Visa issues prevented Team Falcons from arriving in the full formula in the United Kingdom.
ESL One Birmingham 2024 is set to kick off later today, April 22 with 12 teams entering the competition for the title and a share of the $1,000,000 prize pool. However, for Russian players, the UK is not the easiest country to access. The tournament organisers had to replace 1Win with OG after the Russian team failed to meet two deadlines for visa confirmation.
A day before the tournament was bound to start, Team Falcons who have been the most dominant team in the scene so far this year, had to leave one player behind. The 19-year-old Russian prodigy Stanislav "Malr1ne" Potorakn will have to watch ESL One Birmingham 2024 from home after failing to receive his visa.
Team Falcons will be competing in the tournament with Nigma Galaxy’s Sumail "SumaiL" Hassan standing in for Malr1ne in the mid lane.
This will mark the first tournament where Team Falcons will have to play with a stand-in since the roster was formed back in November last year. Since their formation, Team Falcons have already claimed two tournament titles, at BetBoom Dacha Dubai 2024 and DreamLeague Season 22. Just before ESL One Birmingham, they also reached the grand finals of Elite League but lost the championship title to Xtreme Gaming who took them down 3:1.
Team Falcons will start the competition seeded in Group A and have two series scheduled on the first day of the group stage.
- Read also: ESL One Birmingham 2024 Survival Guide
Team Falcons group stage Day 1 schedule
April 22, 13:00 CEST - BetBoom Teamvs
Team Falcons
April 22, 15:30 CEST - G2 x iGvs
Team Falcons
ESL One Birmingham 2024 Format
Group Stage
April 22 - April 24, 2024
- Two single round-robin groups of six teams each
- All series consist of two games
- The top two teams from each group advance to the upper bracket of playoffs
- 3rd and 4th place teams from each group advance to the lower bracket of playoffs
- The remaining teams are eliminated
Group A
Group B
Playoffs
April 25 - April 28, 2024
- Double-elimination bracket
- All matches except the Grand Final are Bo3
- Grand Final is Bo5