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The International 2016s qualifiers are over. The 18 teams who will travel to Seattle are set. At this time of the year, the building anticipation has the power to stall all other discussions in the Dota 2 world. Unfortunately, that includes the discussion of how we got here: How Valve determined who was invited to its tournament and who would have to compete in qualifiers.All this has happened before and all this will happen again. Every time Valve announces invites to one of its majors, complaints arise about how its team determined who to invite. And, every time, the dust settles after a few weeks and we move on to other topics. Until the next major. Its time for a proper investigation into Valves operating procedures with respect to its Dota 2 events to determine whether there is room for improvement.Scrutinizing Valves process immediately presents itself as tricky because the process is opaque to us. How do we judge if Valve is making the best decisions possible if we dont have access to its decision-making process? It seems that Valve feels it is unnecessary for other stakeholders to be able to inspect its processes, provided it offers satisfactory outcomes. As a private company, this sort of thinking is not unusual. But as a regulatory body dictating the workings of a competitive industry, questions need to be asked and answered.The role of direct invitesThe place to start would be to ask what exactly direct invites are. Does Valve hand out direct invites to particular teams because of some measure of objective merit, or is the decision completely at Valves discretion? The latter option allows for arbitrary judgement, which is obviously unwanted in a competitive field. Thankfully, all evidence suggests that the truth is the former, that Valve does have reasons for who it invites to its events.Indeed, in the past year, some patterns in Valves invites have even become so consistent that weve come to treat them as norms, despite never being confirmed by the company itself. For example, the top four teams of the previous major have always been invited to the next one. Furthermore, there has always been at least one team invited primarily due to its achievements in non-Valve events.So, it is clear that Valve does have an internal qualification process for direct invites. If you are directly invited to a major, it isnt like getting a lucky invite to a cool party. Its recognition that youve done something that qualified you to be at the event. What have you done? We dont know. But Valve does. The question then becomes why the developer feels uncomfortable sharing its reasoning with us.This question was actually answered within the Manila Major invites announcement from Valve:Deciding on how to handle the direct invites to our four tournaments is a difficult process, and we dont take a specific formulaic approach to which teams are invited or how many we invite.In other words, even though the process of deciding who to invite is a thoroughly reasoned one, the reasoning used from event to event might actually change. This is because the problem being solved is a complex one and, thus, might requires a fresh and dynamic approach to solving it each time.A players perspective from LodaThis really gets to the bottom of the discussion at hand. Valve could create a set of criteria known to the public for how to qualify for its events. But then itd have to stick to them. And right now the Dota 2 team appears to be concerned that the esports scene presents too many exceptional considerations to justify risking a commitment to one way of doing things.While this is a clever strategy for sustaining decision-making power, thus potentially improving individual decisions, there are questions about how this affects the overall ecosystem. Jonathan Loda Berg, captain of Alliance, shared his thoughts on the matter.I kind of understand why they have a hidden system, but at this point I feel its a bit flawed. The majors were, and are, a great thing for Dota, but at the moment we dont even know in what way they matter until the next round of invites are sent out. I think it has to be more open for sure.I think it adds an immense kind of pressure on players and teams to not know. You can win a tournament right before a major and still not actually know if you will get invited or not. I believe LAN wins should matter a lot, but Im obviously biased. Perhaps placing top-four continuously is more impressive than actually getting first once. I think like I said before that something has to change. I can feel a different kind of stress from teams and players nowadays, and I believe its because they do not even know what they are aiming for. To be tier-one, -two? To win a major or actually practice to play a qualifier? I mean in some cases its better to take one month off to practice for an important qualifier such as the majors rather than partake in other tournaments, just due to the value of reaching majors and placing top 8 there. The teams and the fans need to know what we are playing for to give it any worth.Lodas