The International 2019 participating team roster is now fully known, unlike the final prize pool size since it's nearing $30 million and has about one month to go, until 15 August 2019. Fortnite World Cup prize pool will be dethroned.
Regional qualifiers for The International 2019 are wrapped up now, revealing the final six participants of Dota 2's main event for the year. The teams that qualified are as follows:
- Forward Gaming (North America)
- Infamous (South America)
- Chaos Esports Club (Europe)
- Natus Vincere (Commonwealth of Independent States)
- Royal Never Give Up (China)
- Mineski (Southeast Asia)
The tournament will have 18 teams in total and the previous 12 that already qualified are:
- Team Secret
- Virtus.pro
- Vici Gaming
- Evil Geniuses
- Team Liquid
- PSG.LGD
- Fnatic
- Ninjas in Pyjamas
- TNC Predator
- OG
- Alliance
- Keen Gaming
MOBA popularity in China has been extremely high in the past few years, which eventually resulted with them winning League of Legends World Championship in 2018 and it seems like they are dominating Dota 2 as well now.
The vast majority of players participating The International 2019 are Chinese, with 18 in total which is twice as many as those coming from Philipines, the second most represented country of the tournament. It is still nine Chinese players less than in The International 2018.
Technically, Europe would have the most representation but it consists of many countries across which the players are dispersed across various countries, with Sweden having the most players, six in total.
The International 2019's prize pool was at $28.9 million at the time of writing with one month to go until the tournament starts.
Valve
Now it looks inevitable that Dota 2 will once again become the game with the highest prize pool for a single tournament after it was temporarily dethroned by Fortnite World Cup for which Epic Games dished out $30 million in total.
Still, it is worth noting that it is mostly Dota 2 player base funding the prize pool through the 25 per cent cut from the Battle Pass sales.
Dota 2 - The International 2018 - Group phase teams
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