The qualifying stage of ROG MASTERS is complete. EHOME.X and MAX.X are China’s Dota 2 champions, and B.O.O.T and 5Power Club hold its CS:GO hopes. The fifth and final regional Quali-fier gave us great surprises – perplexing Dota 2 picks played to perfection; game-turning CS:GO clutches; rookies taking Grand Finals places from under pro teams – the winners have much to be proud of.
Now the time has come to anticipate and prepare for the level of competition they will face at the Offline Grand Finals in Kuala Lumpur. Come November 10-13th, champions of five regions – from nine countries – will show the globe what they’ve got. 200,000 USD, international recogni-tion, and the honor of being debut ROG MASTERS title holders: all is to play for. Will they give it their all?
Game Qualifier Winners
EHOME.X
MAX.X
B.O.O.T
5Power Club
EHOME.X and MAX.X secure hard-fought Dota 2 top spots
With their sister team MAX.Y knocked out early, team MAX.X was left to represent and keep their organization in the game. Going into their first match against T.O.T., MAX.X’s picks con-fused casters and opponents alike, but turned out to be superior choices very quickly. Con-stantly avoiding the enemy Faceless Void and cautiously snowballing their advantage, MAX.X closed out an almost perfect game after 25 minutes and secured the first Chinese ticket to Kuala Lumpur.
The second bracket featured the renowned organization EHOME with their branch squad EHOME.X which was expected to dominate throughout the qualifier. In their early game against LYG.Gaming, however, the favorites did not live up to their expectations. Despite doing well in fights, EHOME.X’s players farmed less than LYG and fell behind when their Juggernaut caught up in gold. While EHOME.X’s Invoker played the match of his life, their Sven struggled big time in the jungle, making it even harder for them to come back into the game. Thanks to the out-standing Invoker performance, EHOME.X eventually fought their way back and secured their Grand Finals spot after almost 40 minutes.
Meet China’s CS:GO representatives – B.O.O.T and 5Power Club
The CS:GO scene in China has had its ups and downs, so expectations on the Qualifier weekend were curious. With 5Power Club facing ZDM-Gaming, viewers were not disappointed. ZDM had already taken out LDG Gaming, but 5Power had the skills to deal with them: locking horns on the first map and closing out 16:14, 5Power Club sealed the deal with a 16-4 rampage on map two. In their semi-finals match against NEW4, however, 5Power got overrun in the first map and ended up 8:16, so for them, it all came down to preventing a loss on Cache. By scoring 16:7 on the second and 16:1 on the third map, 5Power Club set a warning example to all other finalists who’ll be facing them in Kuala Lumpur. The second bracket had B.O.O.T coming up strong. After winning against the odds against Born of Fire, casters and community saw them as the underdog coming into the quarterfinals. Against HG Clan, B.O.O.T maintained the momentum and managed to secure the first map with a clear 16:7. The second map, however, turned out to be a much closer fight, with both teams struggling to subdue the other. The overtime was just one round away, when B.O.O.T finally closed out with 16:14, securing themselves the well-deserved last Grand Finals spot in the tournament.
Get ready for the final confrontation
Come November 12th and 13th, the Chinese teams will face their adversaries – Mongolian and Australian veterans, Vietnamese up-and-comers, Indian and Singaporean sharpshooters. Clashing before a live audience for a share of 200,000 USD and the historic title of debut ROG MASTERS champions, the fighting is sure to be intense.