The Dota 2 International main qualifiers are well under way, and teams are starting to earn that spot in the biggest Valve tournament of the year. The first to earn a spot through the qualifiers was a team from the Philippines TNC Pro Team. When teams qualify, they’re undoubtedly filled with jubilation. Luckily for us, TNC caught their instant reactions on video.
TNC was tied for top of their group with another Southeast Asian (SEA) team, Fnatic. Each team with a 7-1 record, the winner of the match would take the top spot and guarantee a spot in the International Tournament. After TNC won, they … uh … totally lost their minds. Watch:
They have plenty of reason to be excited. More specifically, they have 19 million reasons, as the Dota 2 International Prize pool has just crossed $19.6 million, and, because of crowdfunding, will continue to grow until the International starts in August.
While certainly not a favorite, TNC has made waves at big tournaments before, the most noteworthy of which was their upset win over OG last year, which many people consider one of the biggest Dota 2 upsets of all time. While they didn’t go much further than that, TNC still took home a very pretty $519,000 prize. Since anyone who qualifies or is invited to the International gets paid out at least some prize money (last year the 16th place received $100,000), TNC has plenty to celebrate.
