ESL One Birmingham 2018 groups revealed
Don’t forget we have another Major next week, in a very different timezone. Mark your calendars, our first ever UK Major will start on the 23rd.
Teams will be divided into three groups for the group stage. Only two teams from each group will continue playing in the main stage. Here are the groups:
Group A
Virtus.pro
Fnatic
Evil Geniuses
tbd (Natus Vincere’s replacement team)
Due to their roster change, Natus Vincere won’t take part in this event. Their replacement is still unknown.
This group should be the toughest group. Virtus.pro should not need further introduction. Although they didn’t win their last event, they are still the best team right now.
Fnatic and Evil Geniuses are the top two teams outside of Dota Pro Circuit’s top eight right now. Stacked with long-time popular names, a lot of fans are still waiting for these two teams to shine. Getting to the grand finals of this tournament might be enough for these two teams to secure a direct invite to The International 2018.
With many strong teams unlisted in any of the groups, there should be plenty of choices to fill Natus Vincere’s spot. Team Secret and PSG.LGD are the biggest names that are still left out.
Team Secret is a European team, which is the region UK is part of. Most people like to have teams that represent them, especially if their representatives are good.
PSG.LGD is sponsored by Paris Saint-Germain, one of the biggest soccer organizations in the world, and UK loves soccer. Fans from Birmingham might be excited to see the Dota 2 team that belongs to the same organization with top soccer players such as Neymar. Their participation might be good for filling the seats during their event.
Both Team Secret and PSG.LGD are quite likely to reject the offer to replace Natus Vincere due to them having a lot of Qualifying Points already. Fortunately, there are many promising teams that will be delighted to get the offer. Out of all those teams, FlyToMoon is probably the most interesting one. Previously almost unheard of, FlyToMoon qualified to participate in the last Major, EPICENTER XL, got third place after defeating Virtus.pro, and didn’t look like they nailed it solely because they were lucky.
Writer’s prediction: Virtus.pro should win this group. Second place is probably the replacement team because the opportunity to participate in a Major is precious, so it is likely for the replacement to be a strong team. Fnatic and Evil Geniuses are strong, but they weren’t stable enough to be convincing.
Group B
Team Liquid
Vici Gaming
OG
paiN Gaming
Team Liquid is probably the only team taking part in this event that is a stable real contender for Virtus.pro throughout this season. Unlike two years ago’s TI champions, last year’s TI champions have stayed together and are aiming to also become this year’s TI champions.
Vici Gaming haven’t won anything this season, but they got the second place in four DPC events. This is the team that haven’t raised a trophy, but have raised awareness. Many Chinese players mentioned Vici Gaming as the scary Chinese team this season. Yesterday, they were the winners of their group in MDL Changsha Major. This month can be their month.
OG was supposed to be at their worst. The tigers of the previous two seasons have lost the sharpness of their fangs this season and decided to release Resolut1on and look for someone else. They haven’t recruited someone new and kept playing in multiple events with their coach as their stand-in. At the beginning they didn’t do well, but at EPICENTER XL they were suddenly in great shape and placed fifth. We will see if they can be in an even better shape next week.
paiN Gaming is, by far, the weakest team in this tournament based on their performance this season. This team is commonly expected to win in South American qualifiers and not win further.
Writer’s prediction: Team Liquid and Vici Gaming will be the teams to proceed from this group. It’s a shame OG had to be in this group, they would have better chance of getting to the main stage if they started from a different group.
Group C
Mineski
Newbee
OpTic Gaming
LGD.Forever Young
Out of the three groups, this group is the least predictable one. Mineski and Newbee are within the top eight of Dota Pro Circuit, but their performances are not stable.
Mineski’s last event first place was due to the surprise patch with Pangolier where they were able to adapt to the changes better than other teams. Newbee’s last event first place was due to their AoE strat with Naga Siren and Disruptor. Outside of those occasions they were not terrible, but they were not amazing either.
Mineski is a bit better than Newbee at the moment. They have been getting quite good results recently, sharing the fifth place at EPICENTER XL with OG. On the other hand, Newbee failed to get satisfying results, sharing the ninth place in both Dota 2 Asia Championships 2018 and EPICENTER XL.
Both OpTic Gaming and LGD.Forever Young are both in significantly worse conditions compared to the majority of the teams taking part in this tournament, similar to paiN Gaming. However, these two teams have previous achievements to show that it is possible for them to surprise their opponents.
OpTic Gaming won a Minor last month after defeating VGJ.Thunder and Fnatic. Although neither of them are really considered as top tier teams, those two teams are real contenders for the direct invites.
LGD.Forever Young got third place in The International 2017 and a lot of fans thought that they deserved at least the second place, making it actually weird for them to not have any Qualifying Points so far this season. Their current roster is a bit different compared to their TI roster last year. They don’t have ddc because they are loaning him to VGJ.Thunder, a move that they probably regret now.
Writer’s prediction: Mineski and Newbee should be the leaders in this group, but OpTic Gaming might take the second place from Newbee.