Esports News: PSG-LGD Ousted From Leipzig Major Open Qualifiers

LGD Gaming has become synonymous with the term "powerhouse". The Chinese Defense of the Ancients 2 club has been playing in the esport's biggest stage, The International, either as a direct invite or a regional qualifier, since it first qualified in its second edition in 2012, making the podium thrice.

In fact, even French football stronghold Paris Saint-Germain, through its PSG Esports arm, put up a huge investment on LGD, with LGD's name eventually becoming PSG-LGD.

But early into the ongoing 2020 DOTA Pro Circuit season, PSG-LGD is not in a good position of making a TI return.

PSG-LGD decided to skip the recently concluded MDL Chengdu Major won by TNC Predator, instead of focusing on the DreamLeague Season 13, also known as the Leipzig Major.

However, due to its decision not to play in the Chengdu Major, PSG-LGD had to undergo the regional qualifiers, in this case, the Chinese qualifiers.

But also because the team did not join the Chengdu Major nor its preceding Minor, the DOTA Summit 11, PSG-LGD still needs to undergo the qualifying tournament for the main Leipzig Major qualifier, the so-called open qualifier.

Similar to the US NCAA tournament, the teams are bracketed based on the seeding, and the teams in the pairs formed will face off once with the winner moving to the next round except in the quarterfinals and the semifinals, which are best-of-three series.

But because the first two rounds of the open qualifiers are knockout battles, upsets are imminent, and that was exactly what happened to PSG-LGD.

After beating FTD Guys in the first round, PSG-LGD found itself at the wrong end of the open qualifier's biggest upset so far as FTD Guys' sister club, FTD Apollo, knocked PSG-LGD out of the open qualifiers.

FTD Apollo got off to a solid start thanks to supporting Iroha, who played Lich and carry SJ, who played Venomancer. Both players combined for the game's first six kills.

That eventually set the tone for FTD Apollo to finish off PSG-LGD despite the valiant effort of Wang Chunyu, also known as Ame.

Jorien van der Heijden later reported on Twitter that PSG-LGD will not get a second chance.

Because the direct invitation for the regional qualifiers is now based on the teams' accumulated DOTA Pro Circuit Points, PSG-LGD will also not make the qualifiers for the backdoor to the Leipzig Major, the WePlay Bukovel MInor. That means PSG-LGD will now have to wait for the third major of the season, ESL One Los Angeles.

In the meantime, PSG-LGD will try to regroup for the upcoming One Championship Esports DOTA 2 World Pro Invitational in Singapore.