The six MLG Columbus teams confirmed, Hellraisers withdraw

Following some visa issues, Hellraisers have forfeited their chance to participate in MLG Columbus. With this, the six teams attending the tournament have been decided.

The question of which three teams will advance from the European qualifiers is resolved without the planned best of one between Empire and Hellraisers being played out. Hellrasiers player Dulat 'goddam' Seidimomyn has received information that he will not be able to acquire his visa before the tournament in the event that they qualify, resulting in HR forfeiting the chance to play at the lan finals to be held from the 10th to the 12th of April in Columbus, USA at the MLG arena; this means that the three who advance from the European qualifiers are Empire, BBC and NiP. This being BBC's first international lan, they will probably going into this tournament as the dark horse.

This news comes as a breathe of relief for Empire as they have just avoided playing a best of one, prime ground for an upset, against Hellraisers. Although Hellraisers have been putting up a sub par performance this month with a win-draw-loss of 2/5/4, they have taken games off top European teams, managing a draw with Empire 1-1 in the Dota Pit League Season 3 and a 1-1 draw with NiP in the D2CL.

With the six teams participating in the tournament confirmed, the hype jumps to another level as the tournament draws closer with many hoping it will be as great as its previous season where it featured an upset pulled by Cloud9 (former Speed Gaming) against DK in the finals. This being the second ever Dota2 tournament hosted by MLG in Columbus, all eyes will be on whether they have learnt from previous tournaments and the first MLG to bring this second edition to greater heights.

Teams participating in MLG Columbus:

Ninjas in Pyjamas

Empire

Balkan Bear Colrleone

Evil Geniuses

Not Today

Rave

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