ESL One Frankfurt will kick off tomorrow, June 20, at 10:00 CEST, in Frankfurt, Germany, featuring Virtus.Pro, Team Secret, Invictus Gaming, Evil Geniuses, Alliance, Cloud 9, ViCi Gaming and Fnatic. The eight teams will be competing all throughout the weekend for the championship title and a total prize pool of over $292,414.
Eight teams will compete at the Commerzbank-Arena – one of the biggest stadiums in Germany, with a capacity of more than 52,000, in a best-of-three single elimination format. The ESL One Frankfurt Grand Finals will be best-of-five series.
With the completion of the seeding phase, the captains of the top three teams were given the privilege to choose their first opponents in the main event:
- Virtus.Pro chose to face Alliance
- Team Secret chose to go up against Fnatic
- Invictus Gaming picked Cloud9
- Evil Geniuses were left to face ViCi Gaming
ESL One Frankfurt hosts, casters, analysts, streams
William “Chobra” Cho will host his first ever Dota 2 event in Frankfurt with the help of Ben “Merlini” Wu, Jacob “Maelk” Toft-Andersen and Kai “H4nn1” Hanbückers, who will be providing the in-depth insight and game knowledge before and after the matches.
Toby “TobiWan” Dawson and Austin “Capitalist” Welsh will be the commentators, with Troels “Synderen” Nielsen and William “Blitz” Lee providing live analysis of the games.
Hosting duties will be shared between Sean Charles and Salome “Soe” Gschwind-Penski.
- English Stream 1 – ESL
- English Stream 2 – JoinDota
- Russian Stream 1 – Storm Studio 1
- Russian Stream 2 – Storm Studio 2
ESL One Frankfurt schedule
Saturday, June 20th
- 9:00 CEST: Admission
- 10:15 – 13:15 CEST: Quarterfinal #1 – Virtus.Pro vs Alliance
- 13:30 – 16:30 CEST: Quarterfinal #2 – Team Secret vs Fnatic
- 16:45 – 19:45 CEST: Quarterfinal #3 – Invictus Gaming vs Cloud 9
- 20:00 – 23:00 CEST: Quarterfinal #4 – Evil Geniuses vs ViCi Gaming
Sunday, June 21st
- 10:00 CEST:Semi Finals 1
- 13:00 CEST:Semi Finals 2
- 16:00 CEST:Grand Finals
ESL One Frankfurt prize pool distribution
- 1st place: ~$114,218 (40%)
- 2nd place: ~$57,109 (20%)
- 3rd place: ~$28,555 (10%)
- 4th place: ~$28,555 (10%)
- 5th place: ~$14,277 (5%)
- 6th place: ~$14,277 (5%)
- 7th place: ~$14,277 (5%)
- 8th place: ~$14,277 (5%)
ESL One Frankfurt tickets
All main event matches will be viewable through the DotaTV ESL One Event ticket, available for $1.99. The Treasure of the Endless Gaze, the Treasure of the Distinguished Conqueror, and the Relics of Glorious Inspiration are also available for purchase.
ESL One Frankfurt tickets are still on sale, at prices ranging from 19.90 EUR to 2,999 EUR.
ESL One Frankfurt invited teams
Three teams were directly invited to the main event.
ViCi Gaming
ViCi Gaming placed first at ESL One New York. During the seeding phase for ESL One Frankfurt 2015, the Chinese team did not place in the top four seeds and were set to face fourth place seeded team Evil Geniuses in the first round of the main event.
The Chinese team had been dominating both the region and the world, seizing first and second placements all throughout the season. The direct invite to The International 5 was expected for the team and they are still feared by many even after some recent disappointing performances. They finished third at the Summit 3, second at i-League and fourth in the MarsTV Dota 2 League.
ViCi Gaming roster
Chen Zhihao “Hao”
Xie Junhao “Super”
Daryl Koh “iceiceice”
Lu Chao “Fenrir”
Xu Linsen “fy”
Evil Geniuses
The North American giants placed fourth in the seeding round and were left with the only not chosen team, ViCi Gaming, as their first opponents for the main event.
Evil Geniuses placed second at ESL One New York. They are the premier team of the North American region. Since placing third at The International 4, Evil Geniuses have continued to prove their talent, taking top placements in various tournaments. Despite a surprisingly subpar performance and placement at the MLG Pro League Finals, at X-Games, earlier this month, Evil Geniuses are still a main contender.
Evil Geniuses roster
Clinton “Fear” Loomis
Syed Sumail “Suma1L” Hassan
Saahil “UNiVeRsE” Arora
Kurtis “Aui_2000” Ling
Peter “ppd” Dager
Team Secret
Team Secret placed second in the seeding phase of the ESL One Frankfurt tournament and chose to challenge Fnatic in their first round.
Team Secret placed third at ESL One New York. The star studded team has been in the spotlight since their inception, placing high in numerous major and premier tournaments in their relatively short period of time together. The team has taken three consecutive LAN wins, within a month recently, starting with Red Bull Battle Grounds, then The Summit 3 and, most recently, the MarsTV Dota 2 League.
