ESL One Birmingham Preview

ESL One Birmingham is the next $1 million Dota 2 tournament. Elite League finished with the victory of Xtreme Gaming over Team Falcons, and now the fans want to know if it was a fluke or if we actually have a new leader in Dota 2.

This would be the worst timing possible for Team Falcons because we’re relatively close to the biggest events of the year: Riyadh Masters and The International. The first one starts in July while the second one starts in September.

Last season, Gaimin Gladiators dominated every tournament right until Riyadh Masters. After that, Team Spirit won everything that truly mattered. Falcons probably don’t want to make the same mistake.

Dates, Location, and Format

Remember: #ESLOne Birmingham 2024 starts in ONE WEEK!

12 incredible teams will be battling it out for $1,000,000 and 26,640 EPT Points!

Don’t miss it 👊 pic.twitter.com/DzSLeTI1iv

— ESL Dota2 (@ESLDota2) April 15, 2024

ESL One Birmingham is scheduled to take place in England between April 22 – 28. We rarely see Dota 2 events on English soil, so this is a great time to enjoy the game if you’re British.

The format of the tournament is very basic. Given that only 12 teams will compete in it, the organizer decided to have two groups of six followed by double-elimination playoffs. Out of each group, two teams advance to the upper bracket, two to the lower bracket, and two get eliminated.

The group stage format is round-robin with best-of-two matches. The playoffs format is double-elimination with best-of-three matches, except for the Grand Final (Bo5).

Prizes

ESL One Birmingham offers $1 million in prize money and more than 26.600 EPT points. These points are important because most of the Dota 2 tournaments these days are organized by ESL.

Here’s how the prize pool and points will be distributed among the 12 participants:

• 1^st place: $300.000 / 6400 pts.
• 2^nd place: $175.000 / 4800 pts.
• 3^rd place: $120.000 / 4000 pts.
• 4^th place: $85.000 / 3200 pts.
• 5^th – 6^th place: $57.500 / 2240 pts.
• 7^th – 8^th place: $47.500 / 1040 pts.
• 9^th – 10^th place: $30.000 / 560 pts.
• 11^th – 12^th place: $25.000 / 280 pts.

As you can see, the prize pool distribution is unusually generous. In a lot of cases, the bottom teams get only a few thousand dollars, if anything. But here, even the teams that get eliminated in the group stage can rest assured that they’ll receive a decent amount of money.

In part, this measure was probably introduced because an event of high caliber that features only 12 teams will inevitably attract 12 formidable teams with high expectations.

Participants

Here are the 12 competitors:

• BetBoom Team
• iG
• Shopify Rebellion
• Talon Esports
• Team Falcons
• Team Liquid
• Gaimin Gladiators
• HEROIC
• OG
• Team Spirit
• Tundra Esports
• Xtreme Gaming

The first six of these teams will start in group A, while the bottom six will start in group B.

Header: ESL