Tundra Esports Wins ESL One Birmingham ‘Dota 2’ Tournament
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A new ESL One champion has been crowned. Credit: EFG / Adela Sznajder
Tundra Esports has won the ESL One Birmingham Dota 2 tournament by beating Team Yandex 3-1 in the grand final earlier today. The victory sees Tundra claim the $250,000 first place prize and their second major trophy of the year having won DreamLeague Season 28 just a few weeks ago.
The grand final saw Tundra face off against Team Yandex for the third time during the event, and once again Tundra came out on top, having beaten Yandex 2-0 in the upper bracket final and drawing 1-1 in the group stage.
Despite losing map one, Tundra fought back to take an impressive 3-1 victory that featured an epic 62 minute game, which really seemed to turn the tide of the final, as it was Tundra’s first map win. Yandex struggled to come back from that loss, which eventually led to Tundra winning the next two maps relatively easily to win the tournament.
Tundra’s victory was well received with the Birmingham crowd, thanks to British player Matthew "Ari" Walker being the lone local favourite in the main event. Seeing a UK player win a major LAN in their home country is a rarity in any esport, so this made the event even sweeter for the fans in attendance.
Tundra had been the favourites for much of the tournament, thanks to their style of play that, if it worked out, could quickly run over opponents. However, it was Yandex that came out above Tundra in the group stage, with the former taking the top spot in Group A over Tundra by a single map win. Despite Aurora and Team Spirit looking impressive in Group B, both were beaten by their Group A rivals in the first round of the upper bracket and quickly eliminated when they hit the lower bracket.
After the top teams from Group B were eliminated it felt inevitable that it would be Tundra and Yandex who met in the final, with both teams looking to be a step above the rest of the field. While the final may not have quite delivered an epic back and forth best of five, the matches between the two were always entertaining and some of the most fun LAN Dota we have seen for a while.
Of course that level of entertainment was helped by the fact that a major patch was released in the middle of the tournament, removing major features from the game such as facets, adding new items and rebalancing almost every hero. Then a smaller balance patch released in the latter stages changed things even further.
ESL One Birmingham was, once again, of the best LAN events we have seen in Dota 2 for a while, with the UK crowd always adding a lot to the show and feel of the event. The impressive stage set up and expected top tier production levels only helped, and resulted in an event that will live long in the memory for many Dota fans. Tundra’s victory was well deserved, and they will now be looking ahead to the likes of The International and Esports World Cup as major trophies they will want to claim before the end of the season.
