ESL One Birmingham 2020: Everything you need to know

UPDATE: 

ESL has since announced this year's Birmingham event will now take place online.

You can check out more information on the changes here. 

Original story: 

After its debut as the ESL One Birmingham Major in 2018, the Dota 2 esports tournament became a non-DPC event in 2019.

In January this year, ESL announced the return of ESL One Birmingham for its third consecutive year. We are really excited about this spectacular Dota 2 tournament returning to the UK and if the last two iterations of ESL One Birmingham are anything to go by, Dota 2 fans should expect another epic tournament this year.

Here's everything you need to know about ESL One Birmingham 2020.

Location, dates and tickets

The ESL One Birmingham 2020 tournament's main event will take place in the UK at the Arena Birmingham venue from 26-31st May 2020, so mark those details in your calendar.

The group stage will run from 26-28th May, with doors opening each day at 10am GMT. This will be followed by a pre-show at 11:30am. At 12pm, the group stage matchups will begin and are expected to conclude by approximately 7.20pm each day.

Group stage schedue (Picture: ESL) 

The main event matches, which will be played live from Arena Birmingham, will take place from 29-31st May.

Matches are expected to kick off at 12:00pm and run until 7.40pm on the 29th and 30th of May. On Sunday 31st May two matches will take place, with the lower bracket final taking place at 12pm and the grand final set to commence at 4pm.

Please note: All times are in British Summer Time (BTS). All times are estimated and subject to change. According to ESL, the matches can start earlier or later depending on when the previous matches.

Playoffs schedule (Picture: ESL) 

Tickets can be purchased online right now and there's an “early bird sale" until 31st March 2020. Weekend Pass ticket prices start at £39 (+fees) and go all the way up to £129 (+fees) for the Premium Pass.

Attendees who pick up the Weekend Premium Pass and the Weekend Plus Pass will also get a goodie bag, packed with exclusive souvenirs and items from ESL One Birmingham 2020.

Premium Weekend Pass holders will gain access to premium signing sessions, while others will have access to open signing sessions.

If you plan on attending the tournament, ESL has you covered with a dedicated visitors section that shows you where you can stay, travel options, and a FAQ section.

Prize pool and structure

The ESL One Birmingham 2020 tournament isn't a Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) event, but that won't stop the top Dota 2 esports teams from giving it everything.

There is a £265,680 (at the current Dollar to Euro exchange rate) prize pool up for grabs alongside the beautiful trophy. There's also the pride of becoming the ESL One Birmingham 2020 champion on the line.

If the prize pool distribution stays the same as last year, each of the teams will receive a share of the prize pool. Additionally, the team that wins the tournament could take home as much as £110,700.

Group Stage structure

Teams will be split into two groups of six using a round-robin best of two (BO2) format. The top two teams from each group will progress to the upper bracket of the playoffs.

Teams that finish third and fourth place in each group will progress to the lower bracket of the playoffs. The bottom two placing teams in each group will be eliminated from the tournament.

Playoffs structure

The teams who make it out of the Group Stage will fight in the playoffs with a double-elimination bracket. The playoffs bracket is split into an Upper and Lower Bracket depending on the teams' placement in the Group Stage.

All matches are BO3, except for the Grand Final, which is BO5.

ESL One Birmingham 2020 teams

There are a total of 12 teams competing at ESL One Birmingham, with eight teams receiving direct invites, and four teams from the regional qualifiers.

Direct invites

At the time of writing, the first four direct invite teams for ESL One Birmingham 2020 have been announced.

• OG
• TNC Predator
• Evil Geniuses
• Invictus Gaming

The ESL One Birmingham 2020 teams look very strong, with top tier teams from four regions. and we have four more direct invites to go.

ESL first announced the back-to-back TI winners, OG, who recently acquired Martin "Saksa" Sazdov, Yeik "MidOne" Nai Zhengto and Syed Sumail "SumaiL" Hassan. With the announcement of Evil Geniuses joining the tournament, we could see an absolute slugfest between OG and Evil Geniuses, if they meet in their Group Stage or the Playoffs.

It will be exciting to see SumaiL take on his former team EG with his new squad, OG.

From the SEA region comes TNC Predator, arguably one of the top teams from the region. Then we also have the Chinese juggernauts Invictus Gaming who will stop at nothing to claim the trophy.

Check out the announcements for the confirmed teams so far below.

OG

TNC Predator

Evil Geniuses

Invictus Gaming

We will keep you up to date as more teams get announced for ESL One Birmingham 2020.

Regional qualifiers

There will be four regional qualifiers for ESL One Birmingham made up of teams who survive the gruelling open qualifiers.

The winners of the regional qualifier will fill the final four spots of the tournament. At the time of writing, dates and times for the open and regional qualifiers have not been announced. We will update this article as soon as the information becomes available.

Qualifiers will be held for the following regions:

• Europe
• SEA
• North America
• China

ESL One Birmingham talent

Talent for ESL One Birmingham hasn't been revealed yet. However, if the broadcast talent and production value from the last two tournaments are anything to go by, we are in for a treat.

We will keep you up to date as talent gets announced for the tournament.

Activities for attendees

While watching some of the top Dota 2 esports teams in the world fight it out should be enough to get any Dota 2 fan drooling, there are also extra activities to enjoy. Activities announced for ESL Birmingham 2020 include:

ESL Shop - "Official Valve-licensed Dota 2 merch, the newest ESL apparel and the widest range of team merchandise are all waiting for you at the ESL Shop in Birmingham!”

Airbrush tattoos - "Support your favourite team and players at ESL One Birmingham 2020 and get their colours, nicknames or team logos airbrushed all over you for the weekend!”

Signing sessions - "All 12 teams and talent will have signing sessions! This is your chance to finally get that autograph you always wanted.”

Partner booths - "The concours at Arena Birmingham will be packed with our partners giving you the opportunity to play games, win prizes and try out the latest hardware!”