comments make two very important points. First, Valves lack of transparency puts enormous strain on players. This strain seems comparable to a person constantly having to worry if theyll get the job or get the promotion. The traditional sporting world lacks examples of this. You know well in advance how you might qualify for the World Cup or the Champions League. Even if esports are different from traditional sports, other competitive games also only utilize transparent qualification processes. Magic: The Gathering, a competitive game, which functions much like an esport but also predates the field, follows the same route as sports: premier events offer various routes for qualification but all are known openly and in advance. Indeed, even Counter-Strike, an esport also administered by Valve, uses an entirely transparent qualification process.That other competitions do things that way perhaps suggests that Dota 2 could too, but it is not an argument for why it should. Lodas second key point, however, does present such an argument. Knowledge of qualification criteria can play a role in the decisions teams make during the year, so Valves choice to protect its own authority actually deprives teams of the ability to make informed decisions.Transparency is necessary for a legitimate competitive environmentTeams should be able to navigate the major system by making decisions about how to prioritize their time, which events to go to, and which is the best route to try to qualify. With an unknown rule set, this isnt possible; the only winning strategy is attend everything, win everything. But this is not a reasonable principle. There are real trade-offs, in terms of time and other resources, when it comes to deciding when and how to train and which events to attend during the year.Valve has done a reasonably good job producing desirable outcomes with its invites. But the process also matters, and not just as a means to an end. In order to be a fair and competitive system, those participating in it need to know how it works.Imagine if a patch were launched without any patch notes. Imagine if a tournament were hosted without any information about its format. Both examples are clearly not conducive to a fair and competitive environment. Thankfully, these things dont happen. Valve supplies full information to teams about how its game works, how their tournaments work, and updates when changes are made. Yet somehow the process that underpins the esports ecosystem -- tournament qualification for Valve events -- has thus far escaped the same standard. This is the case despite the fact that Dota 2 is still a game, and the rules for games need to be clear if participants are expected to reasonably compete in it.It might be that the competitive scene in Dota 2 is sufficiently complex such that it is not comparable to other games and sports that use transparent qualification systems. However, Valves comments imply a false dichotomy. It is not the case that the system needs to be either entirely formulaic or entirely hidden. It is possible to provide some key information about the process through guidelines that express roughly which achievements are relevant, leaving room for Valves discretion. Terance Mann Jersey . Canada is now down to its 22-player limit, although but players wont be registered until Christmas Day. Changes could still be made as a result of a suspension or injury. Montrezl Harrell Jersey . Reassurance came from Paul Tesori, his caddie and close friend whose newborn son is in intensive care in a Florida hospital. "Paul sent me a text this morning, just told me he loved me and wanted to go out and fight as hard as I would any other day," Simpson said Sunday after doing just that. https://www.clipperslockerroom.com/Avery-Bradley-City-Edition-Jersey/ . PAUL, Minn. Blake Griffin Clippers Jersey . Irving scored 23 points, Tristan Thompson had 20 points and 10 rebounds and the Cavaliers beat the Denver Nuggets 117-109 on Friday night. Rodney McGruder Clippers Jersey . Parker had 26 points and eight assists and San Antonio beat Toronto 112-99 Monday night. "We won that game because of Tony Parkers aggressiveness," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "His juice; his aggression all night long. It has been interesting to hear the talk of late advocating a place in Super Rugby in the future for the Pacific Islands.I have always been an advocate for their cause. Unless they can have a competition offering them some financial benefit they are never going to progress and nor will their national sides.If they are included there will be issues around sponsorship and there needs to be a business model behind it; these competitions are about drawing money out of the public to go and watch and if you cant draw that money it is going to be tough.Theres also the case of where would they be based? Do you take them on the road or do they find a location where they can draw money out of people? If they are talking about a future for such a side they will no doubt be looking at those sorts of issues.You could base a team in Hawaii at Aloha Stadium, which would