ESL One Birmingham 2024 kicks off next week with 12 teams vying for the $1,000,000 prize pool, but we think these five teams are worth keeping tabs on.
ESL One Birmingham 2024 is coming in fast. It will be the second LAN of the ESL Pro Tour Season 2, sandwiched between ESL One Kuala Lumpur 2023 and Riyadh Masters in July.
After DreamLeague Season 23, the top eight teams with the highest EPT points will qualify for the Riyadh Masters 2024 at the Esports World Cup 2024.
With the return of the Wild West for The International invites and record-breaking prize pool potential for Riyadh Masters, there is a LOT at stake for the teams at Brimingham.
Here are five teams we think are worth keeping an eye on during ESL One Birmingham 2024.
BetBoom Team
Consistency through the second season of ESL Pro Tour and no roster changes yielded BetBoom Team enough points to become the first team locked in for the Riyadh Masters event at Esports World Cup 2024. They took 4th at Kaula Lumpur, 3rd at BetBoom Dacha, and 2nd in DreamLeague Season 22. Based on these results and trajectory, one would have expected them to land 1st place at Elite League. But they took a dramatic turn south and an 11-12th place finish.
Was that just a detour, a bump in the road? Or is there something going on internally?
Xtreme Gaming
Ten days after Azure Ray claimed the ESL One Kuala Lumpur 2023 trophy with a thrilling reverse sweep over Gaimin Gladiators, the star players, and the coach left the team to join Xtreme Gaming.
Though a disappointing debut since then in BetBoom Dacha with a 7-8th place finish, they seemed to iron out the kinks with podium finishes in the following 3 events they attended. In fact, they just usurped Falcons for the Elite League Title with a brilliant performance – defeating the MENA-based team 3-1 in the grand finals and ending Falcons' tournament winning streak.
The five players on Xtreme Gaming seem to have a strong understanding of playing with each other, and could easily end up being one of the top contenders for the big Dota 2 tournaments at the end of the year – The International 2024 and Riyadh Masters.
OG
OG failed to qualify for The International 2023 and also started the new year with a bottom four placement at BetBoom Dacha Dubai 2024. The back-to-back TI championship organization needed a good placement at DreamLeague Season 22 to secure a spot at the first edition of Esports World Cup. Although they just missed the mark for qualifying for Birmingham at DreamLeague, an unlikely and unexpected turn of events was in their favor. Just last week it was announced that OG would replace 1Win at ESL One Birmingham due to visa issues.
OG are the kings of seizing unexpected wins and titles, their MO and legacy to date. Can they do it again now to uphold their reputation and prove they should be competing on The International stage once again?
Team Spirit
Poor performance and results have been marring this team's reputation and dampening morale as of late. Their journey at BetBoom Dacha Dubai 2024 came to an end following a 2:0 sweep in the lower brackets with a result of 5-6th place. Then, with one day left in the group stage of Elite League, Team Spirit found themselves eliminated alongside HEROIC and Blacklist International. The two-time TI championship team was sent packing in the group stage after registering just two series wins, ending in 13-14th place. The manager of Team Spirit, Dmitry “Korb3n” Belov, addressed the team’s departure from Elite League via his Telegram channel, saying that currently the team is out of shape. He also didn’t exclude the possibility of disbanding when and if the team needed it.
Team Falcons
A picture says 1000 words
Team Falcons have quickly emerged as the team to beat in the initial parts of the 2023-2024 Dota 2 season. The MENA team has won two successive tournaments – BetBoom Dacha Dubai 2024 and DreamLeague Season 22 – and is looking (almost) unstoppable!
Can they keep this momentum going through Riyadh Masters and The International? Or did their slip into second place last week hint at an uncertain future?
ESL One Birmingham 2024
ESL One Birmingham 2024 attending teams
Team Liquid (EPT leaderboard) 
Gaimin Gladiators (EPT leaderboard) BetBoom Team (EPT leaderboard) Xtreme Gaming (EPT leaderboard) Team Falcons (MENA qualifiers) 
Tundra Esports (WEU qualifiers)Team Spirit (EEU qualifiers)OG (replacement for 1Win)
G2.iG (China qualifiers)
Talon Esports (SEA qualifiers)
Shopify Rebellion (NA qualifiers)
Heroic (SA qualifiers)
ESL One Birmingham 2024 info
Tournament Dates: Apr 22 - 28
- Prize pool: $1,000,000
- Teams: 12
- Total EPT Points: 26,640
ESL One LAN tournament will be hosted in Birmingham in the second part of April. The last time ESL One was in the English city was in 2019 when Team Secret took the championship title, trophy, and lion's share of the $300,000 prize pool after besting Evil Geniuses 3:2 in the grand finals. Another ESL One LAN event was scheduled for March 2020, but was canceled due to the CoronaVirus Pandemic. That event was rescheduled to online only.
