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With the tournament two months away, TI12's NA qualifier is about to begin. Thirteen squads will be fighting for a single qualification spot for the biggest competition in Dota 2. Who'll be joining Shopify Rebellion and TSM as the third North American seed at The International 2023?  

NA Teams

  Thirteen teams will be playing in this qualifier.  

(Image Via Liquipedia)

The first 5 teams made it to TI12's NA qualifier via DPC Ranking, the remaining 8 teams got their spots through their finishes at DPC NA 2023 Tour 3 Division I and II. Nouns should be the favorites here after their second place finish at the most recent DPC tour, in which they beat every single team except for Shopify Rebellion, which they obviously don't have to face here. Team DogChamp can be a dark-horse to steal the TI12 qualification away.  

Schedule

  NA's Qualifier for TI12 is the first one to happen alongside China's. It takes place between the 17th and 21st of August, with the first matches starting in just a few hours. Given the 13 teams present, the day will start with a BO1 lower-bracket match before we move onto the BO3s. Matches will take place daily between 12PM EDT/5PM BST and 9PM EDT/2AM BST. The final day will only have two series played, the lower-bracket finals and the grand finals, starting at 2PM EDT/7PM BST and 6PM EDT/11PM BST respectively.  

NA Qualifier Format

  The format for all qualifiers is identical, but changes slightly based on the number of teams present.  

(Image Via PGL)

Since there are thirteen teams present at TI12's NA Qualifier, only one lower-bracket match is played. For the sake of time, that match between TiltedBoys and GRIN Esports is the only BO1 of the tournament. All other series will be BO3, with the exception of the Grand Finals which will be a BO5. Given the nature of the double-elimination bracket, the top six seeds get two lives in the tournament, while all the teams in the lower-bracket will get eliminated in their first series loss. As mentioned previously, at TI12's NA qualifier only one team makes it through.

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Featured image courtesy of nouns esports. If you enjoyed this article, take a look at our Dota 2 directory.