ESTNN Dota 2 Writer Veselin Ignatov walks us through the last DPC Minor before TI 9.

The ESL One Birmingham seemed like yet another walk in the park for Team Secret. Despite the fact that the event finished just a few days ago, a new tournament is already on the horizon. However, this time it is also included in the DPC calendar, which makes it a lot more valuable for some of the teams.

The StarLadder ImbaTV Dota 2 Minor Season 2 is going to be the last Minor for this DPC season. Beside the DPC points, it’s also very important due to the fact that the top two teams will also earn a slot for the EPICENTER Major, which is also the last Major and the last chance for some teams to qualify for the biggest event in Dota 2 - The International 2019. So far, eight out of twelve slots are already set, which indicates that there are four more to go.

This is going to be the second Minor for this DPC season organized by StarLadder. The event will take place from 12th to 16th of June in Kiev, Ukraine. Similar to the other Minors, the prize pool will be $300,000.

Teams

There will be a total of eight teams from all regions.

Europe

Ninjas in Pyjamas is one of the two European teams at StarLadder. Their performance has gradually improved as the season has gone on, which is clearly a very positive sign for them. In fact, they are currently in 8th place in the DPC ranking, which means that they have already secured themselves a spot for TI. What’s more, NiP also won the last Minor that they went to - Dota Pit, which makes them one of the deadliest squads here.

The second European team is Alliance. They were able to get a slot for the Minor after defeating The Final Tribe in the LB qualifiers. Considering the current placement of the team, they definitely need to get that slot for EPICENTER. Should they manage to do that, their next goal should be a good placement there. That’s the only possible way to this year's TI as a direct invite. If they fail to qualify directly, they`d have to go through the regional qualifiers and as we know, they are not always the safest path.

North America

Since Valve reduced the number of NA slots, the only team to defend ‘Murica is Complexity. They had a very hard qualifier to go through, having to deal with the likes of beastcoast and J.storm. Despite that, the end result was in their favor.

CoL has only 133 DPC points right now, which makes their road to TI very, very hard. Regardless of that, nothing is impossible in Dota as it’s been proven many times.

South America

Team Anvorgesa is the chosen one to defend the South American pride in Kiev. The young squad was able to deal with some of the biggest SA teams during the qualifiers. The StarLadder Minor is going to give them a lot of experience which will definitely help them out in the future.

CIS

It seems like this year was definitely not favoring Natus Vincere. The TI 1 Champions were just unable to recover after Dendi’s departure, even though many people blamed him for their underperformance. This Minor was some glimmer of hope for the Ukrainians but they couldn’t deal with Winstrike.

The Russian team is back on the big stage after they missed out on several events. In fact, they nearly made it through the EPICENTER qualifiers until they met Virtus.Pro. The CIS powerhouse was able to sweep through them and eventually ended up winning the qualifiers.

China

Similar to Europe, two teams will defend the Chinese banner in Ukraine. The first one is EHOME, one of the strongest teams when it comes down to Minors.

EHOME are currently occupying the last spot which gives a direct invite for TI 9. However, in order to secure it, they need to get a top-two finish here. If they fail to do so, getting to TI through the qualifiers will not be possible.

Many people thought that the second Chinese team is going to be Keen Gaming. Little did they know, Team Sirius had other plans. They were able to pull off an amazing comeback in the LB of the qualifiers against KG. This will be the first DPC tournament for Sylar and his team-mates for this season.

Southeast Asia

Sadly, the days where Mineski was one of the best teams in the world are long gone. They are currently in a very similar state to Alliance. The SEA team needs to win at all cost if they want to have a chance of getting a direct invite.

Their biggest accomplishment so far is getting a 2nd place at ESL One Mumbai. However, this wasn’t a DPC event, which means that they didn’t earn any points from it.

Conclusion

StarLadder ImbaTV Dota 2 Minor Season 2 starts in just six days from now. Make sure to watch the games because they are surely going to be worthwhile.

In the meantime, feel free to follow us on Facebook and Twitter for the latest esports news.

Image VIA: StarLadder