EHOME qualify for ESL One Los Angeles Major
EHOME, a Chinese Dota 2 team secured the final ticket leading to ESL One Los Angeles Dota 2 Major via the Chinese Major qualifiers, which concluded this Monday, February 17.
EHOME became the third Chinese Dota 2 team besides Royal Never Give Up and Invictus Gaming to secure themselves a spot in the third Dota Pro Circuit Major of 2019/20 season with a convincing run through Chinese qualifiers. ESL One Los Angeles Major will be EHOME's second Major tournament of the season, having previously attended MDL Chengdu Major, where they finished at the bottom of the field.
Shortly after EHOME's poor run through the first Dota 2 Major of the season, the Chinese squad made a few roster changes, which saw the departure of Cheng "vtFaded" Jia Hao to Cloud9, while Tang "897" Zhirui was moved to the inactive roster. As their replacements, EHOME signed former Alpha x Hashtag solo middle Cheng "NothingToSay" Jin Xiang and ex-Team Sirius carry/support Liu "Sylar" Jiajun.
Sylar was perhaps the biggest addition to the team, seeing how he is a prominent name in the Dota 2 pro scene, having previously played for some of the strongest teams in China, including LGD Gaming, ViCi Gaming, and Team Aster. Sylar already played for EHOME between September 2016 to January 2017, before he left for VGJ.Thunder. NothingToSay on the other side never played for any major team besides his short stay at Geek Fam between June and August 2019. He later played for Alpha x Hashtag, but left the team shortly before Alpha x Hashtag disbanded.
With a new roster, EHOME looked much better and made a deep run in the DreamLeague Season 13 China Closed Qualifier, where they narrowly missed out on securing a ticket for Leipzig Major, following a 0-2 defeat against Team Aster in the third-place match. In December, EHOME also finished third at WePlay! Bukovel Minor 2020 China Qualifier and seventh-eighth at World Electronic Sports Games 2019 China Finals.
As for their run at ESL One Los Angeles 2020 China Closed Qualifier, EHOME got off to a strong start in Group A; where they bested Avengerls, Keen Gaming and Looking For Smile. Although they lost (0-2) against Invictus Gaming, EHOME comfortably secured the second seed of the group and a direct pass into the playoffs.
In the first match of playoffs, EHOME clashed with Royal Never Give Up, who swept them 0-2. That said, EHOME did not make it easy for Royal Never Give Up, who needed 49:29 and 57:19 minutes respectively to derail the new-look EHOME. After losing to Royal Never Give Up, EHOME entered the third-place match, where they met with an old enemy Team Aster, who previously denied them a spot at Leipzig Major.
Searching for their revenge against Aster, EHOME entered the series with all guns blazing and edged past their adversaries in two series, to secure the final ticket for Los Angeles Major, while sending Aster to StarLadder ImbaTV Minor qualifier.
The Chinese qualifiers were slated to be played earlier, however, were delayed due to the new coronavirus outbreak. Seeing how the outbreak was not yet contained, it's fair to expect the Chinese teams will continue to struggle with acquiring travelling visas. As reported, the United States is not too keen on handing Chinese esports athletes their visas, which could cause some serious ramifications for Chinese squads that qualified for LA Major.
While nothing is confirmed as of yet, there is a serious possibility the Chinese teams will not be able to enter the United States, meaning Royal Never Give Up, Invictus Gaming and EHOME will not be able to take part at the Los Angeles Major. That will also have serious consequences in DPC rankings and a lot of problems for the organisers, who will have to find suitable replacements for the missing teams.
As it stands now, there is still one more spot open for the ESL One Los Angeles Major, which will be awarded to the champions of StarLadder ImbaTV Dota 2 Minor Season 3 event. The Minor is slated to begin on March 5, and it will feature eight teams from six regions, who failed to make it through the Major qualifiers.
Present at the tournament will be: Gambit Esports, forZe, Fighting PandaS, Alliance, Boom Esports, NoPing e-sports, Team Aster, as well as business associates, which is a stack of players that previously played under J.Storm.
