DOTA 2: ESL ONE Birmingham Online 2020 Europe/CIS Analysis and Predictions
The Europe/CIS Region of ESL ONE Birmingham Online 2020 kicked things off on Sunday with an exciting match between Team Liquid and Team Secret for Group A, and HellRaisers versus FlyToMoon for group B. Team Secret still looked unstoppable. In the first game, Matumbaman’s Chaos Knight was given a hard time during the laning phase by a tri-lane of Shadow Demon, Centaur, and Witch Doctor. Zai’s Queen of Pain came to the rescue dishing out bursts left and right together with Earth Shaker and Jakiro. Once CK was given space to farm, he never looked back as his right clicks together with the lock down from his supports proved to be too much for Team Liquid to handle. Game two had a similar flow as Matumbaman dominated the late game once again with his Troll Warlord outlasting Team Liquid’s morphling.
Group B’s opening match between HellRaisers and FlyToMoon was no different from Group A as the heavily favored HellRaisers (1.44) swept FlyToMoon (2.66) in less than an hour. Nix’s Monkey King was just too much for FlyToMoon to handle and he even got an Ultra Kill in the first game.
ESL ONE Birmingham Online 2020 Europe/CIS Region Format
14 out of the 16 teams received direct invites from ESL with two teams coming from closed qualifier. Group A is composed of Team Secret, Vikin.gg, Na’Vi, Team Nigma, Gambit Esports, Team Liquid, and both teams that came from the closed qualifiers, Team Unique and Aggressive Mode. Group B will be filled teams HellRaisers, Cyber Legacy, Ninjas in Pyjamas, OG, VP.Prodigy, Alliance, Winstrike Team, and FlyToMoon who all received direct invites.
The tournament runs from May 24, 2020 until June 7, 2020.
The group stage will be done in a single round-robin format from May 24 – 31, 2020 with all matches being a best-of-three series. The top two teams from the group stage will advance to the upper bracket while the 3rd and 4th seed proceed to the lower bracket. The bottom four teams in each group will be eliminated from the tournament. The remaining teams will be competing in a double-elimination bracket come playoff time. The grand finals will be different from the rest of the matches as it would be the only match-up to be done as a best-of-five.
Schedule
Check the schedule for the remaining group stage games below to make sure you don’t miss the matchup you’re anticipating.
May 26, 2020
Liquid vs Gambit, Na’Vi vs Unique, Ninjas in Pyjamas (NiP) vs FlyToMoon (FTM), Alliance vs HellRaisers (HR), OG vs Winstrike, VP.Prodigy (VP.P) vs Cyber Legacy (CL), Nigma vs Aggressive Mode (A.Mode)
May 27, 2020
OG vs VP.P, Nigma vs Gambit, Secret vs Unique, Na’Vi vs Vikin.gg, Alliance vs Winstrike, HR vs CL, Liquid vs A.Mode
May 28, 2020
VP.P vs FTM, Nigma vs Unique, Na’Vi vs A.Mode, OG vs HR, NIP vs CL, Secret vs Vikin.gg
May 29, 2020
NIP vs HR, Na’Vi vs Gambit, OG vs CL, Liquid vs Unique, Nigma vs Vikin.gg, Alliance vs FTM, VP.P vs Winstrike, Secret vs A.Mode
May 30, 2020
Secret vs Na’Vi, Liquid vs Nigma, Vikin.gg vs Unique, Gambit vs A.Mode, OG vs NiP, VP.P vs Alliance, FTM vs Winstrike
May 31, 2020
Secret vs Nigma, Liquid vs Na’Vi, Vikin.gg vs A.Mode, Gambit vs Unique, OG vs Alliance, VP.P vs NiP, HR vs Winstrike, FTM vs CL
Predictions
This region of the tournament may arguably be the most exciting and entertaining for most fans as it has the greatest number of participants with DOTA 2’s big name teams. With that being said, this region maybe the hardest to predict as most teams can not be counted out for title contention.
The crown for this division of the tournament is really up in the air for any team to take, however, personally I am predicting Team Secret to go all the way and secure this. With their dominance on full display from yesterday’s match, when they stomped Team Liquid, which is actually a solid team who can also make a run at the title, things are looking up for Team Secret. They remain undefeated with their wins in the first two days which extends their win streak from the OGA DOTA PIT Tournament to 17-0, making them the team to beat if you want a serious shot at the ESL title.
