Fnatic have just about managed to qualify for this year’s Dota 2 International under some unusual circumstances.
The London-headquartered organisation expressed surprise at discovering they were the 12th invited team to this year’s The International (TI), which takes place in Singapore from October 15th to 30th 2022.
They tweeted, saying: “We woke up today to the news that we are in fact, headed to The International. We can’t express how much this means to the players, staff and organisation.”
The community were under the impression that Outsiders had claimed the 12th spot, according to the (now amended) Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) 2021-22 rankings on Liquipedia, which stated that Outsiders had 1,020.05 DPC points, and that Fnatic had 1,020 points.
However, Dota 2 developer Valve stated: “We are aware of a discrepancy regarding how the DPC standings are calculated when compared to unofficial sources.
“The [official] DPC website reflects the official standings for the 2021-2022 season.”
It seems Liquipedia had miscalculated the points by a fraction, erroneously stating that Outsiders had made it to The International, when it was, in fact, Fnatic.
Valve lists Fnatic in 12th place with 1,020 points, and Outsiders in 13th place with 1,019 points, meaning Fnatic qualified by a solitary point.
Outsiders is a name of a team created by Virtus Pro in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
So how did the points discepancy come about for Outsiders?
Outsiders had picked up a few penalty points during the DPC tours, reports Otomo for Yahoo.
They apparently received a 15% penalty point after replacing support player illias with Xakoda after the Winter Tour, another 15% penalty point for replacing Pure with RAMZES666 around the Spring Tour, and a 40% penalty in-between these incidents for playing the Winter Tour Regional Finals with a Xakoda as a stand-in prior to his formal induction into the team.
Due to the percentages and how Valve apparently rounds down DPC points, this caused a slight discrepency with how Valve calculates totals and how Liquipedia does.
Fnatic join fellow UK-based organisation Tundra Esports at The International 2022, who qualified last week.
Fnatic and Tundra join ten other invited teams: PSG.LGD, OG, Thunder Awaken, Team Spirit, Boom Esports, Team Aster, TSM, Gaimin Gladiators, Evil Geniuses and Beastcoast at the major competition.
In other UK Dota 2 news, the UK Home Nations did well in at the Commonwealth Esports Championships earlier this month, which featured Dota 2 tournaments. Esports England won a silver medal in the open and women’s Dota 2 tournaments.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
