The Dota2 premiere tournament circuit is back in Europe with the ESL ONE Frankfurt, a $250.000 tournament in which eight of the best teams in the world battle it out in a group stage and then in a double elimination bracket format.
(courtesy of Liquipedia)
No surprises for two of the three direct invites: OG won two of the three Valve Majors this year, in Frankfurt and Manila, while Team Liquid have scored second place on two of those occasions, in Shanghai and in Manila. The Alliance invite is a bit more questionable, as the all-Swedish team only won the Star Ladder Star Series Season 13 & i-League Season 4 this year, while placing 7-8th at the last Major in Manila. The winners of the various qualifiers were also somehow expected, with Vega Squadron and Na’Vi dominating the European scene and Complexity and Fnatic meeting almost no opposition in North America and South-East Asia respectively. The only unexpected team at this event is Virtus Pro, a Russian team that is replacing the Chinese team LGD Gaming, which could not participate because of health issues. Notable but not unexpected is the absence of Team Secret and Evil Geniuses, as the two teams have been seriously under-performing lately.
We can expect a fierce tournament: the ESL ONE Frankfurt is one of the last big stages of the season before the all mighty International that will commence in August and will sport an impressive $12.055.731 and growing prize pool. The teams are fighting for more than money here in Frankfurt, as the results of this tournament are going to influence Valve decisions when it comes to direct invites for The International. OG and Team Liquid are definitely considered the favourites, but considering the explosive aggressive playstyle coming out from the Russian teams and the greedy late game strategies implemented by teams like Complexity and Alliance, we are surely going to see some upsets.
The tournament can be followed through the Dota2 hub in game or externally through Twitch.
Stay tuned for updates!
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