Last Updated on May 16, 2022 11:16 am by Erwin Noguera
One of the most important moments of the current Dota 2 season is about to begin. After the cancellation of the first major tournament of the year, even due to problems related to Covid-19, Dota 2 fans were left wanting to watch the matches between the best teams in the world. However, the next appointment is just around the corner, since the ESL One Stockholm 2022 will be held on May 12, 2022, and will distribute $500,000 in prizes, with the participation of Latin American representatives.
Preview
Dota 2 is a free strategy video game for PC property of the renowned company Valve. Its maximum annual event is The International, which it organizes every year and holds the record for the largest prize pool distributed to the participating teams (its last edition distributed more than $40 million).
However, as we mentioned before, the first Major of the season was canceled at the beginning of the year, due to the spread of the omicron variant of COVID-19 worldwide. Instead, Valve organized some regional tournaments that could not replace the Major.
ESL One Stockholm 2022 will bring together the best 14 teams in the world from regional tournaments. There were originally 18 teams, but teams from China will not be able to participate in the competition, due to the problems of the spread of Covid-19 in their country in recent weeks. Which directly impacted the format of the tournament, arranging the 14 teams into two groups of seven each. Here, the TOP 4 of each group will go to the winner’s bracket in the heats, while the 5th and 6th places will start from the loser’s bracket.
The qualifiers will be in the best of three (BO3) format except for the grand final which is the best of five (BO5). The dates of these phases are from May 16 to 22, filling the seats of the Hovet Arena in Stockholm, Sweden.
Major Teams
Western Europe: OG, Gaimin Gladiators, Team Liquid, and Tundra Esports
OG was the first team from all regions of the world to secure their place in this Major, where they have an excellent record reflecting only 1 loss, and it was against Team Secret. OG is an amazing and extremely young team, full of rookies, who have had a stellar role in all the tournaments they have participated in and will be looking to prove that they are at the best level possible in a LAN event.
Gaimin Gladiators continue to prove that their respective victories in recent tournaments have not been by chance, continuing their incredible rise in the extremely competitive region of the UEO. Team Liquid managed to bounce back after a terrible 0-2 start, winning their last 4 games to confirm their presence at this Major.
Tundra Esports started the season off in impressive stride getting 3 wins from their first 3 matches but then slipped and had 3 straight losses in the series. Then, they managed to wake up to beat Brame, securing last place for this ESL One Stockholm.
Southeast Asia: Fnatic, BOOM Esports, and T1
Without a doubt, this is the most competitive Dota 2 region in the world after China, and right now it continues to heat up. Mainly thanks to Fnatic, T1, and BOOM Esports who have shown an exceptional level of play. These 3 teams were three of the top four teams on the last Tour and will be looking to reignite their exciting rivalries.
Fnatic and BOOM were the first two teams to qualify for this Major with an identical 6-1 record. T1, on the other hand, had it tougher and qualified with a 4-3 record, after beating Polaris Esports in their playoff match.
Eastern Europe: BetBoom Team, Team Spirit, and Mind Games
BetBoom managed to deliver a very pleasant surprise to all Dota 2 fans, when they pulled off an excellent and tense win against reigning The International 10 champions, Team Spirit in the first round, giving them the push to reach the finals of this qualifier and get their ticket to this Major.
Team Spirit, who start as clear favorites in this ESL One Stockholm 2022, continue to show that they are at their best competitive level. They quickly bounced back from the loss suffered in the first round, with 3 crushing wins with a score of 2-0, to take the second spot for this Major.
Mind Games got their pass to this Major after a very good victory against CIS Rejects in the deciding match. This will be the first time that the Ukrainians attend a Major.
North America: Evil Geniuses and TSM FTX
As in all North American seasons or qualifiers, we can enjoy a high competitive level from all the organizations that participate in it. This time was no exception, since, after a three-way tie between EG, TSM, and Quincy Crew, they had to play matches to find out which two teams would be part of this Major.
Evil Geniuses made it out of this tiebreaker unscathed and took first place. TSM then pulled off a very nice win against Quincy Crew to secure their ticket to Sweden.
South America: Thunder Awaken and beastcoast
Although everyone around the world has always considered beastcoast the best team in South America, some believe that they have lowered their level of play considerably in recent years, because they keep using the same players as 3 years ago.
