ESL One Manila European spot secured by Team Empire

Team Empire got their grove back – seizing the ESL One Manila European spot for the main event. The Russian based squad convincingly overwhelmed Na’Vi 3:1. Merely days after grabbing the BTS Series 2 championship title and clinching the last spot for Dota Pit Season 4, they grabbed another decisive and significant victory. Team Empire will now be joining the other seven teams – Team Secret, EHOME, Team Liquid, compLexity Gaming and three regional representatives from Philippines, China and SEA to compete for the $250,000 prize pool from April 22-24.

Team Empire 3:1 @natusvincere

M A N I L A B O Y S

— Team Empire (@team_empire) February 17, 2016

ESL One Manila European Qualifiers

Team Empire was a Tier 1 invite for the ESL One Manila European qualifiers. They were placed into the second round immediately and bested HellRaisers 2:1. They then proceeded to overthrow London Conspiracy in a 2:0 sweep to advance to the grand finals.

Na’Vi embarked on a similar path to the grand finals. As a Tier 1 invite, they also were placed into the second round of the ESL One Manila European qualifiers to face Ad Finem first. After besting the Greek squad, they sacked Vega Squadron 2:0 to meet up with Team Empire in the deciding series.

Both Na’Vi and Team Empire have been marred by roster changes and subpar performances in recent months, with each team working hard to reclaim their former status and results.

Team Empire recently had announced their withdrawal from NoShang Invitational after a 0:2 loss to COOKISS. The team cited roster issues as the reason, having lost Roman “Resolut1on” Fominok to the North American team Digital Chaos on February 4th. They have since, however, been able to boast a perfect run to victory for the BTS series 2 and grab the final LAN spot for DotaPit Season 4 with Lozovoi “fn” Rostislav in their lineup.

ESL One Manila schedule

The new adjusted schedule will extend the tournament by one more day of competition. It will now start on Friday, April 22nd, with the initial group stage games.

ESL One Manila format

ESL One Manila format groupstage

• ESL One Manila group stage will be played in a classic GSL format.
• The eight participating teams will be split up into two groups of four.

  In each group, the teams will play best-of-three matches, as shown below:

  Match #1: Team A vs. Team B
  Match #2: Team C vs. Team D
  Winners’ match (WM): Winner of Match #1 vs. winner of Match #2 – winner advances to the Upper Bracket
  Losers’ match (EM): Loser of Match #1 vs. loser of Match #2 – loser drops to the Lower Bracket
  Decider match: Loser of WM vs. winner of EM – winner advances to the Upper Bracket and loser drops to Lower Bracket

• The group stage will determine the seeding for the main event.
• Four teams will be seeded into the main event Upper Brackets, while the remaining four will start the main event in the Lower Brackets.
• No teams will be eliminated in the group stage.

ESL One Manila format: Main event

• All teams will play a double-elimination bracket.
• Four teams (top two teams of each of the groups) will start the main event in the Upper Bracket.
• Four teams (bottom two teams of each of the groups) will start the main event in the Lower Bracket.
• All the Upper Bracket match-ups will be best-of-three series.
• The first round of the Lower Bracket matches will be best-of-one elimination series. The following rounds will be best-of-three elimination series.
• The Grand Finals will be best-of-five series, with no winners’ advantage.

ESL One Manila teams

ESL One Manila invited teams

• EHOME
• Team Liquid
• Team Secret

ESL One Manila qualified teams

Qualifiers are currently still underway

• ESL One Manila Americas spot: compLexity Gaming
• ESL One Manila European spot: Team Empire
• ESL One Manila Chinese spot: TBD
• ESL One Manila Filipino spot: TBD
• ESL One Manila SEA spot: TBD

ESL One Manila

On December 8th ESL One announced the organization’s first Dota 2 tournament to be held in Southeast Asia. ESL One Manila will be organized in collaboration with PLDT Fibr and GameX and is Southeast Asia’s first premier esports event.

ESL One Manila will take place between April 22-24, at the Mall of Asia Arena, in Manila, Philippines.

In effort to grow the local scene and showcase regional talent, a local Filipino Dota 2 team will qualify to compete alongside some of the best Dota 2 teams in the world for a $250,000 prize pool.

ESL One Manila tickets

Tickets have gone on sale and are available for prices ranging from $10 for a general admission two-day pass, to $106 for VIP tickets which include free food and drinks, goodie bags, exclusive signing sessions and premium seating in front of the stage.

ESL One Manila will be hosted at the Mall of Asia Arena

The Mall of Asia Arena in Manila, Philippines will host ESL One Manila © One FC

The Mall of Asia Arena is an indoor arena within the SM Mall of Asia complex, in Manila, Philippines. A rather new, state-of-the-art building, the arena has only been inaugurated in 2012 and has a seating capacity of 16,000 for sporting events, and a full house capacity of 20,000.