The players that will play in their very first TI at TI11 in Singapore

Yahoo Esports SEA
Updated ·5 min read
A total of 37 players will be playing in The International for the first time at The International 11, marking the entry of a new generation of Dota 2 professional players. Pictured: OG bzm and ATF, BOOM Esports Yopaj, BetBoom Team Daxak, Thunder Awaken Pakazs. (Photos: OG, BOOM Esports, BetBoom Team, Thunder Awaken)
A total of 37 players will be playing in The International for the first time at The International 11, marking the entry of a new generation of Dota 2 professional players. Pictured: OG bzm and ATF, BOOM Esports Yopaj, BetBoom Team Daxak, Thunder Awaken Pakazs. (Photos: OG, BOOM Esports, BetBoom Team, Thunder Awaken)

A new generation of Dota 2 professional players will be taking the spotlight at The International 11 (TI11), as 37 out of the 100 total players competing in this year's world championship tournament will be playing in their first-ever TI.

These 37 TI debutants are scattered across 13 of the 20 teams qualified for TI11's Group Stage and hail from five out of the six competitive regions in the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) — Western Europe, Eastern Europe, China, Southeast Asia, and South America.

Read on for the list of all the players making their TI debuts at TI11.

Western Europe

Topping the debutants list are the new faces playing for teams in Western Europe.

Sure, Western Europe do have the most teams in the group stage, after Liquid and Secret made it through the Last Chance Qualifiers.

But that basically added just one Remco "Crystallis" Arets to the mix, with all of Team Liquid's roster having participated in previous TIs.

The fact that one of the strongest WEU challengers, OG, have a team with four players who have never played in a TI before, and that the winners of their regional qualifiers, Entity, have five TI debutants, perhaps just goes to show the strength of the region in training new Dota 2 blood. This can only be a good thing, with Western Europe also looking like the most competitive region during the regular DPC season.

OG:

  • Artiem "Yuragi" Golubiev

  • Bozhidar "bzm" Bogdanov

  • Ammar "ATF" Al-Assaf

  • Mikhail "Misha" Agatov

Tundra Esports:

  • Oliver "skiter" Lepko

  • Leon "Nine" Kirilin

Gaimin Gladiators:

  • Anton "DyrachYO" Shkredov

  • Miroslav "BOOM" Bičan

  • Erik "tOfu" Engel

  • Melchior "Seleri" Hillenkamp

Entity:

  • Ivan "Pure" Moskalenko

  • Daniel "Stormstormer" Schoetzau

  • Tobias "Tobi" Buchner

  • Vladislav "Kataomi`" Semenov

  • Dzmitry "Fishman" Palishchuk

Team Secret:

  • Remco "Crystallis" Arets

Eastern Europe

Unlike their Western counterparts, there are comparatively few new faces from teams in the Eastern European region.

BetBoom team are the only ones to feature TI debutants, though they did fight through the regional qualifiers for their slot.

BetBoom Team: 

  • Nikita "Daxak" Kuzmin

  • Denis "Larl" Sigitov

  • Evgeniy "Noticed" Ignatenko

China

The Chinese region has the fewest TI debutants compared to the others, with only two new faces in the mix.

On the one hand, it's easy to see why, as the Chinese teams are stacked full of experienced players who have their taste of TIs.

On the other, a case might be made towards a region getting more and more stagnant, which is especially glaring when looking at their results internationally. Indeed, the Chinese teams in the LCQ had been some of the favourites expected to make it to the group stages.

Team Aster: 

  • Yu "皮球 (pronounced pí qiú)" Yajun

Royal Never Give Up:

  • Daniel "Ghost" Chan Kok Hong

Southeast Asia

Almost like a reverse of the Chinese regions, the SEA region is full of TI debutants who have quite an experienced background, just always missing that illusive TI opportunity.

Apart from Fnatic, the other two SEA representatives both have more than half their squad experiencing their first TIs, though the names won't be new to anyone who has followed SEA Dota.

If anything, the experienced players finally making their TI debut just speaks volumes about the competitive SEA region as a whole.

BOOM Esports:

  • Souliya "JaCkky" Khoomphetsavong

  • Erin Jasper "Yopaj" Ferrer

  • Saieful "Fbz" Ilham

  • Andrei "skem" Ong

Fnatic:

  • Jaunuel "Jaunuel" Arcilla

Talon Esports:

  • Rafli "Mikoto" Rahman

  • Worawit "Q" Mekchai

  • Brizio "Hyde" Putra

South America

Another region seeing a large number of debutants for TI is South America. While the Beastcoast roster already has had a taste of TI, most of the members of Thunder Awaken and Hokori have not.

It's hard not to look at the two teams and think of the similarities between them and the young blood at OG, or the surprise package in Entity, and if the teams follow the past examples of previous South American teams, we will be in for some exciting Dota action.

Thunder Awaken:

  • Crhistian "Pakazs" Savina

  • Gonzalo "Darkmago" Herrera

  • Rafael "Sacred" Yonatan

  • Jose "Pandaboo" Padilla

Hokori:

  • Edward "Lumière" Valencia

  • João "4nalog" Giannini

  • Pablo "Vitaly" Angulo

  • Anthony "Gardick" López

North America

It's worth noting at this point that North America is the only region with no new TI debutants — EG's squad have always been quite stacked, TSM had their run as Undying last year, and Soniq's roster also have experience under their belt.

That said, this is probably a transitional period for NA Dota, which for so long had been the domain of just EG. And, with a good showing from the region at TI11, an injection of new blood could be along the way.

TI11 will be hosted in Singapore from 15 to 30 October and features a revamped format and a longer schedule.

The tournament will begin with a Group Stage from 15 to 18 October, where 20 teams will fight to become among the 16 squads to advance to the Main Event.

TI11's Main Event will be a double-elimination bracket and is split into two phases, the first being held from 20 to 23 October while the second will take place from 29 to 30 October.

For everything you need to know about TI11, check here.