In just five weeks, on August 15th, The International 2019 is scheduled to begin in Shanghai, China. Twelve teams are already invited while six others need to go through regional qualifiers. In this article, I will take a look at the North American region and its competitors. The TI 9 NA Qualifiers take place between July 11th – 14th. Are you ready?

TI 9 NA Qualifiers Participants

The eight participants for NA Qualifiers are the following:

• J.Storm
• Forward Gaming
• Complexity Gaming
• bestcoast
• Team Xolotl
• Kookaburra
• Swaaag
• Black Sheep

The first four of these teams got direct invitations to be here. The other four had to go through Open Qualifiers. As usual, two Open Qualifiers took place and the best two teams from each of them moved forward. Unlike the European region, where over 600 teams enlisted, only around 150 teams were present at each of the North American tournaments that preceded the Regional Qualifiers for TI 9.

To be fair, that’s no surprise considering the fact that the battle is pretty much over before it even starts. Either Forward Gaming or J.Storm will most likely win the tournament, with everyone else except perhaps Complexity Gaming having zero chances of winning the only TI spot reserved for this region.

TI 9 NA Qualifiers Team Analysis

Here’s a brief analysis of the most important competitors in this tournament.

J.Storm

J.Storm is likely the strongest team at this event, having five amazing players, a highly skilled captain and an equally experienced coach. The entire roster is off-the-charts when it comes to individual talent. The only question is: can they play together as a unit and succeed against some of the other great competitors?

J.Storm’s biggest weakness is their lack of experience. Their position five support, 1437, joined the team less than three weeks ago and their carry and midlaner have only been around for a couple months. So overall, there’s no real data to look at and analyze. The only thing that can be said for certain is that the roster has huge potential. The six members are the following, in the order of their played position:

Resolut1on is the carry and his accomplishments as a player speak for themselves: 2nd place at The International 2016, 2nd place at MDL Changsha Major (2018) and 7th – 8th at The International 2018, among many other top results. He’s been playing professionally for over six years and during this time he’s been a member of six influential teams, including his current one. For a tournament of this level, Resolut1on is more than a superstar and will likely carry his team to the Grand Final, if not TI.

Nine is the team’s midlaner and the first German player to reach 9000 MMR. He first became known while playing for PENTA Sports and is now ready to help his new team succeed. In terms of results, he’s had many victories in small tournaments from the EU/CIS regions, but nothing notable at the international level. Still, he’s a pub superstar and much like Miracle in his early days, shows a lot of potential as a midlaner.

Moo plays the offlane role these days. Overall, he’s a TI finalist but his only notable results this season were a 7th – 8th place at DreamLeague Season 11 (this was a Major) and the 1st place at WSOE 6: Dota 2 Serenity’s Destiny. In J.Storm’s current roster, Moo has the advantage of having played with Resolut1on before. So at least in that regard, the team’s cohesion should be slightly better.

Fear is the team’s roamer and captain, and one of the most decorated players in Dota 2. He’s also one of the oldest. Having won The International four years ago, as well as a Major and many other tournaments, he is an encyclopedia of Dota 2 tactics and strategies.

1437 is the team’s position five support. He’s not the captain, although he is known to be highly skilled at drafting and coordinating his teams during games. His best results over the last several years have been a 5th – 8th place at The Boston Major 2016, a 9th – 12th place at The International 2017, the 1st place at China Top 2017, a 2nd place at MDL Macau and the 1st place at DreamLeague Season 10 (this happened at the start of the current season).

And finally, we have DeMoN, who is the team’s coach. Over the course of his career, his best results were the 4th place at TI 1 and a 7th – 8th place at TI 6. As a coach, he’s credited for helping J.Storm achieve a 7th – 8th place at the DreamLeague Season 11 Major.

Overall, a quick look at J.Storm clearly shows you that this team is here to win. Whether or not they can do it depends on their cohesion. The only two teams that can beat them are Forward Gaming and Complexity Gaming, and they’ll have to play their best in order to succeed.

Forward Gaming

In 2018-2019, Forward Gaming played in four of the five DPC Majors but their results were worse than what they probably wanted: two 9th – 12th places and two 13th – 16th places. Not amazing, but the mere act of participating at so many Majors clearly proves something. Their place at the top of the NA region cannot be contested.

Forward Gaming’s current roster is not the one they started the season with. Only two of the players are still active members of the team. Apart from YawaR, who’s playing the carry role, and MSS, who’s playing as position four, everyone is relatively new. The midlaner and the offlaner joined at the end of March while the captain joined at the end of April.

In terms of individual skill and what they’ve shown so far as a unit, the roster has decent potential and is a serious threat for both J.Storm and Complexity Gaming. YawaR is Sumail’s older brother, and that’s enough said about him. CCnC played alongside ppd last season and showed great skill at OpTic Gaming. Sneyking is a very experienced offlaner who finished 7th – 8th at The International last year, with VGJ.Storm. MSS was also part of that roster and plays position four roamer. And pieliedie, the team’s captain, is a former Major champion. He’s famous for his two seasons at Team Secret and his amazing performances with Cloud9, back when C9 was a giant in Dota 2.

I expect Forward Gaming to finish either 2nd or 1st. Their most likely rival in the Grand Final will be J.Storm.

Complexity Gaming

This is the third best competitor in the tournament but their chances are marginal compared to the first two. Col had very poor results this season, being completely dominated by the three big names in North America: EG, Forward and J.Storm. At every qualifier for a Major, they failed. The only exception was MDL Paris, where they placed 9th – 12th.

There’s not that can be said about Complexity’s results this season, except that they weren’t great. But in terms of individual talent, the team does have good players with a lot of experience in its roster. Practically, everyone’s a veteran. Another big advantage for Complexity is the group cohesion they’ve developed throughout the season. Unlike J.Storm and Forward Gaming, they’ve only made one roster change in the last few months. The rest of the team has been playing together for more than seven months. That’s a reasonable duration in Dota 2.

Complexity’s strongest player is Limmp. He plays mid and was even the highest MMR player in the world at one point. Currently, he’s ranked 3rd on the American servers and has a decent chance of helping his team to reach the Grand Final at this tournament. Of course, it will be very tough for Col to achieve such a result, but the chances are there.

Kookaburra

And finally, we have Kookaburra. This is the fourth and final relevant team in these qualifiers. Being a newly formed squad, they have no results to speak of, except for the fact that they’ve survived the Open Qualifiers. But in terms of individual talent, the team does have some big names in it. In particular, I would mention Moonmeander and Kingrd.

Moonmeander is a former member of OG. He played for them in their first season and won two Majors. As an offlaner, he’s known for his amazing Earthshaker skills, as well as his versatility. A player like him can make a big difference on any team.

Kingrd is an exceptional roamer and an accomplished Brazilian player. As a former member of paiN Gaming, he placed 2nd at WESG 2017-2018 and 3rd at ESL One Birmingham 2018. He also took part in The International 2018, where unfortunately he got eliminated at the end of the Group Stage.

All things considered, Kookaburra does have a small chance of doing well at this qualification tournament, but I wouldn’t put much hope into their ability to qualify for The International 2019.

That takes care of our preview and team analysis for the TI 9 NA Qualifiers! Stay tuned for more International 2019 coverage including the Chinese and European Qualifiers soon!