ESL One Katowice 2018 Preview

A look at ESL One Katowice 2018!

The upcoming  Major will be the first LAN tournament of 2018 for  NAVI.GG.BET. In this article, we will be taking a look at the format, the list of participating teams, and other details related to Poland's first Dota 2 major. 

PREVIEW

 Natus Vincere got spared from the hustle of qualifiers, having been to Katowice based on our previous performance. This way, we got to take a step back from the non-stop competitive action and gear up for the challenges ahead. We returned to the arena with a renewed roster, as we brought the support duo of  Ilya "Lil" Ilyuk and  Nikola "LeBron" Popovic aboard, and ESL One Katowice will be their first LAN under the Born to Win name. 

After weeks of thorough preparation, we are finally ready to join the fight and play to our strength! The bootcamp had us parse our potential merits and weaknesses, and the major will provide an opportunity to test our progress and gain some valuable team play experience in a LAN setting.

ESL One Katowice 2018 DETAILS

The event will be held on February 20-25th in Katowice, one of Poland's greenest and most dynamically developing cities, also known as one of esports' most popular destinations with numerous international CS:GO events under the belt. The holding place will be Spodek Arena with a sitting capacity of 11,500 people, which will open its doors for the playoff matches on February 23-25, seeing six best teams of the world competing for the title.  

Playoff participants will be decided based on the group stage results: contestants will be split into two groups played in a double-elimination bracket, with the winner of each group progressing straight into the semis and the second and third teams advancing to the quarter-finals. The format of the playoffs will be single-elimination, so one mistake can cost a team a tournament life. And there's a lot at stake - $ 1,000,000 and 1,500 qualifying points. 

Participants

The list of attendees for ESL One Katowice 2018 is very impressive: sixteen teams (6 direct invitees and 6 qualified teams) from six regions will gather to battle it out over a massive prize pool. Here's a look at the opponents who our squad will be facing.

We have been placed in Group B, our first opponents being  Fnatic. With such experienced players as  UNiVeRsE,  EternaLEnVy и pieliedie on hand, they are definitely not a team to underestimate. Fnatic currently hold 11th place in the Dota Pro Circuit and have recently won the qualifiers for ESL One Katowice 2018 and GESC: Indonesia Dota2 Minor, which means they will be coming in with some good form and confidence.

Aside from Natus Vincere and Fnatic, Group B features such pairings as  Team Secret vs.  Infamous, LGD Gaming vs. Evil Geniuses, and  Team Kinguin vs.  Newbee. One team from the latter pair will be going against us in Round 2, as we will meet them in either upper or lower bracket depending on the outcome of the first series. All games, except the openers, will be played as bo3s, while the first round will be held in a best-of-1 format.

The major will be a true test of stamina for Born to Win, as the boys haven't had that much time to build chemistry, but we hope they have used the time productively. We look forward to seeing   NAVI at ESL One Katowice 2018 and wish them good luck in the tournament! #gonavi

Participants:

Direct invites:
—  NAVI.GG.BET
—  Newbee
—  Mineski
—  Virtus.pro
—  Team Liquid
—  Evil Geniuses
—  Team Secret
—  Vici Gaming

Qualified teams:
—  Fnatic
—  Team Kinguin
—  OG
—  Effect
—  LGD Gaming
—  Infamous
—  compLexity Gaming
—  OpTic Gaming