Team Secret roster
Artour “Arteezy” Babaev
Gustav “s4” Magnusson
Ludwig “zai” Wåhlberg
Clement “Puppey” Ivanov
Kuro “KuroKy” Salehi Takhasomi
ESL One Frankfurt qualified teams
Five teams were granted LAN spots through battling out to be the representatives from three regions. Europe was given three spots, while China and South East Asia one each.
Alliance
The Swedish team was unable to secure a win in the seeding phase and have been chosen by the first place team, Virtus.Pro, to battle it out in the first round of the ESL One Frankfurt main event.
The Alliance bested Na’Vi, 2:0, in the European ESL One qualifier, becoming the first team to qualify for the LAN event. After numerous roster changes and inconsistent performances, the team has recently started to pick up momentum again, with the addition of Sébastien “7ckingMad” Debs and the return of Henrik “AdmiralBulldog” Ahnberg.
However, Alliance continue to struggle to place high and secure wins. They were able to take the second place at the MLG Pro League Finals, at X-Games. The team then finished fourth in the DreamLeague Season 3 LAN finals, at Dreamhack Summer.
The Alliance roster
Per Anders “Pajkatt” Olsson
Jonathan “Loda” Berg
Joakim “Akke” Akterhall
Sébastien “7ckingMad” Debs
Henrik “AdmiralBulldog” Ahnberg
Virtus.Pro
Virtus.Pro swept through all of their opponents in the seeding phase for ESL One Frankfurt and secured the first place, thus taking the first choice in selecting an opponent for the first round of the main event. Virtus.Pro have chosen Alliance as their first challenge.
Virtus.Pro earned the second spot for the ESL One Frankfurt main event, after a solid 2-0 victory over Team Empire. In the last year, the roster has shifted significantly and many changes have occurred within the organization, but with this latest roster changes the team has been displaying stellar performances and are quickly rising to the top of fan favorites for TI5.
After taking first place at the ASUS Play it Cool invitational, the team had a sub-par performace at the MLG Pro League Finals, at X-Games, earlier this month, but then came back to claim the championship title in the DreamLeague Season 3 LAN finals.
Virtus.Pro roster
Ilya “Illidan” Pivcaev
Sergey “God” Bragin
Alexander “DkPhobos” Kucheria
Artem “fng” Barshak
Ilya “Lil” Ilyuk
Fnatic
Fnatic (formerly known as Team Malaysia) had a difficult time in the seeding matches. They only managed to take down Cloud 9. The team was not able to secure a top four placement and were chosen by the second place team, Team Secret, to face off in the first round of the ESL One Frankfurt main event.
Fnatic have qualified for ESL One Frankfurt by defeating Mineski, 2:0. The Malaysian team was founded in March 2015 and have been dominating the SEA region ever since. They qualified for five LAN events in just five weeks, and they have shown cohesion and synergy in their relatively short period of time together.
The team was signed by Fnatic only a few weeks ago. Recently, they placed third at the MLG Pro League Finals, at X-Games.
Fnatic roster
“kYxY” Lee Kang Yang
“Kecik Imba” Fadil bin Mohd Raziff
“Ohaiyo” Chong Xin Khoo
“JoHnNy” Siong Tait
“Mushi” Chai Yee Fung
Invictus Gaming
Invictus Gaming were able to secure the third place in the seeding phase and chose Cloud 9 as their opponents for the first round of the ESL One Frankfurt main event.
The ESL One Frankfurt 2014 champions return to Germany to defend their title and try to claim the prize. Invictus Gaming triumphed over Newbee, 2:0, in the best-of-three regional grand finals. The Chinese powerhouse has been struggling recently, despite maintaining a strong presence. Invictus Gaming were able to grab second place at the StarLadder Season XII LAN finals, but they continue to place around fifth as of late.
Invictus Gaming roster
Luo Feichi “Ferrari_430”
Wong Hock Chuan “Chuan”
Yinqi Luo “Xi”
Zeng Hongda “Faith”
Zhilei Xu “burning”
Cloud 9
Cloud 9 struggled in the seeding phase of the event, possibly due to playing with a stand-in, Pascal “paS-” Lohmeier, to replace Armand “bOne7″ Pittner who was having surgery.
Cloud 9 were the last team to qualify for the main event in Germany, attaining their spot after defeating Na’Vi, 2:0. Cloud 9 have shown steady accomplishments since their appearance at The International 4, but have a reputation of “always placing second”. The team most recently placed third at the MarsTV Dota 2 League and at the StarLadder Season XII LAN finals.
Cloud 9 roster
Jacky “Eternal Envy” Mao
Adrian “FATA-“ Trinks
Pittner “bOne7” Armand
Johan “BigDaddy” Sundstein
Rasmus “MiSeRy” Filipsen
ESL One Frankfurt 2015 venue
The Commerzbank-Arena, commonly known by its original name, Waldstadion, is a sports stadium in Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany. The stadium with a total capacity of almost 52,000 opened in 1925 and has been upgraded several times since then, most recently for the 2006 FIFA World Cup.
The ESL One Frankfurt LAN playoffs and finals will be held in open-air, due to a roof tear at the Commerzbank Arena.
Photo Credits: ESL, Team Secret, Kelly Milkies, Evil Geniuses, Commerzbank-Arena
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