roster changes

During the second tour in Division I, Entity were heavily outclassed by the top teams in the division at the time such as Gaimin Gladiators, Tundra Esports and OG and were on verge of being demoted back to the second division. However, the organization managed to remain in the division after victories against Brame and Nigma Galaxy allowed them to play a tiebreaker match against Brame to remain in Division I, which it ended up winning.

Despite being able to stay in Division I for the third tour of the season, Crystallis ended up leaving the team for Team Secret which left Entity without a carry. The organization ended up taking a risk in former Virtus.Pro player, Ivan "Pure" Moskalenko which was at the time seen as a controversial decision as the player was known for drawing the letter 'Z' (a symbol of support for Russia's invasion of Ukraine) on the minimap during an official DPC match.

However, the organization believed that the decision was worth the risk and Pure posted an apology video on Twitter, hoping to diffuse the situation and explain his decision.

Rise of form and TI11 Qualification

Many within the Dota 2 community saw Entity as a possible dark horse team going into the third tour of the WEU DPC season. The organization started the tour strong, as it defeated Gaimin Gladiators on the opening day but lost against OG the following week. After a grueling tour, Entity was able to force a tiebreaker against Team Secret for a spot in the final Major, which it won 2-1 and earned the organization its first Dota 2 Major appearance.

However, Pure was unavailable for the PGL Arlington Major due to visa issues. However, Entity were still able to attend the Major thanks to TSM’s Jonáš "SabeRLight-" Volek standing in for Pure. During the Major, Entity secured its highest ever finish in a tier one Dota 2 tournament by finishing in the top six, barely losing out to Team Aster at the time.

Following the Major, Entity went on to travel to Malaysia for ESL One Genting with Pure back in the lineup, and achieved yet another top six finish after barely losing out to Fnatic 1-2 despite an outstanding performance from Stormstormer. After returning from Malaysia, Entity were prepared for the WEU Regional Qualifiers and went on an undefeated streak in the qualifiers to earn a direct invitation to TI11.

Following its undefeated streak during the TI11 WEU Regional Qualifiers, could we see Entity go far at The International 11 after its rise to prominence?