Virtus.pro Claim Their Second ESL One Championship

This weekend Spodek Arena in Katowice, Poland hosted the final stage of Dota 2 major tournament ESL One Katowice 2018. In the Grand Final Virtus.pro faced Vici Gaming. The series ended with 3-1 score in favour of the Russian team.

ESL One Katowice 2018 featured 16 teams competing for a $1,000,000 prize pool and 1500 qualification points. First, they were seeded into two GSL groups with the top team from each group advancing directly to the semifinals, while the teams placed 2nd and 3rd made it to the quarterfinals. Fnatic and Vici Gaming placed first in their groups, the other teams that made it to the single-elimination playoffs bracket were Virtus.pro and Team Liquid from Group A and Team Secret and Evil Geniuses from Group B.

Group Stage Results

Group A

Upper Bracket

Lower Bracket

Group B

Upper Bracket

Lower Bracket

Vici Gaming outplayed Liquid in the semifinals, thus advanced to the grand finals. Meanwhile VP managed to overcome Evil Geniuses and avenged Fnatic. Both teams that lost in the semifinals played in a 3rd place decider match, which ended with the 2-1 score in favour of Liquid. In the Grand Finals Virtus.pro defeated Vici Gaming 3-1, securing their second ESL One championship title, 400,000$ in prize money and 750 Dota Pro Circuit points per player.

Playoffs Results

Tournament Results

Place	$ USD	DPC Points	Team
1st	$400,000	750	Virtus.pro
2nd	$200,000	450	Vici Gaming
3rd	$120,000	225	Team Liquid
4th	$80,000	75	Fnatic
5th-6th	$50,000	-	Team Secret, Evil Geniuses
7th-8th	$20,000	-	OG, Newbee
9th-12th	$10,000	-	Mineski, OpTic Gaming, Team Kinguin, LGD Gaming
13th-16th	$5,000	-	Effect, compLexity Gaming, Infamous, Natus Vincere