BIG and 5POWER are the first confirmed teams for the Qi Invitational, Thunder Media Entertainment has told HLTV.org.

The event was originally supposed to take place last weekend, but the organisers decided to re-arrange the tournament for April 24-26 as it clashed with the Asian qualifier for IEM Sydney.

BIG, who are currently down to a four-man roster after parting ways with Niels "⁠luckeRRR⁠" Jasiek, will use this tournament as preparation for the ESEA MDL Global Challenge, which will be held in early May in Leicester. Their invitation comes amidst a report that they are set to unveil Epsilon talent Owen "⁠smooya⁠" Butterfield.

BIG confirmed for the $75,000 Qi Invitational

5POWER are currently in Langfang, China, competing at the XINHUA Electronic Sports Conference. The team, who feature players from China, Mongolia and Thailand, recently finished in second place at the Legends Cup, which they attended with two stand-ins. 

The Qi Invitational will be held at a studio in Belgrade and will begin with a GSL group stage, featuring two groups of four teams, followed by the single-elimination, best-of-three playoffs. This will be the first of a series of events hosted by Qi, which plans to strengthen the ties between the European and the Asian scenes.

The tournament will feature a $75,000 prize pool, with an additional $1,000 going to the winners of every intercontinental clash. The team list for the event currently looks as follows:

BIG

5POWER

5POWER #107 Lei 'forget' LiGan-Erdene 'dobu' BatboldBat-Enkh 'kabal' BatbayarPeng 'xiaosaGe' SongKitikawin 'PTC' Rattanasukol Niels 'luckeRRR' Jasiek Age: 21 Team: No team Rating 1.0: 0.97 Maps played: 63 KPR: 0.66 DPR: 0.67 BIG #30 Fatih 'gob b' DayikJohannes 'tabseN' WodarzTizian 'tiziaN' FeldbuschJohannes 'nex' Maget Owen 'smooya' Butterfield Age: 18 Team: Epsilon Rating 1.0: 1.23 Maps played: 191 KPR: 0.85 DPR: 0.67 Epsilon #59 Konstantinos 'tsack' TheodoropoulosRobin 'robiin' SjögrenKia 'Surreal' ManOwen 'smooya' ButterfieldTom 'jenko' Jenkinson