ESL One Hamburg Major: Full List of Participants

The closed qualifiers for ESL One Hamburg have concluded and we finally know the full list of participants for the first major of the season.

The regional qualifiers were held in all six regions: Europe, CIS, North America, South America, Southeast Asia and China. In each region there were 12 participating teams competing for a single spot at the LAN-finals.

The North American qualifier was dominated by Evil Geniuses, who recently changed their roster by replacing Zai with the experienced Fear, who used to be the coach of the team and now is the in-game leader of current roster. In all three series they played they managed to not lose a single game, even in the Grand Finals where they outplayed VGJ.Storm with the score of 3-0.

SG e-sports came out on top in the South American qualifier. It should be noted, that SG e-sports was the first Brazilian team ever to take part in a Valve-organized event (The Kiev Major 2017), but the current roster is completely different. But it looks like the organization is good at finding successful rosters – the new team already managed to qualify for one minor- and one major-tournaments (StarLadder i-League Invitational #3 and ESL One Hamburg). The team looks very promising in their region, but will they be able to compete on par with the other top-teams on the international level?

In the European region everyone was surprised by the success of the newly formed mix called SFTe-sports led by the Russian carry player Ilya “Illidan” Pivcaev, who even managed to knock out OG. They made it to the Grand Finals, where they faced recently updated roster of Team Secret. The Puppey’s team was head and shoulders above and crushed SFTe-sports with the 3-0 score.

Everyone who follows CIS Dota-scene knows that there is one team that is much stronger than others – that is Virtus.pro, who took 5-6th place at The International 2017 and decided to keep their roster to make it to the next International (this time to win it). But currently there is also another team who looks dominant in the region – Natus Vincere, who recently added Rodjer and Crystalize to their line-up. Na`Vi were on a winning streak and everyone was interested in the outcome of the VP vs Na`Vi match, that was played in the semifinals. Despite showing weakness in the second map, VP managed to win 2-1 in the series and to prove that they are still the strongest team in the region. In the Grand Finals VP defeated Team Spirit 3-0.

Chinese qualifiers are always packed with big names: LGD, Vici, EHOME, Invictus. But this time a little miracle happened: an almost unknown team from the open qualifiers called Keen Gaming made it to the Grand Final of the closed qualifier and outplayed LGD Gaming– the 4th place of The International 2017 – with the 3-2 score. In their way, they also defeated For The Dream (2-1), Invictus Gaming (2-1), iG Vitality (2-0).

In the Southeast Asia one of the most prominent team is Mineski, who was formed around the experienced captain Mushi and one of the best offlaners in the world iceiceice. Previously Mineski managed to win two qualifiers for StarLadder i-League Invitational #3 and PGL Open Bucharest, but they were defeated in the quarterfinals of the ESL One Hamburg qualifiers, so the door was opened for other teams. The Grand Final was played between two Philippine teams – Clutch Gamers and HappyFeet. The latter were stronger and defeated their opponents 3-0.

Consequently, the list of teams that will take part in the LAN-finals of ESL One Hamburg major tournament looks as follows:

• Team Liquid (Invited)
• Newbee (Invited)
• Virtus.pro (CIS Qualifier)
• Team Secret (Europe Qualifier)
• Keen Gaming (China Qualifier)
• HappyFeet (Southeast Asia Qualifier)
• Evil Geniuses (North America Qualifier)
• SG e-sports (South America Qualifier)

ESL One Hamburg LAN-finals will be held at Barclaycard Arena in Hamburg, Germany on October 28-29. The prize pool is set at $1,000,000, the top-4 teams will also get Qualifiers Points for The International 2018.