Berlin Major Preview – All You Need to Know

26 Mar

Radu Muresan

ESL One Berlin Major 2023 is the event we’ve all been waiting for since the start of the new Dota Pro Circuit season.

This is the only Major that will take place in Europe this year, so we might as well enjoy it. The German time zone is absolutely perfect for anyone living on the continent and the latest Dota 2 patch guarantees a lot of spectacular matches.

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Berlin Major dates, format, and location

ESL One Berlin Major takes place in the Velodrom arena. However, only the playoffs phase will be played in front of a live audience. The rest of the tournament takes place as usual, behind closed doors.

The event starts on April 26 and the Grand Final will be played on May 7. The prize pool is $500.000. In addition to it, the tournament also offers 2700 qualification points for The International 12.

But there’s a problem. Only the top eight teams will share the rewards. The other 10 participants will go home empty-handed. This is a brutal way of doing things but it adds to the tension.

The competitive format is the typical one. The teams will be divided into two groups of nine. The top four teams advance to the upper bracket. The next two teams advance to the lower bracket. The bottom three teams are eliminated.

The match format for the group stage is best-of-two, while the competitive format for each group is round-robin. In the playoffs, the double-elimination format will be used. Every match during the second stage is best-of-three, with the exception of the Grand Final, which is best-of-five.

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Participants

The 18 teams that will take part in the Berlin Major come from all of the six official regions: Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, Southeast Asia, and China. Western European teams are the strongest on paper, but we might be proven wrong by either the Chinese or the Eastern European teams.

OG
9 Pandas
Team Spirit
Talon Esports
Execration
Team SMG
TSM
BetBoom Team
Team Liquid
Tundra Esports
Gaimin Gladiators
Xtreme Gaming
LGD
Invictus Gaming
Team Aster
Shopify Rebellion
Beastcoast
Evil Geniuses

Groups

These are the initial groups of the tournament:

Group A

Execration
Gaimin Gladiators
PSG.LGD
Team Aster
9 Pandas
BetBoom Team
Evil Geniuses
Team Liquid
TSM

Group B

Beastcoast
Invictus Gaming
Team SMG
Team Spirit
Tundra Esports
Xtreme Gaming
OG
Shopify Rebellion
Talon Esports

https://twitter.com/ESLDota2/status/1651151925876858880

Many of these teams are well-known. They’re certainly the best in their respective regions, but now the question is: which are the world’s best Dota 2 competitors? When different play styles clash, some prove to be a lot more effective than others.

Based on what we saw at DreamLeague S19, we’re led to believe that Western Europe has the best style of Dota. But teams like Xtreme Gaming, Talon Esports, and Spirit could prove us wrong.

Header: ESL