A look at the North American Dota 2 scene ahead of the NA regional qualifiers for The Internationals

The regional qualifiers for the final Dota 2 TI slots are in full swing.

Two regions have already declared their Dota 2 champions. Team Spirit has taken up the designated CIS regional slot, while Brazilian team SG Esports have managed to beat all the favorites in the South America region for their TI ticket.

This week's qualifier fixtures determine the fate of Dota 2 teams in the North American region, who previously failed to qualify for TI through the DPC leaderboard rankings.

The state of competitive Dota 2 in NA is often the target of derision from commentators and players alike. Analyst Brian ‘BSJ’ Canavan is particularly vocal about it, with him also being an integral part of the NA Dota community.

The limitations of the North American pro Dota 2 status quo

Despite the long presence of a North American pro-Dota 2 scene, it did not blow up as much compared to the EU or other regions. An argument can be made citing its lower Dota 2 player count overall.

Some also point to the lack of an objective-oriented approach to Dota in the NA pubs culture.

Of course, this does not translate to a lack of individual talents or skill. The issue seems to be a scarcity of good support players compared to other regions.

At any rate, there is a perceptible inadequacy in the current NA-region pro teams as opposed to the standard of tier-2 Dota 2 play in EU or SEA.

As a result, there is a chasm in terms of skill between the top 5 Dota 2 teams and the teams after that. The game's summit boasts teams like Quincey Crew and Evil Geniuses (both have already cleared their path to TI 2021).

The other end of the spectrum contains Arkosh Gaming, a controversial 'meme team', which is speculated to be a stack of known NA-region casters and analysts (including BSJ, Jason ‘Newsham’, and Andrew ‘Jenkins’ Jenkins).

hey @SirActionSlacks @masondota @Aui_2000 don't let me down got a lot of points riding on this pic.twitter.com/0SHyA8NeCH

— Sammy (@SammyboyGG) June 19, 2021

Which team is most likely to make it to TI?

The upcoming qualifier will be a clash of relatively new teams. Most of these were registered either this year or 2020, including a reformed S A D B O Y S who currently feature Jacky ‘EternaLEnVy’ Mao after the recent series of intra-region roster shuffles.

The current favorites are the popular "Team Undying". They likely have the best position 4 and 5 players on the current NA scene - David ‘MoonMeander’ Boon Yang Tan and DooYoung ‘DuBu’ Kim.

With consistent performances against the top NA teams in the regional leagues, Undying are also the third highest in terms of DPC points after TI-bound Quincey Crew and EG.

Other than Undying, the All-American team "4 Zoomers" are also strong contenders having shown good form of late.

The North America qualifiers begin at the end of this month.