After around two weeks of competition, the results are finally in for the Dota 2 ESL One Birmingham 2020 Online. While initially scheduled to include a live competition, ESL One Birmingham was later changed to be mainly an online tournament. While Dota 2 has six regions, the Birmingham tournament divided these into four, which are China, Europe/CIS, North America/South America, and Southeast Asia. We look at the results of the different regions below.
Staying on top
Fnatic once again proved why it’s now the top team in the Southeast Asia region. That’s not all as this tournament appeared to be all about Fnatic and BOOM Esports. At the end of the Group Stage, it was BOOM on top followed by Fnatic. This meant that the two teams faced each other in the first round of the Playoffs, with Fnatic getting a 2-0 win against BOOM.
BOOM dropped to the Losers’ Round, but managed to win 2-0 versus Geek Fam. BOOM and Fnatic faced off again in the Grand Finals. Fnatic took Game One with BOOM getting the victory in Game Two. After that it was all Fnatic, who went on to claim the top prize.
Back to form
For the China region, it appears that PSG.LGD is back, though the roster may be different. LGD ended the Group Stage with only one loss. During the playoffs it was no different. In the first round, LGD won against Invictus Gaming 2-0, in matches that lasted more than 40 minutes. In the second round the matches were shorter, with LGD beating out Royal Never Give Up 2-0.
In the finals, it was again a rematch between LGD and IG. PSG.LGD won the first game, which was a close one. However, IG would not back down and got the win on the second game. That would appear to have taken the wind out of IG as LGD won the next two games. Game Three finished in around 20 minutes, while the final match finished in under 30 minutes.
With the win, LGD appears to be one the way to getting back its foothold in the region.
Proving themselves
While Evil Geniuses had the advantage going into the tournament, it also meant they had a target on their backs. This was true especially with a lot of new teams in both North America and South America. Early on it was CR4ZY that took the lead in the Group Stage. However, when they reached the Winners’ Round, it was Quincy Crew that got the advantage with a 2-0 win to move to the Grand Finals. In the Losers’ Round, CR4ZY went against EG in two long games and managed to sweep them.
In the Grand Finals it was again Quincy and CR4ZY and it was pretty much a repeat of the Winners’ Round. Not only did Quincy sweep their opponent, they also did so in style.
What’s the magic number?
The biggest region was the CIS and Europe regions with 16 teams taking part. With a lot of strong teams in this tournament, it was Team Secret that took home the championship. There were two things that excited fans in this tournament.
In the Group Stage, Secret experienced its first loss since winning and being unbeaten in the OGA Dota PIT 2020 Online. However, after that it was all wins as Secret ended the Group Stage tied with Team Nigma.
In the first round of the Playoffs, Alliance managed to drop Secret to the Lower Bracket. Good teams know that being in the Lower Bracket isn’t that much of a problem and Secret more than proved this. In their fight to reach the Grand Finals, they only lost one match. They first won 2-0 against FlyToMoon before winning over Nigma 2-1. They then faced VP.Prodigy and swept them 2-0. This meant that they again faced Alliance in the Grand Finals.
The first game of the Grand Finals was a rout with Secret getting a 31-4 win and finishing in just under 30 minutes. The second game was pretty much the same with a 31-7 victory and again barely making it to 30 minutes. In the third game, Alliance did its best and this time it went beyond 40 minutes. Still the victory went to Secret. Care to guess how may kills Secret had? If you guessed 31 then you get the top prize as the final score was 31-22.
With that, one tournament may be finished, but there are a lot more happening. What’s your favorite moment of this tournament? Let us know in the comments below.
