ESL One Los Angeles was originally going to be the third Major event for the Dota 2 2019-20 season until it got postponed due to the coronavirus and US travel regulations. Last week ESL announced the tournament will be held online from March 28 to April 19 and competitive Dota 2 is back on the menu.
The ex-Major event kicked off this Saturday and it’s currently ongoing. For anyone out of the loop, there are some changes when compared to the originally planned format. There’s a total of 34 teams participating and they’re all split into the different regions with the exception of Europe and CIS which play together as ESL is collaborating with Maincast. The prize pool has also changed to $375,000 for the whole event. Europe/CIS get the biggest chunk with $200,000 going exclusively for them. For North America, South America and SEA the pool is $40,000, while China is the exception, with $55,000.
The distribution of prize money seems more than fair as the competition in Europe is at an all-time high. Another determining factor is the number of teams allocated per region, for NA, SA, and SEA that number is 4, for China, it’s 6. For Europe and the CIS combined – 16.
So what happened so far?
China
The first series of the online event was played in the China region where EHOME defeated Newbee with a 2:1. Currently Royal Never Give Up are in the lead as their win-streak hasn’t come to an end yet. The team has scored three victories versus – Invictus Gaming, Vici Gaming and PSG.LGD.
We got the first RAMPAGE of #ESLOne LA Online!!!!Tune in https://t.co/8JHJFiLg80 pic.twitter.com/SzKyzTP28e
— ESL Dota2 (@ESLDota2) March 28, 2020
North America
Only two series have been played out in NA. The first one surprised fans as Quincy Crew managed to take down Evil Geniuses. The blue team were as always the favorites for the region, but lately, their performance has been lacking. First in the WeSave! Charity Play and now in ESL One. The second series gave us a dominant 2:0 victory of CR4ZY over business associates.
WHAT A GAME! Quincy Crew defy all odds and actually take down @EvilGeniuses 2-1! Are they now the top dogs of the #ESLOne Los Angeles Online NA league?? https://t.co/RUTJQihdBh pic.twitter.com/HzrpbVAwoE
— ESL Dota2 (@ESLDota2) March 28, 2020
South America
In the American south, beastcoast emerged as the victors against Thunder Predator. A day later NoPing E-sports defeated FURIA Esports. The SA region has had a bad reputation over the years for being arguably the weakest one of them all. In the current day, we can’t really come close to saying that as we’ve already seen teams from the region compete at the highest level and do well for themselves. While there hasn’t been a major tournament won by a South American team recently, the same rings true for almost any other region except Europe.
And that's GG! @ThunderAwakengg held on valiantly but in the end it's @beastcoast taking the series 2-1! #ESLOne https://t.co/RUTJQihdBh pic.twitter.com/UGU3fjnzFd
— ESL Dota2 (@ESLDota2) March 28, 2020
Southeast Asia
SEA gave us another surprise as the Summit champions Fnatic fell to BOOM Esports. The orange dream is still far from over as Fnatic will have a chance to climb back to the top. The other series was between Geek Fam and Team Adroit. The latter secured victory with a 2:0 and await their next opponent which is set to be Fnatic.
Crazy gameplay coming out of @boomesportsid as they take the series 2-1 from @FNATIC GGWP#ESLOne pic.twitter.com/mGCwcfREy5
— ESL Dota2 (@ESLDota2) March 29, 2020
The bottom team from NA, SA, and SEA will get eliminated. In China, it’d be the last two going home. ESL One Los Angeles will come to an end on April 5 for the regions listed above, while Europe/CIS is set to start on April 4.
Despite the event being completely online, Mercedes Benz will be tuning in with yet another free car for the MVP player of the tournament.
#ESLOne Los Angeles Online will see yet another #MBmvp crowned and awarded with a brand new @MercedesBenz Click below for all the information about the new region based voting system #RiseON Like or RT this tweet to get notified when voting begins!
— ESL Dota2 (@ESLDota2) March 28, 2020
Stay tuned for more updates regarding the event and in the meantime check out the rest of our Dota 2 section.
