Qualifiers for The Boston Major happened this weekend, and fans were shocked when Team Liquid were defeated both by Greek team Ad Finem and Russian side Virtus.pro, the latter of which eliminated them.
Teams from China, Europe, North America and South East Asia all competed in qualifiers to grab a place in the last 16 and the chance to compete for $3.1 million US dollars.
Team Secret also saw unexpected defeats, and like Team Liquid were fan favourites. Both teams did change up their rosters after The International 6 in August, however, with Liquid adding Amer "Miracle-" Al-Barkawi in place of Adrian "FATA-" Trinks. Secret, on the other hand, almost completely switched up their roster.
Virtus.pro's success makes them the only Russian-speaking team at the Boston major, and Mineski and WarriorsGaming.Unity also saw somewhat unexpected success, beating Fnatic who did not pass the group stage.
Elsewhere, in Chinese qualifiers, two youth teams, Invictus Gaming.Youth and LGD.ForeverYoung, also surprised everyone by making their way past both full rosters who also competed in qualifiers.
North America, however, saw a less dramatic qualifier, as Team NP and compLexity progressed as expected. Some controversy occurred, however, when European teams qualified after playing in these North American pre-qualifiers, seemingly exploiting the lack of specific criteria from Valve regarding where a team must be based in order to compete.
The full list of teams and details can be found here. Does this not get you in the mood for The Boston Major, Valve's last major tournament of the year?