ESL One Birmingham 2026: format, prize pool, and participants

ESL One Birmingham 2026 is a major LAN tournament in Dota 2, taking place from March 22 to March 29, 2026, in Birmingham, United Kingdom, at the bp pulse LIVE arena as part of the DreamHack Birmingham festival. The event is part of the ESL Pro Tour (EPT) season and will feature 16 of the best teams in the world.

Participants

A total of 16 teams will compete. Six teams received direct invitations based on their positions in the EPT Leaderboard, while the other ten qualified through regional qualifiers.

Direct invites

• Team Yndx
• Spirit
• PV
• Xtreme Gaming
• OG
• Tundra Esports

Regional qualifiers

• Western Europe: Team Falcons, Virtus.pro, MOUZ, Nigma Galaxy
• Eastern Europe: BB Team, Aurora Gaming
• China: Yakult Brothers
• Southeast Asia: REKONIX
• North America: GamerLegion
• South America: paiN Gaming

Tournament format

The tournament consists of two main stages: Group Stage and Playoffs.

Group Stage (March 22–25)

• Two groups of 8 teams
• Single Round-Robin format
• All matches are Best-of-2

Advancement:

• 1st–2nd place → Upper bracket
• 3rd–4th place → Lower bracket
• 5th–8th place → Eliminated

Playoffs (March 26–29)

• Double-elimination bracket
• All matches — Best-of-3
• Grand Final — Best-of-5

Prize pool

Total prize pool: $1,000,000

• $750,000 — direct prize money
• $250,000 — Club Reward

Teams will also compete for 35,460 EPT points, which are crucial for qualification to future major tournaments.

Where to watch

Ukrainian broadcast will be provided by Maincast on Twitch and YouTube, as well as on official ESL channels.

Reminder: Team Liquid recently went through their second round of layoffs in seven months.