The ESL Organizers will be hosting a Dota 2 event, ESL One Birmingham in the UK for the first time ever. The main esports tournament will take place between the 23rd until 27th May at the Arena Birmingham. The top 12 dota teams will get to compete in this event for a prize pool of a whopping $1 million as well as 1500 qualifying points to share between the best four squads so as to earn their spot at the International 2018.
More and more awareness of esports is indeed spreading, in fact, 2018 marks a great year of gaming tournaments held in the UK. The competitions include the FIFA 18 Champions Cup in April held in Manchester, FACEIT Major CS: GO event taking place in September in London as well as the upcoming Dota 2 event, ESL One Birmingham 2018.
As towers will fall and spells are bound, all esports fans from all over the world will enjoy the competitive atmosphere, watching their favourite teams battle it out. You will also have the opportunity to keep updated with the latest dota 2 betting odds on the teams that will participate at ESL One Birmingham.
What is the ESL One Series? The Electronic Sports Leagues are esports competitions that feature different games like Dota 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Battlefield 4, offering a hundred thousand in prize money. These kinds of events take place in stadiums around the world for all esports fans to watch on enthusiastically and cheer to help their favourite dota unit win rounds.
James Dean, the managing director at ESL UK said, “This is a dream come true for the ESL UK team and a fantastic win for the UK scene. Dota 2 was the very first tournament we ran just after starting up in 2012. We are honoured to have this opportunity and hope to make the UK Dota 2 community extremely proud.”
ESL One Birmingham 2018 will take place at the Arena Birmingham that accommodates 15K people, a popular location for major concerts and athletic events. Ian Congdon, the Head of Venue Sales at the Arena, NEC Group said, “We are thrilled to have been selected to host such a prestigious event for Dota 2. Our award-winning Arena Birmingham is one of the busiest and most well-connected large-scale indoor venues in Europe. With our unique canal-side location, in one of the UK’s most vibrant cities, it’s the perfect place to bring the gaming community together.”
Six teams out of 12 will receive a direct invitation to attend ESL One Birmingham 2018. While the other six will have to go through the qualifier stages open to squads coming from different regions, North America, South America, Europe, CIS, SouthEast Asia and China.
The tournament will kick off with the Group Stages on 23rd and 24th May to determine which teams will go through to the main event. ESL One Birmingham 2018 will feature the playoffs where the top six dota teams will battle it out in a best-of-3 in the Quarterfinals and Semifinals. In a best-of-5 Grand Finale, the winning team will take home the staggering first prize as well as 750 DPC points.
At the moment of writing, three invited dota squads have been announced so far for the upcoming ESL One Birmingham 2018, while the other teams will be revealed in the coming weeks as the event approaches.
The First Three Participating Teams at ESL One Birmingham
Virtus.Pro
The Russian dota team, Virtus.Pro has recently won three major esports tournaments, The Bucharest Major, ESL One Katowice and ESL One Hamburg. VP made history by winning two ESL tournaments, will they defend their dota title in the upcoming ESL One Birmingham 2018?
Newbee
The Chinese team, Newbee have won ESL One Genting defeating the TI 7 champions, Team Liquid in the finals. Having set their sights on the ESL One Birmingham, do Newbee have what it takes to counter their opponents?
Evil Geniuses
The North American team, EG are participating in the ongoing esports tournament, the Dota 2 Asia Championships. Evil Geniuses beat Newbee with a score of 2-0 in the breakout match a great start to the main event. Their latest win was at the GESC: Indonesia Dota 2 Minor, where the American dota team reached the finals defeating Natus Vincere in the Semifinals. The Finals saw EG beat rising dota stars VGJ.Thunder, taking home the GESC Major title. At the moment, the blue boys are in seventh place in the Dota Pro Circuit Ranking. How will the EG fare at ESL One Birmingham?
