Preview of ESL One Hamburg 2017

[The general information]

Matches of the first Major tournament start on October 26 this year. The multipurpose Barclaycard arena was chosen as a venue, it can hold up to 16,000 people. The stadium was built in 2002 and is a home arena for Hamburg Freezers and HC «Hamburg». During the time of its existence, it hosted WWE events, a few concerts of the band Scooter, a concert of Sting and the Handball World Cup 2007.

[The format]

This championship will be carried out in two stages - the group stage and the playoffs. We will see a GSL system with matches till two victories in the group stage, two best teams from each group will go to the playoffs, where they will be put in a single-elimination bracket with bo3 matches, including the grand final.

It is worth to notice that eight teams will take part in the competition, two of which have received direct invitations and this fact generated a lot of resentment from the community. Lots of people think that Major tournaments must consist of 16 participants. ESL argued their decision with the fact that the budget for the competition had been planned before the announcement of the tournament system.

The distribution of teams by groups:

Evil Geniuses
Fnatic
Newbee
Team Secret

Group В

Keen Gaming
Team Liquid
SG e-Sports
Virtus.Pro

[The distribution of a prize pool]

Organizers of the competition satisfied all Valve’s requirements and received a Major status, so a prize pool of the final stage amounts $1,000,000 and 1500 points that are required to get to The International 8 directly.

1st place: $500,000 + 750 points
2nd place: $200,000 + 450 points
3rd-4th place: $90,000 + 150 points
5th-6th place: $40,000
7th-8th place: $20,000

We cannot but remind the fact that the best player of the competition receives the new Mercedes-Benz from sponsors of the championship and the determination of the best player of the tournament will be made with a help of a voting of viewers and English-speaking talents.

[The list of talents]

• Paul «ReDeYe» Chaloner - Desk host
• Oliver James Borg «OJ Borg» D'Anastasi - Stage host
• Troels Lyngholt «syndereN» Nielsen - Analyst
• Ben «Merlini» Wu - Analyst
• Alan «Nahaz» Bester - Analyst
• Jorien «Sheever» van der Heijden - Reporter
• Owen «ODPixel» Davies - Caster
• Austin «Capitalist» Walsh - Caster
• William «Blitz» Lee - Caster
• Jonathan «PimpmuckL» Liebig - Observer
• Aleksandar «bukka» Bukurecki - Observer
• Ben «Noxville» Steenhuisen - Statistician

[The list of participants]

Team Liquid: MinD_ControL, Kuroky, Miracle~, GH, MATUMBAMAN.

Many people thought that Team Liquid would play an order of magnitude worse after a victory at The International 2017 due to a lack of motivation, however, this is not about KuroKy and the company. The roster took part in StarLadder i-League Invitational 3 and won the championship without an effort, having beaten Mineski in the grand final with a score 3:1. “The Liquids” lost only one map during the whole championship. Now, it’s safe to say that the champions of The International 2017 still have an incredible shape and are the main favorites for the upcoming championship and their victory will be received as something normal.

Odds for a victory in the championship - 2,5.

Virtus.Pro: Lil, RAMZES666, 9pasha, No[o]ne, Solo.

After The International 2017, Virtus.pro played a small number of official matches and also they played against the CIS teams. “The Bears” proved that they had no equals on the post-soviet territory, having won qualifications to ESL One Hamburg 2017 and AMD SAPPHIRE Dota PIT League, however, things went not so good in the match against OG at the qualifiers to DreamLeague Season 8 - the teams made a draw, considering that the European mix was on the downside after the signing of Resolut1on. The Russian-Ukrainian roster must get to the playoffs and we will see very soon what will be after that. It is also worth to notice that bookmakers believe in the power of Virtus.pro and set them on the second place in the rate of potential winners of the first Major tournament in this gaming season.

Odds for a victory in the championship - 3,9.

Newbee: Moogy, Sccc, Kpii, Faith, Kaka.

The Chinese team had won the qualification to DreamLeague Season 8 without an effort, with which proved its power online, however, Sccc and the company failed at the first LAN final in the season - StarLadder i-League Invitational 3. The majority of fans and analysts supposed Newbee, at least, to reach the final but the guys had somehow been replaced before coming to Kiev. The roster looked absolutely defenseless and held the last place at the championship, having broken lots of bets and hopes. It is not also worth to forget that the roster had a long flight and a probable absence of motivation before the Major tournament, so the repeat of the failure is unlikely to happen.