appeal to the Island nations while also catering for interest in the United States. You could base a team in Auckland or Sydney but, really, all that does is dilute the public and the same dollar is there to be spent on the Blues or Waratahs, or the Pacific Nations team.There has been a long time to study how it could best work and hopefully that would provide the correct business model.Just how that would affect New Zealand, Australian and now Japanese, sides who include Fijians, Tongans and Samoans in their teams, remains to be seen. But New Zealand has always had a policy of picking New Zealand players first with the option of including two Pacific Island players. The first option of Pacific Island players should be playing for their team and that should be their pathway.In the final analysis, New Zealand has to look at developing All Blacks. And if the Pacific nations have their own team their core responsibility is to develop their own players and the only reason they havent done it is that they havent had a competition to be part of to do so.It would give them the vehicle to get stronger and if they get the chance to do it imagine what could result. The combinations they could build inside a Super Rugby competition could be truly amazing.They are the perfect athletes for the game of rugby.It is something that needs to be done from a rugby purists perspective to help the second tier nations. It has to happen and the headache is on the financial side and how it all works.In my mind, if Super Rugby is looking to tap into the U.S. then Hawaii and Aloha Stadium is the perfect place to situate it.The exercise of taking a game to Fiji was a good one, in spite of the wet weather. The Chiefs, whose home game it was, did well once again demonstrating that it is still possible to beat top sides when decimated by injury.Inside that camp there is a lot of self-belief in who they are as a team and as a squad, and that is a really good sign. It says a lot for the management team that obviously runs it. Theyve got a culture of self-belief that the Crusaders have had and that game on Friday showed who had surpassed who.Dave Rennies tenure at the Chiefs has just been fanttastic.dddddddddddd. From where that franchise has been to where it is now, he has taken it to a whole new level. They didnt get there last year, but you would have to say they are contenders again and it will be interesting to see where Liam Messam fits in when he comes back now following his Olympic Games omission.I guess it is a little sad for him for not making the squad for Rio, but that is just the nature of professional sport. Hes probably got one eye on Ardie Savea and saying: You b-----d, I wish I had made that call a few months back.The Highlanders arent entirely safe either, especially having to meet the Jaguares away this weekend and then hosting the Chiefs in Dunedin in the last round. The Jaguares at home are a dangerous side, as they proved against the Bulls last Sunday.I thought the Blues might have got a win watching that first half against the Hurricanes; there were a couple of pretty angry loose forwards in Jerome Kaino and Steven Luatua who proved something on Saturday night. Theyre at different ends of their careers but they both sent out a dont forget about us message.Kaino was clearly unhappy about being put on the bench for the third Test against Wales and made an appropriate statement while Luatua saw Elliot Dixon and Liam Squire run out there when 16 months ago that was probably him.The encouraging thing about that is that Luatua hasnt given up. And when you combined his efforts with Kara Pryors game you could see how much it spurred on the rest of the pack. They had some real grit and hunger about them which, for a Blues fan, is great to see as its been a long time between drinks.The positive and abrasive nature in how they went about their game against the Hurricanes was a step up from what they showed before the break against the Crusaders. Take nothing away from the Hurricanes, they weathered the storm in the first half and came back from behind to put on a pretty convincing performance.And talking about blindside flankers/locks; what about Vaea Fifita? Ive watched that kid for a long time. Hes Liaki Molis cousin and I first came across him in the IRANZ Academy as a 16-year-old -- hes really got some talent. I noted Chris Boyds comments that he had a bit of work to do on defence, but that is fairly typical of young guys who are still developing.A lot of it is confidence. Its something you can work on, develop and coach and just because at one stage of their career they are not the most devastating tackler, it doesnt mean they cant get better.The Hurricanes have got a tough finish to the competition against the Waratahs and Crusaders, but even the seven-time champions hit a bit of a speed bump at the weekend.Its the time of the year when all the calculators come out. But the nature of the competition is that you have just got to keep winning. Everyone wants to have momentum going into the play-offs. And if you get to the final, youve still got to win it. ' ' '