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The DreamLeague Season 13 qualifiers came to a close last week, confirming the first 15 teams that will take part in the second Major of the 2019/20 Dota Pro Circuit season.
The Leipzig Major will kick off on January 18 next year and will feature 16 Dota 2 esports teams from six different regions who will compete for the largest slice of 15,000 DPC points and a US $1,000,000 prize pool.
Here, we will take a look at what has happened in each of the six qualifying sections, which teams made it through and how their journey looked.
DreamLeague Season 13 China qualifiers
Even before the closed qualifiers began in China, we witnessed with one of the biggest upsets of the season when FTD.apollo defeated PSG.LGD in the round of 16 in open qualifiers.
LGD’s early exit from regionals should have made it easier for the other big names to advance, but the surprises did not stop there.
With PSGLGD out of the picture, Aster, EHOME and ViCi were expected to sew up the three DreamLeague S13 places. Instead, it was Dota Summit 11 champions Invictus who joined ViCi in the top two places, with Aster in third and EHOME missing out.
Qualified teams: Invictus Gaming, ViCi Gaming, Team Aster
DreamLeague Season 13 SEA qualifiers
Unlike in China, the Southeast Asia closed qualifiers did not produce any upsets, but that is not to say there wasn’t a surprise appearance.
While usual suspects TNC Predator and Fnatic made it through the qualifiers, TNC had to fight for third place after losing to Fnatic in the semi-finals.
Second place went to a total outsider in Reality Rift, who bested TNC twice in the group stage. That just goes to show how stacked the SEA region is.
Qualified teams: Fnatic, Reality Rift, TNC Predator
DreamLeague Season 13 Europe qualifiers
Continuing the trend of upset wins and surprising results, the European qualifiers saw Nigma fail to finish in the top three.
The newly formed roster was seen as a red-hot favourite to book a spot in the Leipzig Major, but Kuro “KuroKy” Salehi Takhasomi fell short in the third-place match and will now chase the last ticket at the WePlay! Bukovel Minor.
It was Alliance who downed Nigma to claim the third European slot, with Team Liquid and Team Secret taking out the top two.
Qualified teams: Team Liquid, Team Secret, Alliance
DreamLeague Season 13 CIS qualifiers
Not many surprises in the CIS regional qualifiers, where the two strongest teams sailed through with no major issues.
While Natus Vincere hit a bump in the road when they lost to Team Spirit in the semi-finals, they dusted themselves off quickly, defeated Gambit 2-1 and then got their revenge against Spirit to secure one of the two available tickets to Leipzig.
Joining them in Germany are Virtus.pro, who finished second to NaVi in the group stage but blitzed the knockout games with a 2-0 win over Gambit and a 2-1 result against Team Spirit.
Qualified teams: Virtus.pro, Natus Vincere
DreamLeague Season 13 South America qualifiers
It should surprise nobody that beastcoast and paiN Gaming are the two teams that will represent South America at the Leipzig Major.
Those two teams met in the upper bracket finals, where paiN secured top spot with a 2-1 victory. That put beastcoast into the lower bracket finals, where they clinched the second ticket to Germany with a 2-0 win over EgoBoyz.
FURIA Esports are still in the running for the final slot at DreamLeague Season 13, although they are considered rank outsiders for the Bukovel Minor.
Qualified teams: paiN Gaming, beastcoast
DreamLeague Season 13 North America qualifiers
Chaos Esports Club were under the spotlight in the North American qualifiers, where the former Quincy Crew roster swept their competition to secure the first spot in the Leipzig Major.
Not many people expected Chaos EC to be as dominant as they were, but Avery “SVG” Silverman and his team stormed through qualifying and lost only one map along the way.
Chaos clinched their ticket with a 2-0 win over Fighting PandaS, while Evil Geniuses won the lower bracket finals with the same scoreline.
Qualified teams: paiN Gaming, Evil Geniuses
