Not everyone gets a direct invite to TI, we take a look at six players to keep your eyes on during the upcoming regional qualifiers.

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The International 2022 will take place this October in Singapore. After the PGL Arlington Major 2022 ended, we already know the names of the first twelve participants. Teams like PSG.LGD and OG secured enough DPC points to be on the list, but many other clubs were not so lucky.

Since there are eight more slots for the event, the qualifications for The International will begin a couple of weeks from now. This is the last chance for some of the top teams that barely missed out to secure a slot for the biggest Dota 2 event in history. We are yet to see the new Battle Pass, but once it becomes available, we assume the TI 2022’s prize pool will be astronomical.

With that being said, this article will be dedicated to some of the top Dota 2 players who could not yet receive a direct invitation. Some of them were unlucky, whereas others were not even close.

Roman “RAMZES666” Kushnarev

The 23-year-old Dota 2 prodigy from Russia has been ap art of all sorts of top-tier eSports teams over the years. However, he finally decided to come back to Virtus.Pro and competed under the name Outsiders. While it is true that the team had some pretty good results, it failed to qualify for TI.

What’s even more annoying is that VP needed one point ot secure the 12th Major slot. Sadly, the team failed to do that, which means that RAMZESS will have to compete in the qualifiers.

The good news about Outsiders is that Team Spirit is one of the twelve teams that got a slot for the event. Even though there are a couple of other dangerous names, Virtus.Pro should be the big favorite to secure the slot from Eastern Europe.

Syed “SumaiL” Hassan 

There are a couple of TI winners that we won’t have the chance to watch this year (at least not yet), and one of them is SumaiL. The 23-year-old mid laner became one of the youngest players to win TI in 2015 with his team EG. His Storm Spirit and overall mid-lane skills carried the team and made him one of the best in the world.

Unfortunately, after SumaiL decided to change his team, things haven’t been that good. The player spent some time in OG, Quincy Crew, Team Liquid, and even Team Secret. In the end, the mid-lane monster decided to join Nigma Galaxy, just when the team was relegated to Division II.

Unsurprisingly, Nigma had no problems going out from there, but it had no chances of getting a TI invite. Therefore, SumaiL and the rest of his team will have to compete in the qualifiers in the most competitive Dota 2 region. 

Aside from SumaiL, almost every other member of Nigma should be on this list because this team won TI in 2017. Hopefully, we will be able to see the best in the world really soon.

Volodymyr “Noone” Minenko

The next name on the list may surprise some of you, but Noone has always been a name to be reckoned with. VP’s ex-mid-laner is one of the most popular and skilled players in CIS, but his current team, Natus Vincere, failed to live up to the expectations.

Noone used to be one of the most important players for VP a couple of years ago. However, once he was moved to the inactive roster, the player decided to try his luck elsewhere. Naturally, he played for the second-best CIS team at the time – Gambit. The bad news is that he only stayed there for a month before moving to Na’Vi.

Natus Vincere is not on the same level as it was 10 years ago, but it is getting better. The team was able to qualify for the PGL Arlington Major 2022, which was its first big event in a while. Now, they will have to go up against the likes of Outsiders to secure a slot for The International 2022.

Clement “Puppey” Ivanov

Speaking of legendary Dota 2 players, we have to mention one of the oldest and most experienced pros in the scene – Puppey. Unlike other top-tier players, this one has been on the same team for numerous years. After being a part of the legendary Natus Vincere roster, Puppey moved to Team Secret, and he’s been there ever since.

Puppey switched all sorts of players over the years. Although TS used to be the best in Europe, the last couple of years haven’t been that good for them. This is definitely true for 2022 because Team Secret missed out on a lot of things.

Most recently, Puppey and the rest could not qualify for the PGL Arlington Major because they lost against Entity.  Secret does not have enough DPC points to be in the top 12, so it will have to try its luck in the open quals. Sadly, this is where it has to play against the likes of Nigma and Liquid.

Artour “Arteezy” Babaev

Evil Geniuses is probably one of the biggest disappointments in this DPC because the team just didn’t live up to what people were expecting. Despite having one of the strongest rosters in terms of individual skills, EG always lacks something to succeed.

After the early elimination in Sweden and losing in R1 of the LB in Arlington, Evil Geniuses missed out on the direct invitations. This means that Arteezy, one of the world’s most popular Dota 2 core players, won’t be able to play in the event, at least not yet.

EG will have to fight against the likes of nouns and Quincy Crew in the qualifiers, which will take a couple of weeks. TSM is the only North American team that secured a slot for TI, mainly because the team reached the Grand Final in Sweden.

Lu “Somnus” Yao

Also known as Maybe, this is probably one of the most recognizable and strongest mid-laners in China. He has been a part of the legendary LGD roster that dominated the international scene for many years. However, after the team failed to win TI, he and a couple of other players decided to make a move to another team.

Maybe spent a few months playing for different squads, but in the end, he found his way in Royal Never Give Up. Even though RNGU won Tour 3 of the 2021/2022 DPC in China, the team did not accumulate enough points to secure an invite for TI. Consequently, it will have to play against the likes of Xtreme Gaming, Vici Gaming, EHOME, and other top Chinese teams.

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