PARIVISION and Xtreme Gaming pulled off clutch wins on the final day of group-stage competition on Wednesday to advance into the playoffs of the ESL One Birmingham event in England.
The teams entered the day in sixth and eighth place, respectively, in Group A and Group B. PARIVISION secured its second win over Yakult Brothers and then won a pair of one-off tiebreakers over GamerLegion and BetBoom to clinch the fourth spot.
In other Group A action before the tiebreakers, BetBoom beat GamerLegion while Team Yandex and Tundra Esports locked down the top two spots in the group with wins over MOUZ and REKONIX. MOUZ still finished in third place and advanced despite the loss.
Xtreme Gaming used a win over OG — its first of the competition — and losses by three other teams ahead of them to jump up four spots into fourth place in Group B. The losses they needed were Aurora Gaming beating paiN Gaming, Team Spirit beating Nigma Galaxy and Team Falcons beating Virtus.pro. Aurora Gaming and Team Spirit claimed the top two spots in Group B with Team Falcons claiming third.
The $1 million Dota 2 tournament, featuring 16 teams, will award $750,000 in prize money and $250,000 in club rewards as well as 35,460 ESL Pro Tour points spread among all participants.
The top two teams from each group advanced to the upper bracket of the playoffs. The third- and fourth-place teams were delegated to the lower-bracket playoffs, with the remaining eight teams eliminated after Wednesday’s competition.
The playoffs will be contested Thursday through Sunday with a double-elimination bracket. All matches are best-of-three except for the grand final, which is best-of-five.
In Wednesday action, PARIVISION completed its win of Yakult Brothers with a 32-minute win on green followed by a 42-minute victory on red. Alan “Satanic” Gallyamov of Russia led the win with a 21-2-20 kill-death-assist ratio. Malaysia’s Daniel “Ghost” Chan led Yakult Brothers with a 7-8-6 K-D-A.
Yandex clinched the top spot with its 2-0 win over MOUZ, winning in 32 minutes and 31 minutes on green. Kazakhstan’s Alimzhan “watson” Islambekov led the win with an impressive 22-1-13 K-D-A, while Dutch competitor Remco “Crystallis” Arets led MOUZ with a 10-12-6 ratio.
Tundra locked up the second spot with a pair of 29-minute victories on red followed by on green. Bozhidar “bzm” Bogdanov led the win with a 19-3-27 ratio, and Saieful “Fbz” Ilham of Indonesia led REKONIX with a 4-11-8 K-D-A.
BetBoom Team’s 2-0 win over GamerLegion in 45 minutes and 58 minutes on green made the Group A tiebreaker a necessity. Ilya “Kiritych” Ulyanov of Russia posted a 21-6-35 K-D-A for BetBoom, beating out Edmond Dantes’ 11-16-24 ratio for GamerLegion.
PARIVISION won the first tiebreaker over GamerLegion in 45 minutes on green and followed with a 51-minute triumph on red over BetBoom. Gallyamov led the team with an 8-8-19 ratio in the two tiebreakers.
In Group B action, Xtreme Gaming did its part to advance with 41-minute and 39-minute wins on green to beat OG. Wang “Ame” Chunyu of China led the effort by totaling 11-2-30 against a 5-12-9 ratio for OG’s John “Natsumi-” Vargas from the Philippines.
Team Spirit beat Nigma Galaxy in 35 minutes on green and 49 minutes on red. Russia’s Denis “Larl” Sigitov led the win with a 17-2-27 K-D-A, while Tony “No!ob” Assaf of Lebanon led Nigma with a 14-11-13 ratio.
Team Falcons closed out the group stage with a 46-minute win on green followed by a 45-minute win on red over Virtus.pro. A 22-6-21 showing from Jordan’s Ammar “ATF” Al-Assaf led the way for Falcons against Abed “Abed” Yusop’s 18-6-18 ratio for Virtus.
Aurora Gaming finished atop the group with a 50-minute red victory followed by a 30-minute green beatdown of paiN. Egor “Nightfall” Grigorenko of Russia put up a 19-3-20 K-D-A to lead Aurora. Maximo “Wits” Orozco Alza led the Peruvian paiN squad with a 8-9-10 ratio.
Thursday schedule
Upper-bracket semifinals
Team Yandex vs. Team Spirit
Aurora Gaming vs. Tundra Esports
ESL One Birmingham standings
Position, Team, Match W-L (Maps W-L)
Group A
1. Team Yandex, 5-0-2 (12-2)
2. Tundra Esports, 4-0-3 (11-3)
3. MOUZ, 4-3-0 (8-6)
4. PARIVISION, 2-3-2 (6-8)
5. GamerLegion, 2-3-2 (6-8)
6. BetBoom, 2-3-2 (6-8)
7. Yakult Brothers, 1-3-3 (5-9)
8. REKONIX, 0-5-2 (2-12)
Group B
1. Aurora Gaming, 6-0-1 (13-1)
2. Team Spirit, 5-1-1 (11-3)
3. Team Falcons, 3-1-3 (9-5)
4. Xtreme Gaming, 1-2-4 (6-8)
5. Virtus.pro, 1-3-3 (5-9)
6. paiN Gaming, 0-3-4 (4-10)
7. OG, 0-3-4 (4-10)
8. Nigma Galaxy, 0-3-4 (4-10)
ESL One Birmingham prize pool (prize money, club reward)
1. TBD, $250,000, $40,000
2. TBD, $100,000, $30,000
3. TBD, $80,000, $25,000
4. TBD, $60,000, $20,000
5-6. TBD, $40,000, $15,000
7-8. TBD, $27,500, $12,500
9-10. GamerLegion, Virtus.pro; $20,000, $10,000
11-12. BetBoom Team, paiN Gaming; $17,500, $10,000
13-14. Yakult Brothers, OG; $15,000, $10,000
15-16. REKONIX, Nigma Galaxy; $10,000, $10,000
–Field Level Media
