ESL One Mumbai 2019: tournament preview

$ 300,000 at stake!

ESL One Mumbai 2019 is to take place from April 16th to 21st, with NAVI.GG.BET receiving a direct invite. Let's talk about the coming event in more details.

The venue of the tournament will be the Indian city of Mumbai, with a population of over 18 million people. The main part of the championship will be held at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Stadium, which seats up to 5 thousand people. This is the home stadium for the professional badminton team Mumbai Masters.

Venue of the tournament

Competitions will be divided into two stages - group and playoffs. The first stage will be held from April 16 to April 19, the second - from April 19 to April 21. The group stage affects solely the seeding in the playoffs: the two best members of each group go to the upper bracket, the two worst ones — to the lower. All matches will be held in the best of 3 format, with the exception of the grand final - best of 5.

Eight teams will take part in the championship, three of which received a direct invitation, five got through qualifying matches. Initially, twelve teams were supposed to participate in the tournament, but due to problems with the schedule, as well as personal circumstances, some participants withdrew.

As for Natus Vincere, the tournament organizers placed the “yellow-blacks” in group A along with compLexity Gaming, TNC Predator and TEAM TEAM. Group B has  Keen Gaming, Mineski, The Pango and Signify.

It is difficult to single out the strongest of the participants: all the teams are at about the same level, except that TNC Predator and Keen Gaming managed to claim several serious achievements in several tournaments. Recently, these two faced each other at World Electronic Sports Games 2018 finals —   TNC Predator emerged victorious.

However, there is a team that can't boast serious achievements on the pro scene. It is Signify - an Indian team that has passed the local qualification. To a greater extent, this was done so that the spectators who came could cheer for their compatriots, but this rival should not be discounted.

Signify

Despite the lack of wide popularity, each of the team members is up high in terms of solo rating. In addition, the support of the audience will certainly play its role, which can give the team an additional incentive to win.

Surely, despite some problems, the organizers will be able to provide an unforgettable spectacle for both online viewers and on-site visitors. As a reminder, ESL One Mumbai 2019 will see  NAVI.GG.BET play with a stand-in: Akbar "SoNNeikO" Butaev is by Mikhail "Misha" Agatov!