Photo courtesy of ESL
paiN Gaming will head to Poland this winter to heat things up at ESL One Katowice 2019.
The fourth invite has been announced for ESL One Katowice 2019 and it's none other than the South American favorite - paiN Gaming.
The Brazilian based team took a commendable 4th place at ESL One Hamburg 2018 last month and have been a source of Brazilian and South American pride for quite some time now. The team was on hand for the Kuala Lumpur Major and just qualified for the second Major of the new DPC 2018-2019 season for The Chongqing Major.
Eight teams will receive direct invitations to the group stage. Team Secret was the first team to receive an invite as the defending champions with NiP receiving the second invitation. TI8 champions, OG, have already confirmed their appearance as the third invited team. Only four invitations are left.
The remaining four spots will be up for grabs through regional open qualifiers in Europe, North America, China, and Southeast Asia. The open qualifiers kicked off this last weekend with a few teams such as compLexity Gaming, Team Spirit and Team Empire claiming slots in the closed qualifiers. The regional team invites have not yet been announced and are expected to take place next week.
February 19-24th, 12 of the world’s best Dota 2 teams will be competing for a $300,000 prize pool. The group stage is set to take place from February 19-21, followed by the main event in the Spodek Arena from February 22-24. Once again, the ESL tournament will not be part of the DPC events for the new season.
