Groupstage and Schedule
The groupstage will be done in a double elimination group stage with best of ones between the teams, while the playoffs will be in a single elimination format. The semi-finals will be played in a best of three while the Grand Finals will be a best of five.
Group A
Group B
Visa Problems
This edition of the EMS One Finals has seen a couple of hurried substitutions over the past few days, as two of the qualified teams have not been able to secure their visas to Poland. Team DK, runners-up of MLG Columbus and winners of the privately held Chinese qualifiers, have been replaced by Vici Gaming. Vici Gaming narrowly lost out in the single elimination qualifiers with a score of 2-1, having beaten iG and LGD.cn on their way to the finals.
Vici Gaming has been on an impressive run of results of late, having beaten DK and iG in the bubble race qualifiers for the D2L LAN finals. It remains to be seen if they can replicate their success in China at a LAN finals far from home featuring the top teams in the West, but their dominance against DK seems to suggest that they will.
Meanwhile, Team Empire have also been unable to secure a visa for their underaged player Roman 'resolut1on' Fominok. They have been replaced by Serbian Team One, who notably have Visar 'twiSta' Zymberi in their ranks. This forms a relatively easy group B where Alliance and Fnatic are expected to progress against the Serbians and Koreans.
Our sources have also informed us that it is unlikely that mousesports will be able to make it down to the event with a full team. It is unlikely that this is due to visa issues, but more information has yet to be provided.
-Update- mousesports have pulled out of the tournament at the last minute, and will be replaced by Team against All authority in group A. You can read more here.
The Open Booth Factor
This is the last LAN event of the year for Western teams, and it'll leave some impressions for all the teams involved going on into the new year.
At the same time, this LAN finals will showcase Vici Gaming participating in an overseas LAN for the first time. Given their stellar results in the run up to this event, it is arguable that they are currently superior to the DK that took second at MLG. They will pose a huge threat for the Western teams given their extremely stong early game movement and decision making. Their support duo of FY and Fenrir are also arguably the most aggressive support duo in China right now, pushing for early smoke ganks to snowball their way to victory.
More importantly, this LAN finals will be conducted in an open booth format, where the teams will be able to hear each other. Cue the significance of Vici's offlaner Bai 'rOtk' Fan: China's king of open booth LANs. He is known for his extreme trashtalking during live matches, especially in an open-booth scenario where the opposing team will definitely be able to hear him. He claims that his trash talk is calculated as a form of psychological warfare during tense moments of a match, being able to simultaneously encourage his team and demoralising his opponents.
Some commenters have noted that the Western teams do not speak Chinese, and are probably not going to be affected by his flaming. Actually, rOtk does speak English, and so this LAN finals are going to be an intriguing test of Western teams' ability to deal with his trash talking. If Vici live up to expectations and go far in this event, the games will definitely be hugely interesting to watch.
Venue
The EMS One Finals will be held in the Tokarnia, an old brewery building in Tychy, Poland. Tychy is a city in southern Poland, 20 minutes away from Katowice, the location of the EMS One Summer Finals. Tickets for the LAN Finals cost €7 each day, but have already sold out at time of publication. It is interesting to note that the Tokarnia's normal purpose is a music club, and you can check their website out here.
ESL have also announced that the brewery will have its very own Secret Shop. If you are heading down, this will be a good time to pick up some of your favourite Dota 2 merchandise with in-game unlocks.
Address: Browarowa 7, Tychy 43-100, Poland
Online spectators
Photo from Raidcall EMS One's Facebook page
The games will be streamed in 7 languages by ESL.
The English stream will be cast on ESL TV on Twitch by Toby 'Tobiwan' Dawson, Jacob 'Maelk' Toft-Andersen, and Salome 'Soe' Gschwind-Penski.
Qualifier Highlights
Gosugamers is proud to present our compilation of the highlights from the various cups leading to the LAN finals, so kick back and enjoy while waiting for the games to start!
Headline image by panoramio.com
