For the 40 teams taking part in the qualifiers, the road to The International 5 is getting steep. TI5 Chinese Qualifiers lead off on May 25, at 04:00 CEST, at the Automobile Exhibition Center in Shanghai.

UPDATE (August 9):

Evil Geniuses are your TI5 champions! Grand Finals VODS, summaries, pictures and highlights: here.

Out of the ten teams that received direct invites for The International 5, four are Chinese teams: Newbee – the reigning champions from The International 4, ViCi Gaming, LGD and Invictus Gaming.

The teams in the TI5 Chinese qualifiers have a lot to prove and will battle hard, as the winner of the qualifiers will join the ranks of the top teams in the world.

The nine teams invited to the TI5 Chinese qualifiers – E-Home, Energy Pacemakers, Newbee Young, TongFu.Wanzhou, TongFu.OldBoys, HyperGloryTeam, CDEC, ViCi Gaming Potential, and TongFu – along with one qualified team, Wings Gaming, will compete over four days to attain the coveted spot at the most prestigious event of the year.

TI5 Chinese Qualifiers format

The ten teams have been divided into two Round Robin groups of five.

Top two teams will advance to a double elimination bracket.

First place team will start in the Upper Bracket.

Runner-up team will start in the Lower Bracket.

The first place team from the TI5 Chinese Qualifiers will advance to the main event in Seattle, Washington, August 3rd through 8th, at the Key Arena.

from the TI5 Chinese Qualifiers will advance to the main event in Seattle, Washington, August 3rd through 8th, at the Key Arena. The runner-up will compete against the other regional runner-up teams in a Wild Card series in Seattle, for the final two TI5 spots.

TI5 Chinese Qualifiers streams

The TI5 Chinese qualifiers will be broadcast in English as part of the “Mega Hub” coverage provided by Twitch and the PGL studios. The Mega Hub coverage will bring 35 Dota 2 personalities under the same roof.

The following Twitch channels will provide 24/7 coverage of all of the matches:

main casting stream: TI5sange

secondary casting stream: TI5yasha

third casting stream: TI5skadi

lounge stream: TI5mango

The TI5 Chinese Qualifiers series will begin at 04:00 CEST on Monday, May 25, and end on May 29th. According to Cristian “Trance” Tamaș – Production and Partnerships Manager EMEA at Twitch, English streams will go live at 04:30 am EEST (03:30 am CEST).

Streams go live at 04:30 AM local time (EEST). — Cristian Tamaş (@Trancez0r) May 24, 2015

Chinese coverage can be found here.

TI5 Chinese Qualifiers Group A

Group A past encounters (since January 2015)

E-Home 1 : 2 Energy Pacemakers ▶ 3 matches ▶▶ 33% winrate

Energy Pacemakers ▶ 3 matches ▶▶ 33% winrate E-Home 2 : 0 Newbee.Young ▶ 2 matches ▶▶ 100% winrate

Newbee.Young ▶ 2 matches ▶▶ 100% winrate E-Home vs. TongFu.WangZhou ▶ 0 matches

TongFu.WangZhou ▶ 0 matches E-Home 2 : 0 TongFu.Oldboys ▶ 2 matches ▶▶ 100% winrate

TongFu.Oldboys ▶ 2 matches ▶▶ 100% winrate Energy Pacemakers vs. Newbee.Young ▶ 0 matches

Newbee.Young ▶ 0 matches Energy Pacemakers vs. TongFu.WangZhou ▶ 0 matches

TongFu.WangZhou ▶ 0 matches Energy Pacemakers 1 : 1 TongFu.Oldboys ▶ 2 matches ▶▶ 50% winrate

TongFu.Oldboys ▶ 2 matches ▶▶ 50% winrate Newbee.Young 2 : 0 TongFu.WangZhou ▶ 2 matches ▶▶ 100% winrate

TongFu.WangZhou ▶ 2 matches ▶▶ 100% winrate Newbee.Young vs. TongFu.OldboysB ▶ 0 matches

TongFu.OldboysB ▶ 0 matches TongFu.WangZhou vs. TongFu.Oldboys ▶ 0 matches

Based on recent performances, E-Home and Energy Pacemakers are considered to be Group A’s front runners.

E-Home

Possibly the most well-known team in the TI5 Chinese qualifiers, E-Home is one of the oldest Dota 2 organizations in China. Unlike other Chinese teams, E-Home is not part of ACE, the Association for Chinese Esports, which governs organizations, players and events in the region. Established in 2010, with Xu “BurNIng” Zhilei and Zhou “KingJ” Yang as part of the lineup, E-Home claimed 10 consecutive championships over the second half of the year. The Chinese team placed second at The International 2011 and fifth/sixth at The International 2012. The organization was not represented at TI3 or TI4 and is aiming to resurface at The International 5.

