With the upcoming ESL One Hamburg Group Stage kicking off on October 23, the world of competitive Dota 2 is about to explode. Final adjustments have been done to accommodate the event so that we may see action in both groups begin in full. What is the latest news of the hour?
EVOS Esports Steps into the ESL One Hamburg
Quick last-minute changes needed to be done for the ESL One Hamburg Dota 2, as one of the participating team TNC Predator, announced that it would be withdrawing from the event. ESL hurried to patch things up by extending invitation EVOS Esports, who finished second in the SEA qualifiers.
Revealing the group stage draw for #ESLOne Hamburg 2018! (this time with 100% more paiN Gaming)
One week 'til the games begin!https://t.co/9NS9RRJUCm pic.twitter.com/Ni4O4vm1af
— ESL Dota2 (@ESLDota2) October 16, 2018
With the team successfully securing their visas, the groups have been finally set, the ESL Twitter page revealed on October 16. Split into two groups, a total of 12 teams will battle it out, some of them in anticipation of the even more important Kuala Lumpur Major in Malaysia starting early next month.
The changes were necessitated after TNC Predator’s decision to prioritize 2018 World Electronic Sports Games (WESG) and forfeit their position in the German Lan event. The teams that will dive into the six-day action are some of the house names of competitive Dota 2.
The format itself will allow teams to clash with the majority of participants while also providing entertainment for spectators tuning in to watch on ESL’s official streams.
Looking to watch ESL One Hamburg 2018? The streams will become available closer to the date of the tournament itself. Stay tuned.
The Group Stage will be played in Best of Two (BO2) format and each team will play 10 games in this leg of the race.
ESL Hamburg will start at 12:00 CEST on Tuesday, October 23 with Group A games and it will shift to Group B at 17:00 local time, allowing viewers to never miss a single piece of the action. The Group Stage will conclude on October 25.
This will lead to the Playoffs which will start the following day on October 26 splitting 4 teams in the Upper and Lower Bracket each. The format will switch to BO3 and for the finals, the hosts have prepared BO5 action.
Other than the timely stand-in from ESOV Esports, there have been no other changes to the final format.
Are Dota Hamburg’s Groups Well-Balanced?
At first blush, the groups teams seem to be split well between the groups, with the top 8 performers in The International taking four places each into two separate groups. One of the more unorthodox decisions here is perhaps the inclusion of Mineski who have been working with a new roster in the past several months.
Meanwhile, Ninjas in Pyjamas (NiP) have managed to prepare a new team plucking players from the now defunct Dota squad of OpTic Gaming and adding former Team Secret members. Secret had a rough game at the Autumn Brawl tournament, losing to Natus Vincere (Na’Vi) while recruiting former Na’Vi member Danil “Dendi” Ishutin as a substitute for Yeik “MidOne” Nai Zheng.
