With the ESL One Hamburg 2019 less than a month away, four Dota 2 teams have been confirmed to be participating. A total of 12 teams are expected to be part of this tournament. Held on October 25 to October 27, the tournament comes with a prize pool of $300,000.
So far the four teams that have been confirmed offer some exciting previews of what is to come in the upcoming DPC season. The teams are:
- Virtus.pro
- The team received a direct invite to the tournament. However, they still need to find some players in order to have a complete roster. Roman "RAMZES666" Kushnarev made the decision to leave and join Evil Geniuses with Pavel "9pasha" Khvastunov going for Natus Vincere. That leaves the team with Vladimir "No[o]ne" Minenko, Vladimir "RodjER" Nikogosyan, and Alexei "Solo" Berezin.
- TNC Predator
- Like Virtus.pro, TNC received a direct invite to the tournament. This SEA team was one of those who surprised the Dota 2 community. After days of silence, the team announced Carlo "Kuku" Palad and Nico "eyyou" Barcelon were leaving the team. Kuku has since joined with Malaysian team Geek Fam. With these moves, the team was left with Kim "Gabbi" Villafuerte, Armel Paul "Armel" Tabios, and Timothy "Tims" Randrup. They will be joined by Damien "kpii" Chok and Park "March" Tae-won to complete the roster.
- Vici Gaming
- VG also managed to get a direct invite. Though the team has a complete roster, Team Captain Pan "Fade" Yi departed and joined Team Aster. Replacing him is Xiong "Pyw" Jiahan. Another change was Zhang Chengjun changing his in-game ID to Eurus.
- Gambit Esports
- Gambit enters the competition after winning the GG.Bet Hamburg Invitational. This was held from September 15 to 19 and had Gambit defeat six teams to enter the ESL One tournament.
The other teams that are set to be part of this competition are:
- Direct Invite (4)
- Europe Qualifier (1)
- North American Qualifier (1)
- China Qualifier (1)
- Southeast Asia Qualifier (1)
The Qualifiers are already ongoing and are expected to be done by September 29. For the Southeast Asia Qualifier, it is SD Dragons going against Geek Fam for a slot in the Grand Finals. The China Qualifiers have Team Aster and CDEC Gaming in the same situation. Meanwhile, the Europe Qualifier has Vikin.gg fighting it out with Wind and Rain for a chance at the Grand Finals. The first set of games for the North America Qualifier are currently being played.
