The Dota 2 ESL One Birmingham Online is still underway except for the SEA region where Fnatic claimed their latest title as champions.
ESL One Birmingham switched to an online format due to the coronavirus pandemic much like the LA event. Instead of the usual six regions, the tournament has combined CIS and Europe and both Americas to bring them down to a total of four. The event kicked off on different dates for the various regions with SEA being the first one. Southeast Asia is also the first region to come to an end while the remaining ones will be concluded this Sunday on June 7.
Fnatic claim another title
Lately, Fnatic have been on a winning streak which started back with their victory DOTA Summit 12 in March. Ever since then the team has been outperforming everyone else in the SEA region. During the group stage Fnatic looked a bit shaky as they lost to BOOM Esports and Team Adroit but still managed to finish in the top two. This secured them a spot in the winners bracket where they took out BOOM and advanced to the grand finals. BOOM made it back from the lower bracket but once again failed to defeat their rivals with the finals series ending 3:1 in favor of Fnatic. The team grabbed $15,000 in prize money along with the bragging rights of being the best in the region once more.
A Recap of #ESLOne Birmingham 2020 SEA Region Grand finals brought to you by @DeutschePostDHL #MomentsThatDeliverWhat was your favourite moment of the day? pic.twitter.com/QCfcb5ikyU
— ESL Dota2 (@ESLDota2) May 31, 2020
The remaining regions
China
The group stage in China came to an end and only four teams made it to the playoffs:
- PSG.LGD
- Invictus Gaming
- CDEC Gaming
- Royal Never Give Up
LGD and CDEC were the top performers in their respective groups but in the playoffs, anything can happen as each of the four teams is worthy of the title. The matches will resume tomorrow at 01:00 PM CET so make sure to check out the official Twitch stream.
North & South America
Just as everyone expected the top teams in here were from NA, while the South American representatives beastcoast and Thunder Predator were eliminated by the end of the group stage. This left us with the remaining four for the playoffs:
- CR4ZY
- Quincy Crew
- Evil Geniuses
- business associates
Interestingly enough, EG lost to every other NA team in the groups. The famous North American organization was expected to dominate the event, but the squad still has a chance to do so in the playoffs. CR4ZY were the best team by far as they finished with a flawless 5-0 score. The team claimed they’ll have one goal for 2020 and that’d be The International. They seem to be doing a good job lately, but the question is whether there’ll be a TI (at least this year).
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Europe & CIS
The most populated region combines the top teams from Europe and the CIS. In group A, Team Secret and Team Nigma proved to be the best as they both finished with a 6-1 score. Nigma’s only loss came from Secret, while Secret’s came from Team Unique. In group B, the leaders are VP.Prodigy and Alliance. VP’s secondary squad has been outperforming its main one by a huge margin lately. Prodigy lost only a single series to Alliance, while the latter suffered defeats against Cyber Legacy and NiP. Here are all the teams that made it to the playoffs:
Upper bracket
- Team Nigma
- VP.Prodigy
- Alliance
- Team Secret
Lower bracket
- Vikin.gg
- Team Liquid
- HellRaisers
- FlyToMoon
The disappointment of the region was no doubt OG. The two times TI champions were finally put in a highly competitive event and they failed to prove themselves. OG lost every single series they played except the one against Winstrike Team. The team changed the majority of the TI-winning line up in the new season and they’re definitely out of shape. Then again this is a classic OG maneuver, winning TI and then failing non-stop during the season. Whether 2020 will be different remains to be seen.
This puts our quick overview of ESL One Birmingham Online to an end. Expect another update when the event comes to an end. In the meantime, check out EarlyGame for more Dota 2 news and everything gaming and esports.
