Title image courtesy of ESL
ESL One Hamburg 2019 is just three weeks away and the lineup of teams is starting to fall into place.
ESL One Hamburg 2019 is slated to take place between October 25-27th as 12 teams will battle it out for the lion's share of the $300,000 prize pool.
Seven teams are expected to be directly invited. So far the revamped rosters of Virtus.pro, TNC Predator, ViCi Gaming and NiP are confirmed, leaving three more spots open. Team Secret won last year's event, ESL One Hamburg 2018, as well as the last ESL event of the season, ESL One Birmingham 2019. Many fans are hopeful to see the European titans return to the stage and defend their title, however they are already confirmed to be taking a break and missing out on the first DPC events so might not be wise to hold one's breath.
Four teams - Vikin.gg, Fighting Pepegas, Invictus Gaming and Geek Fam earned their spot through the regional qualifiers of EU, NA, SEA and China. With all of the roster changes for the new season, it is hard to keep track of new teams. Vikin includes Vladimir "Chappie" Kuzmenko and Pittner "bOne7" Armand, Fighting Pepegas is Jacky "EternaLEnVy" Mao's new stack, iG features Hu "Kaka" Liangzhi and Geek Fam is the new home of Carlo "Kuku" Palad.
Gambit, still led by captain Artsiom "fng" Barshack, earned their place through the Hamburg Invitational.
Stay tuned for the remaining three teams and be sure to write the dates on your calendar for a chance to see some of these new lineups at their first LAN of the season.