The ESL One Katowice

Kirill | 2018-03-04 |

For the first time, a Major DotA 2 tournament was held in Poland, a nation that has recently come forth with the emergence of Team Kinguin in Europe. The ESL opted for the attractive industrial region of Silesia for the current stage of the competitive circuit.

The Major of Katowice was held in the south of Poland, not far from Krakow. It’s just the third Major of the season with a $1,000,000 prize pool and 1,500 DPC.

Invited Teams

Sixteen teams were reunited for a tournament that concluded on Sunday in the heart of Spodek Arena. Among them, all the teams that were a force to be reckoned within the Pro Circuit: the top 8 DPC were invited and the next three teams in the standings secured a place through the Qualifiers. We also got to see two dark horses of the season from the European Qualifiers: OG and the new formation of Team Kinguin.

Competition Format

The tournament took place in two stages. A group stage went through double elimination brackets with eight competitors in each bracket. The first round was played in Bo1 and lead to surprising results, especially in group B as Fnatic beat Na’Vi and in the next game, Team Kinguin outclassed Newbee. Playoffs were played by only six teams, the finalists of Winner Bracket with the winners of Loser Bracket of both groups. The ESL, therefore, resumed the same format as they tested at the ESL One Genting at the end of January.

High Expectations from OG

Should we finally believe in the return of OG? The European team, after a very sluggish start to the season, followed the good performances in the recent Qualifiers. The side claimed its place in three new tournaments on the competitive circuit. This week they qualified for the DreamLeague 9 and the Epicenter XL, after securing their ticket to the DAC. Since January, OG has dominated all the European Qualifiers. It remains to be confirmed in LAN.

OG’s Run

Unfortunately, the side failed to deliver and was eliminated in the initial rounds of the competition. OG beat Planet Dog and Team World to qualify for the ESL One Katowice 2018 for Europe. In the group stage, the side was placed in group A amongst Liquid, Mineski, Virtus.Pro, and others.

In the first Bo1 series against Vici Gaming, they were brutally beaten and knocked down to lower bracket. In the lower bracket, they managed to beat Effect 2-0.

In the 2nd round of loser bracket, they managed to eliminate one of the favorites, Mineski, from the competition. After that, the side was confident that they would make it to the quarterfinals. However, unfortunately luck was not on their side as they were up against the TI Champions, Team Liquid.

The opposition of OG showed them no mercy and the side was comprehensively beaten 2-0. That ended OG’s run in the competition.

Winners

Virtus.Pro took home the Major trophy, as well as $400,000 and 750 DPC points. Second place and $200,000 went to Vici Gaming, followed by Team Liquid and Fnatic in third and fourth, respectively.