The Boston Major is less than a month away, each team is making it a point earn their right to make the trip to Massachusetts. This weekend's Summit 6 might be the best opportunity for the eight teams to work out the issues in their strategies and study what plays the other teams might go for.
The Summit 6 will be the only LAN that leads up to December, with the highlight of having only Boston qualified teams as participants. Invited are the top three of the last International, along with talented invites and those that have qualified. According to ESPN, the prize pool will be $100,000 and a step up in morale for the first major of the 2017 season.
The teams that have been given direct invites are:
TI16 Champions Wings Gaming
TI16 second placers Digital Chaos
TI15 Champions Evil Geniuses
2016 Manila Major Champions OG
The teams to look out for are clearly Wings Gaming, Digital Chaos and Evil Geniuses who have finished first, second and third respectively in the last Internationals. While OG's quest for TI16 was cut short by TNC, they have however dominated the off-season, making them viable for a direct invite.
The teams that are in the Qualifiers are:
EHOME
Team Faceless
Virtus.Pro
Team NP
Many were surprised by EHOME's direct invite to the 2016 Boston Major, but their remarkable performance in The Summit justified their direct invite. EHOME was able to advance seamlessly through qualifiers in the upper bracket, losing only one game in the entirety of the tournament. EHOME garnering third place in Montreal at the BEAT Invitational also helped.
Meanwhile, Virtus.pro has proven to be formidable in the European region. Toppling crowd favorites such as Team Secret and Team Liquid, earning them a place in the Boston Major.
Coming from Southeast Asia, Team Faceless has been a silent success, and continuously surpassing dominant Asian teams. Led by DOTA 2 veteran, Daryl "iceiceice" Koh Pei Xiang, Team Faceless may prove to be quite a challenge in the Boston Major.
Formed from the controversial Team Secret falling out, in a report by CybBet, Jacky "EternaLEnVy" Mao has been leading a team of North American pros called Team NP and eyeing the top spot at the Boston Major. With their hunger to prove themselves as an unpredictable threath, Team NP could be the dark horse in the tournament.