This was noticeable in these qualifiers as Thunder Awaken achieved a perfect record of 7 wins and comfortably qualified for this Major. While beastcoast suffered and had to reach the tiebreaker match against Hokori, where they managed to win and get the second ticket to this ESL One Stockholm.
Prize Pool
ESL One Stockholm 2022 has a prize pool of $500,000 and 3,530 Dota Pro Circuit points. The champion, in addition to being considered the best team in the world at the moment, will receive a cash prize of $200,000 and 680 DPC points.
ESL One Stockholm 2022 Update
The actions of ESL One Stockholm have started at full speed, with the favorite teams showing why they have this label for this tournament, while the other challengers are trying to be at the right level to face the different matches and thus be among the first places of their group and be able to have to access the playoffs that will be played from Monday, May 16, 2022.
Group A
In Group A we have been able to observe how Tundra Esports has crushed each of the rivals they have faced except BetBoom Team, the only team that has managed to win 1 match in this first phase. Tundra Esports has already secured its place in the next phase of this Major and looks like one of the favorites to be in the grand final.
BetBoom Team has also played excellently, even though they only have 2 wins, they are together with Tundra Esports the only teams in this Major that do not know defeat. BetBoom won their matches against Evil Geniuses and T1 2-0 and drew 1-1 against Tundra Esports, beastcoast, and BOOM Esports.
On the other hand, T1 has also secured its place in the playoffs of this ESL One Stockholm 2022 thanks to the excellent group stage it has played, where it has only been inferior against BetBoom, falling with a terrible result of 0-2.
In summary, in this group A we had Tundra Esports phenomenal with 5 wins and 1 draw in the first place, OG in second place with a record of 3 wins, 1 draw, and 2 losses. Then In third place at BetBoom with 2 wins, 3 draws, and 1 loss, and finishes the TOP 4 teams qualified for the next phase of this Major, T1 with an equal record, 2 wins, 2 draws, and 2 losses.
Group B
In group B everything was more complicated than expected and, with surprises that not even a true pessimistic fan could expect, with the European super team Team Liquid being out of the 4 classified, as well as the historic Fnatic.
The emotions were latent until this Sunday, May 15, when the last games of the group stage were played where the 4 best teams of each group were going to be decided and, especially, of this group B took an unexpected turn and spectacular.
Gaimin Gladiators were the first team to cause an upset by finishing this group stage in the first place. Although they were not the favorites in this group, the boys from Gaimin Gladiators managed to play at a very good level and achieved a record of 3 wins, 2 draws, and 1 loss helped them to be on top of the table.
In second place finished the South American team Thunder Awaken. The Peruvians came to this tournament with the mission of getting to the playoffs and began their participation with a landslide victory against Team Liquid with a score of 2-0. After that, and despite not winning another match (excluding the FFW against Mind Games, who could not participate due to visa issues), they managed to draw 1-1 against big teams like Fnatic, Gaimin Gladiators, and TSM and fell 0-2 against Team Spirit.
In third place in the group, we have TSM, another team that was called to lead this group, and that was not expected to find opponents so well-armed and with such a high level of play. Despite starting the tournament losing 0-2 against Fnatic, TSM was able to turn the page and drew 3 straight matches and won the last one against Team Liquid, to secure their playoff spot.
Last Qualified
Finally, the last team that managed to get into the Playoffs of this ESL One Stockholm 2022 was Team Spirit and how they did it. Team Spirit ended up equal in record with Team Liquid, TSM and Thunder Awaken in second place, so they had to play the Tiebreaker between all of them to find out who the remaining 3 qualifiers were.
Team Spirit achieved a very good victory in the first match against Team Liquid and so did the Peruvians from Thunder Awaken against TSM. The South Americans then managed to put Team Liquid in check by winning their second match in a row. The fourth match was a win for TSM over Team Spirit, bringing TSM to life. TSM continued in their good form and beat Team Liquid and finally, Thunder Awaken took the victory to take second place against Team Spirit.
Similarly, the teams that did not qualify directly for these playoffs such as BOOM Esports, beastcoast, Team Liquid, and Fnatic, will have a new opportunity in the lower bracket of these playoffs to reach the grand final.
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