ESL One Birmingham is down to the top 3 teams

ESL One Birmingham 2024 reached the finals days.

Just three teams are left to fight for glory in Birmingham this Sunday. BetBoom Team made a smooth upper bracket run to reach the grand finals. They took down OG in the semifinals and Tundra Esports in the finals to secure yet another top 2 finish this year.

Creativity vs Consistency

Many expected the series BetBoom Team versus Tundra Esports to bring some hype, and intense matches given the high profile players involved. With Topias "Topson" Taavitsainen in the mid lane, Tundra’s adversaries always have to be prepared for unusual picks and gameplay. Additionally, at this tournament, Ivan "Pure" Moskalenko took the spotlight on several occasions and many are ready to consider him one of the best carry players of the moment.

• Read more: Pure domination at ESL One Birmingham 2024

However, despite being able to play one of his staple heroes, Morphling and with Topson on a mid lane lane Zeus in game one, Tundra got overwhelmed by BetBoom’s Phantom Lancer, Dragon Knight and Beastmaster trio core. Tundra couldn’t crush the early game and were at a terrible disadvantage in the late stages as well. The elusiveness provided by Shadow Demon and Mirana in the support lines for BetBoom, along with tackiness and the capacity to stay in the team fights for a long time, got the best of Tundra. 

Coming from a game where they did see a glimmer of hope mid-stage, Tundra were completely run over in game two which is the biggest stomp of the entire tournament so far.

China lost all teams in the lower bracket

ESL One Birmingham lower bracket rounds were particularly brutal for the Chinese Dota 2 fans. The elimination battle pitted against each other Xtreme Gaming and G2.iG right from the first round. It was G2.iG who managed to keep their hopes alive, but not for too long. Their lower bracket run came to an end in the quarterfinal at the hands of OG.

Team Falcons who so far, have been the most dominant team of the year, are also in the lower bracket battle for survival. They had to face OG, perhaps the wild card team of this tournament as the European outfit came to Birmingham to replace 1Win who dealt with visa issues.

OG came in second in the Western Europe regional qualifiers for the tournament and so far, they haven’t had a great start to the year, missing a couple of tournaments already. With that in mind, to see them placing first in Group B was somewhat of a surprise.

• Read more: OG under pressure; The 'Ceb effect'

After falling short of a qualifier spot for DreamLeague Season 23, the last tournament on the ESL Pro Tour schedule before the Esports World Cup, ESL One Birmingham represented OG’s last chance at securing a ticket to Riyadh this summer via EPT points. For that to happen, they needed to reach the finals days, ideally, the grand finals, but their tournament run in Birmingham stopped in the top 4. OG were eliminated last night by Falcons at the end of a thrilling series that had all the ingredients. From entertaining values and friendly banters, to start the match, clutch moments, comebacks and high levels of competitive Dota being played on the stage in Resorts World Arena, the Team Falcons vs OG battle for survival VOD is surely worth checking for those who might have missed all the action live.

Falcons' victory over OG places them in the top 3 at ESL One Birmingham 2024 along with Tundra Esports and BetBoom Team.

ESL One Birmingham 2024 Playoffs Bracket

The last day of the tournament is set to start at 13:00 CEST with the lower bracket finals, Tundra EsportsvsTeam Falcons, followed by the best-of-five grand finals scheduled to begin at 17:00 CEST.

ESL One Birmingham 2024 Prize Pool 

$1,000,000 Prize Pool and 26,640 EPT Points are spread among the participants as seen below:

• 1st place  $300,000/ 6,400 EPT Points
• 2nd place $175,000/ 4,800 EPT Points
• 3rd place $120,000/ 4,000 EPT Points
• 4th place $85,000/ 3,200 EPT Points OG
• 5th-6th place $57,500/ 2,240 EPT Points Team Liquid / G2 x iG
• 7th-8th place $47,500/ 1,040 EPT Points Xtreme Gaming / Heroic
• 9th-10th place $30,000/ 560 EPT Points Team Spirit /Talon Esports 
• 11th-12th place $25,000/ 280 EPT Points Gaimin Gladiators/Shopify Rebellion 

^{headline picture credits: Adam Lakomy | ESL One}