Title image courtesy of ESL
The most recent Minor and Major Championship team, ViCi Gaming, has received the first direct invite to ESL One Birmingham 2019.
ViCi Gaming's success seems to have given the rising team insta-stardom. First, the Chinese teams took the championship title at StarLadder ImbaTV Minor and then turned their success into a historic feat by claiming the DreamLeague Season 11 Major immediately after.
Although prior to even Starladder, ViCi Gaming occupied the 8th place in the ranking system with 900 points. They moved only slightly ahead after the Minor into 7th place since the win was only worth 120 points. But with the 4,950 DPC points reward from DreamLeague, ViCi Gaming soared into 3rd place in the rankings and secured their spot at TI9.
As one of the hottest teams, fresh on the minds of the community, they have been the first confirmed team of ESL One Birmingham 2019.
ViCi Gaming took an impressive 2nd place finish at ESL One Hamburg in October after being pushed to their limits in a five-game series against Team Secret.
Twelve teams will be on hand in Birmingham to fight for a slice of the prize pool of $300.000 between May 28th - June 2nd, 2019. Eight teams will be directly invited and four teams will qualify from NA, SEA, China, and EU.
ESL One Birmingham 2019 Format:
- Group stage matches will be played from May 28 - May 30
- Two groups of six teams
- Round Robin bo2 format
- The top two teams in each group will be seeded into the Upper Bracket Semi-Finals
- 3rd and 4th will play in the Lower Bracket
- 5th and 6th will be eliminated
- Playoffs will feature eight teams
- The Arena Days, on May 31 - June 2
- Playoffs will be bo3 matchups
- bo5 Grand Final
ESL One Birmingham 2019
Twelve teams will be on hand in Birmingham to fight for a slice of the prize pool of $300.000 between May 28th - June 2nd, 2019. Eight teams will be directly invited and four teams will qualify from NA, SEA, China, and EU.
