In what may have been the shortest qualifier run of all time, North American squad Prestige World Wide is one step closer to 2017’s first Dota 2 Major, despite not playing a single game in the qualifier.
Prestige World Wide was the only team that signed up to compete in the SEA Champions Cup, making them the de facto winners. They’ll next compete in the regional qualifier—one step away from the major itself.
Interestingly, Prestige consists solely of North American players who were all invited to partake in the North American Champions Cup. But because the team relocating to the SEA region, they were allowed to compete in the SEA edition, according to joinDOTA.
The low turnout is, however, most likely due to the fact that the first open qualifier for the Kiev Major started earlier today, and features practically every major team from SEA. That means the Champions Cup seemed to be almost unanimously less of a priority for the professional teams in the region. Additionally, few teams have signed up for the Champion Cup’s European and North American counterparts as well.
Hosted by third-party matchmaking service FaceIt, the Champions Cup is a regional series of online competitions featuring the highest rated players from Valve’s own integrated Battle Cup tournaments. The victors of each Champions Cup will then be competing in their respective regional qualifiers for a spot at the $3 million tournament, which takes place between April 27 to 30.
