Title image courtesy of ESL
Thoroughly tested in a five-game grand finals, Team Secret bested Evil Geniuses 3:2 for the ESL One Birmingham 2019 championship title.
An overall fantastic event filled with thrilling matches and rollicking crowds came to a thrilling end as two TI9 bound teams went toe to toe in a five-game series to crown the ESL One Birmingham 2019 champion.
This time it is Team Secret who were the Lower Bracket Kings. After falling into the lower brackets after their lack-luster results in the group stage, the Europeans shrugged off their losses and rolled through their opponents in the lower brackets. Despite having nothing left to prove this season before TI9, Team Secret still played at maximum intensity and produced some serious challenges for all of the other teams.
Emerging from a reverse sweep over PSG.LGD, Team Secret took on the North American giants, Evil Geniuses in the grand finals.
Having broken their third place curse to be the first team to reach the Grand Finals, Evil Geniuses were looking for their first championship title of the season. Team Secret was looking to add another ESL title to their collection, having secured one at ESL Katowice 2019, ESL Hamburg 2018 this season alone.
The series between these two titans started out with an all-out battle that took over 50 minutes for Team Secret to close out thanks to EG's incredible defense. Series victories ping-ponged back and forth between the two teams, each team throwing around their talent and raw skills as they fought to assert their dominance. The final deciding game really was up for grabs with the potential for either team to take the trophy. Things started off relatively even between the two with a slight lead swinging back and forth in call and response style gameplay for 27 minutes. Once again, Team Secret proved their superior farming efficiency and started to pull ahead, destroying EG in just 10 minutes after the Europeans were able to come online fully.
With the final win in their pocket, Team Secret secured the trophy, the $125,000 prize cut, and the MVP Mercedes-Benz.
ESL One Birmingham 2019 prize pool
1st place: $125,000 - Team Secret
2nd place: $65,000 - Evil Geniuses
3rd place: $35,000 - PSG.LGD
4th place: $20,000 - Gambit Esports
5-6th place: $12,000 - ViCi Gaming/TNC Predator
7-8th place: $7,500 - Team Liquid/OG
9-10th place: $5,000 - NiP/Keen
11-12th place: $3,000 - Forward Gaming/Alliance
ESL One Birmingham 2019
Twelve teams were on hand in Birmingham to fight for a slice of the prize pool of $300.000 between May 28th - June 2nd, 2019. Eight teams were directly invited and four teams qualified from NA, SEA, China, and EU.