Odds for a victory in the championship - 6,8.

Team Secret: Puppey, MidOne, YapzOr, Fata, Ace.

Team Secret shows a very good performance online but often fails at the LANs. The team held the 3rd-4th place at StarLadder i-League Invitational Season 3, however, had very big problems, losing two of four matches on the stage. In its turn, Puppey and the company could not get to the playoffs at PGL Open Bucharest, having lost to Immortals twice, and left the championship, having held the 5th-6th place. Considering a busy scheduling of matches, it is unlikely that the team has worked on itself, so we will see the same performance from “The Secrets” but the opponents at the Major tournament look a way more serious than at the previous championships.

Odds for a victory in the championship - 7,7.

Keen Gaming: zhizhizhi, 荧, dark, 佞臣, rong.

The team was created on January this year and became “the king of open qualifiers”, winning one after another open qualification, however, the guys missed something at closed qualifications. The roster protected colors of EHOME.Keen and during the season, gained a good shape and they lacked only one victory in one match at the qualifiers to The International 2017 to go to the main championship of the year - the team lost to LGD Gaming with a score 2:0. After TI7, the organization made a rebranding and the roster changed its name to Keen Gaming. The guys decided not to make replacements on the main roster and it benefitted - the Chinese team held the first place at the qualification to ESL One Hamburg 2017. Probably, the team is going to Germany, having very ambitious aims, but it is unlikely that they will get to the playoffs, especially, considering so strong opponents.

Odds for a victory in the championship - 18,6.

Fnatic: EternaLEnVy, Xcalibur, Ohaiyo, Dj, pieliedie.

Initially, HappyFeet had to go to the tournament as they had won a qualification to the competition in Southeast Asia, however, they had visa issues, so organizers made a decision to give a slot to the team Fnatic that had held the 3rd-4th place at the qualifiers. The roster had assembled on September this year but has not been able to hold the leading place even in Southeast Asia. The only championship, where PieLieDie and the company participated, was The Major League, where Fnatic held the third place. Considering that the majority of the roster’s players has a lot of experience of performing on the professional stage, the team will probably struggle for getting to the playoffs but not more than that.

Odds for a victory in the championship - 24,9.

Evil Geniuses: Arteezy, Suma1L, UNiVeRsE, Cr1t~, Fear.

Evil Geniuses played only in one final stage of the championship in this gaming season - PGL Open Bucharest. The team held the 3rd-4th place that is quite not enough for one of the best teams on the professional stage. Fear and the company obviously differ from other teams with unusual picks, however, this is not always in favor of Evil Geniuses. Probably, PGL Open Bucharest was only a preparation for the more important championship and considering the ability of Evil Geniuses to concentrate on an important tournament, we can expect a good performance from the team. The guys will be able to get to the playoffs and at the moment, only Team Liquid and Mineski look stronger than the Americans, however, the last one will not take part in the championship, so reaching the final will be enough proper result. Virtus.pro will also be able to make problems to Evil Geniuses but the statistics state that the Americans are one of the most uncomfortable opponents for “the mice”, so everything is up to Suma1L and the company.

Odds for a victory in the championship - 5,5.

SG e-Sports: FuckinEh, 4dr, Liposa, Bardo, Thiolicor.

The Brazilian team looks like an obvious outsider again, especially considering the 5th-6th place at StarLadder i-League Invitational Season 3, where SG e-Sports was not able to reach the playoffs. To be fair, it is worth to notice that the Brazilians lost only two matches in the championship and both teams-winners got to the grand final. We would like to say that it is early to discount SG e-Sports but Virtus.Pro and Team Liquid look as obvious favorites of the group and there are only two slots in the playoffs. It is likely that 4dr and the company will go to the tournament, sensationally take points away from a stronger team and leave the event.

Odds for a victory in the championship - 46,2.

[The last tournament in the patch 7.06f]

The developers of the game have already announced that a new global patch will be launched on November 1 this year, so this championship is the last one at the version 7.06f. We would like to notice that new teams usually start leading after global patches, so we insistently recommend you to watch this Major.