After success in its inaugural season, ESL returned to Poland by holding ESL One Katowice 2019. Although not included in the Dota Pro Circuit calendar, the teams present were interesting to look at and also famous.
This tournament was held on February 22-24 2019 with a total prize of US $ 300,000. Twelve teams will compete in the tournament with 8 teams that get direct invite and the rest spread from European, Chinese, North American and SEA qualifications.
Unfortunately, this tournament was not attended by previous ESL One Katowice winners, Virtus.pro, even though the team present was equally surprising.
They are OG which is the International 2018 champion. In addition, there is also Team Secret who was last runner-up at the 2018 Kuala Lumpur Major.
Ninjas in Pajamas, a team inhabited by PPD, a former player of Evil Geniuses was also present at this tournament. Despite being choked up, their performance at the Kuala Lumpur Major with a fourth place ranking made this team worthy of calculation.
Fnatic is the only SEA team that gets direct invite. Their achievements at the Kuala Lumpur Major were fairly good with the top 8.
Although there is no qualification for South America, they are represented by the Gaming Network, which gets direct invite.
The remaining three teams that get direct invite are Alliance, Forward Gaming, and Team Aster. Although the three teams failed to win the top 8, their escape to Kuala Lumpur Major was the reason why they deserved direct invite.
How to qualify in each region? In the North American region there are compLexity Gaming that have qualified.
Their decision included three SEA region players namely Deth, Meracle, and 343 bringing results after successfully beating J. Storm with a score of 3-1.
For the European region there is Gambit Esports which has managed to qualify for ESL One Katowice 2019. The struggle that started from the lower bracket seemed to bear fruit after successfully defeating Team Spirit with a dramatic score, 3-2.
The SEA Region seems to be too strong for TNC Predator. Despite coming without complete strength, they successfully defeated the Lotac with a score of 3-1.
Finally there was EHOME who managed to become a Chinese representative after beating For The Dream with a dramatic score of 3-2.
Later it will be divided into two groups where only the top two teams are entitled to the upper bracket.
While the third and fourth ranks will fight on the lower bracket and the last two teams in each group must be eliminated.