E-Home roster

“Yang” Yang Pu

“Cty” Chen Tianyu *officially listed as being on “loan” from team DK

“rOtK” Bai Fan

“LaNm” Zhang Zhicheng

“DDC” Liang Faming

Energy Pacemakers

Energy Pacemaker Gaming is fairly new to the scene. Formed in October of 2014, the team has already been showing strong potential and has had several achievements. They placed second in the Dota 2 Secondary Pro League and the MPGL Season 7 Finals and eighth at the i-League Season 3 LAN finals, where they played alongside Chinese counterparts Invictus Gaming, ViCi Gaming, ViCi Gaming Potential, LGD and Newbee.

Energy Pacemakers roster

“FaN” Yixuan Fan

“old chicken” Zhiyong Wang

“le”

“123456” Lei Meng

“lt”

Newbee.Young

Newbee was put together in early 2014, during the Chinese reshuffle that happened prior to The International 4. It was originally nicknamed “Dream Team 2” until February 2014, when the season transfer window was closed and the team was officially named Newbee. Newbee went on to win The International 4 in Seattle. In October 2014, Newbee Young – the organization’s youth squad, was established and placed seventh at the National Electronic Sports Tournament 2014, only two weeks later.

Newbee Young roster

“飘杰” Peng Renjie

“Sccc” Song Chun

“456” Yang Shihao

“MKSos” Liu Yufeng

“Mrrr” Meng Duo

TongFu.Wanzhou

TongFu Wanzhou is a Dota 2 team under TongFu’s main branch, backed by TongFu Porridge, a Chinese food company. The organization was created in September 2011 when, during the WPC-ACE League, TongFu picked up WPC Team A – one of the amateur teams in the tournament, and renamed it TongFu.WanZhou (“bowl”, the name of the porridge-product of their sponsor). On March 12, TongFu announced that it was transferring most of the players from the WanZhou squad over to the main squad and creating a new WanZhou roster.

TongFu.Wanzhou roster

“XinQ/Bestlove” Zhao Zixing

“yCyK” Pan Shuaifang

“DDR” Yuan Zhenghao

“Sayaka” Mao Mingyuan

“zExBinGo” Zeng Cong

TongFu.OldBoys

TongFu.OldBoys is another one of the five rosters under the TongFu organization. The OldBoys squad was formed in August of 2014. One month later, they placed second in the first i-League season, after defeating Virtus.Pro and then Rave, before falling to ViCi Gaming, 0:3. The OldBoy squad is named as such for having a roster of players with long Dota 2 careers, including Huang “LongDD” Xiang who placed fourth with DK at TI4, Xie “DD” Bin who placed third at TI2 and fifth at TI4 with LGD, Chen “Zhou” Yao who placed first at TI2 with Invictus Gaming and Jiang “YYF” Cen who placed first at TI2, fifth at TI3 and seventh at TI4, with Invictus Gaming.

TongFu.OldBoys

“YYF” Jiang Cen

“Zhou” Chen Yao

“DD” Xie Bin

“LongDD” Huang Xiang

“820” Zou Yitian

TI5 Chinese Qualifiers Group B

Group B past encounters (since January 2015)

CDEC 7 : 4 HyperGloryTeam ▶ 11 matches ▶▶ 63% winrate

HyperGloryTeam ▶ 11 matches ▶▶ 63% winrate CDEC 5 : 10 TongFu ▶ 15 matches ▶▶ 33% winrate

TongFu ▶ 15 matches ▶▶ 33% winrate CDEC 2 : 2 ViCi Gaming Potential ▶ 4 matches ▶▶ 50% winrate

ViCi Gaming Potential ▶ 4 matches ▶▶ 50% winrate CDEC vs. Wings Gaming ▶ 0 matches

Wings Gaming ▶ 0 matches HyperGloryTeam 6 : 5 TongFu ▶ 11 matches ▶▶ 55% winrate

TongFu ▶ 11 matches ▶▶ 55% winrate HyperGloryTeam 3 : 2 ViCi Gaming Potential ▶ 5 matches ▶▶ 60% winrate

ViCi Gaming Potential ▶ 5 matches ▶▶ 60% winrate HyperGloryTeam 1 : 0 Wings ▶ 1 match ▶▶ 100% winrate

Wings ▶ 1 match ▶▶ 100% winrate TongFu 1 : 2 ViCi Gaming Potential ▶ 3 matches ▶▶ 33% winrate

ViCi Gaming Potential ▶ 3 matches ▶▶ 33% winrate TongFu vs. Wings ▶ 0 matches

Wings ▶ 0 matches ViCi Gaming Potential vs. Wings ▶ 0 matches

The second group of the TI5 Chinese Qualifiers seems to be more balanced than the first one. HyperGloryTeam, ViCi Gaming.Potential and TongFu are neck and neck in the race for a TI5 spot.

TongFu

TongFu is one of the oldest Chinese Dota 2 organizations. They were founded in 2011 but did not have any notable achievements for the first six months. Zhao “Kabu” Kai was one of the original members and his purchase from Tyloo is one of the first examples of regulated inter-club player transfers through the Association for Chinese Esports. They were the second team, after Na’Vi, to design their own official courier. Tongfu has had numerous roster changes during the years. However, the organization managed to place first in The International 2 East Qualifiers, later placing seventh at the actual event and fourth at TI3.

TongFu

“Red” Sun Youjia

“uuu9” Xu Han

“qian” Li Wenyao

“lpc” Luo Puchao

“Kabu” Zhao Kai

HyperGloryTeam

WPC Team B (Heart Get Together) and WPC Team A (later to become TongFu.Wanzhou) were given three weeks of training and coaching in Shanghai before the start of the new season of WPC Ace League, after having qualified through the amateur qualifiers. By the time the tournament began, WPC Team B had unofficially and with no prior announcements gained the initials “HGT”. It was later revealed that they were being backed up by “Heart Get Together”, a Chinese clothing line. In March 2014, the team announced its new name, “Hyper Glory Team”, and a roster including veteran Gong “ZSMJ” Jian. The team would take part in TI4 regional qualifiers but place fifth. This is their second time in The International qualifiers. The team placed fifth/sixth in the MarsTV Dota 2 League Chinese qualifiers, seventh/eighth at Dota 2 Asia Championships (DAC), second in i-League Season 2 and fifth-eighth at the World E-sport Championships, in 2014.

HyperGloryTeam roster

“ZSMJ” Gong Jian

“Air” Yin Yuxiao

“xtt” Xu Xuntao

“kaka” Hu Liangzhi

“PrettyHaw” Zhao Jiabin

CDEC

In October 2014, the former LGD Gaming youth squad – LGD.CDEC, left the organization in order to create a new independent club called CDEC Gaming. The entire roster remained intact for the transition. Starting in January, a few roster changes took place with the last being the addition of shiki and Xz. The team placed 13th-16th at the Dota 2 Asia Championships (DAC), fourth in the Dota 2 League Season 5, after falling 1:2 to NA team Evil Geniuses, second place in the 2014 G-League, after dropping 1:3 to their former organization, LGD Gaming, second at the National Electronic Sports Open 2014, after being knocked down, 1:3, to Newbee, and third at the MSI Beat IT, in 2014.

CDEC roster

“Agressif” Sun Zheng

“Shiki” Huang Jiwei

“Xz” Chen Zezhi

“Garder” Liu Xinzhou

“Q” Fu Bin

ViCi Gaming Potential

Vici Gaming was formed in October 2012. After the success of the main squad in 2014 and 2015, the organization announced the expansion of the club to include a youth squad. The team placed seventh at the recent i-League Season 3 LAN finals, in Shanghai.

ViCi Gaming Potential roster

“xll” Huo Xiaole

“Yang” Zhou Haiyang

“Lin” Xu Ziyang

“dogfight” Gao Tianpeng

“James” Zhou Yifu

Wings Gaming

Wings Gaming is the only team competing after having acquired their spot by qualifying through the TI5 open qualifiers. Wings Gaming was originally formed in August 2014. Their current member “hdhp-cqc” was part of the original squad. In October 2014, three members left and were not replaced until January. The next few months were riddled with player changes and instability, until April when “super” Su Peng and “InJuly” Yang Xiaodong left Team DK and joined along with “xdd” Liu Silong. The team placed fifth-eigth at the National Electronic Sports Tournament 2014 and won the TI5 Chinese Open Qualifiers.

Wings Gaming roster

“xdd” Liu Silong

“hdhp-cqc”

“InJuly” Yang Xiaodong

“super” Su Peng

“jdh”

The International 5

The International 5 is being held August 3rd through 8th at the Key Arena, in Seattle, Washington, the same venue as last year. The Key Arena has a total seating capacity of over 17,000. The total prize-pool has so far reached $8,948,932.