The ESL One Pro Tour Dota 2 tournament is this year being held in Birmingham, England, at the National Exhibition Centre’s BP Pulse LIVE arena. From March 26 to 29, 16 elite teams in one of the world’s most popular esports titles will compete for their share of a $1 million prize pool. The event is running in parallel with Dreamhack Birmingham 2026, which will be the first time the popular gaming and esports festival has been held in England.
The ESL One Dota 2 tournament is one of the premier events of the year, behind only a few select tournaments such as The International or the Riyadh Masters. The teams invited include top teams from the ESL Pro Tour leaderboard over the season, as well as emerging teams who won places through regional qualifiers. Team Yandex and Team Spirit are two confirmed top names, being the number one and two highest ranked teams in the ESL currently. So, who is the favorite going into the tournament and what else do attendees or viewers need to know?
The Tournament Format Explained – Structure and Prize Pool
The ESL One Dota 2 tournament goes from a round robin group stage to a double elimination playoff. Teams are initially split into two groups of eight. Matches are played across two games at this stage, with every game counting towards the final standings.
After having all played each team in their group once, the top four teams from each group advance. The top two go into the upper bracket, and the 3rd and 4th place teams go into the lower playoff bracket. Matches from there are a best of three games, ensuring an outright winner in each matchup. The grand final is a best of five.
If a team loses in the upper bracket, they drop down to the lower bracket for a second chance. This is a format common to esports but not so much in many other sporting fields. Double elimination brackets offer more games for fans to watch, while rewarding consistency over one-off strats or cheese tactics. Which is especially important in esports.
It also makes upset losses early more forgiving, and allows redemption arc stories for popular teams that did fail at the first hurdle. Such as two-time winners PARIVISION’s performance at ESL One Raleigh in 2025.
For 1st place this year the prize will be $250,000. 2nd place will get $100,000 and 3rd place $80,000. 8000 EPT tour points will also go to the winner, potentially influencing who qualifies for the 2026 International later this year.
The Competing Teams and Who is Expected to Perform
Parivision, who made a comeback losers bracket run to win it all in 2025, will be returning for 2026. One team that wasn’t at the event last year, as they didn’t exist at the time, but is highly rated going into this year’s event is Team Yandex. Founded in 2025 the team won Dreamleague Division 2 that year and then the full Dreamleague Season 27 earlier this year.
They also very recently won PGL Wallachia Season 7, a Tier 1 event in Bucharest, Romania, which had many of the same teams that will be competing at ESL One. Yandex beat Team Liquid 3:2 in the final and bagged the $300,000 top prize. That capped off well over half a million in prize money in just over six months for the new team.
Other big confirmed teams include Team Spirit, Xtreme Gaming, OG and Tundra Esports. Regional qualifiers will see teams from across the world competing. The most represented nationality this year, if line-ups don’t change, will be Russian. However, Indonesia, Peru, the US and China are all also sending several players each as part of the multinational teams.
This year will also be notable as the absence of Team Liquid, one of the biggest brands in global esports. Its two-time International winning Dota 2 team lost to Mouz Esports in qualifying, and will not be at ESL One for the first time in six years.
Esports Betting and Dota 2 Tour – What Kind of Bets Are Available?
Major Dota 2 tournaments like ESL One tend to bring significant esports betting activity. However, tech savvy bettors tend to value the full picture before placing a bet or choosing a sportsbook. Especially when it comes to a valuable but slightly more niche market like esports.
This all means bettors from Canada to England often turn to third party comparison sites for clear information, especially when evaluating offers from platforms like Stake. For example, before picking a sportsbook based purely on a bonus players might want to read the terms and conditions on Covers.com. These platforms give players the key T&Cs info on different operators’ esports betting offers, or even casino gaming promotions, in one place. As well as a general overview of payment speeds, esports markets and other factors bettors often consider.
Such as, the different bets available. Common Dota 2 betting markets include:
Individual Matches
- Match winner
- Handicap winner
- Correct series score
- First kill
- Total kills
- First Roshan
Tournament futures
- Outright winner
- Top-three finish
- Group stage winners
The double-elimination format common in many esports makes tournament futures interesting, because the odds can shift dramatically throughout the tournament as the upper and lower brackets do.
There is a lot of data to analyze for Dota 2 esports, and there are plenty of matches over a 16-team tournament. Meaning bettors have many opportunities to refine their strategies and picks.
ESL One and the First UK Dreamhack Should Create an Electric Atmosphere
As well as one of the largest Dota 2 tournaments of the season, with a million dollar prize pool on the line, ESL One will be taking place at the NEC at the same time as Dreamhack.
The popular gaming festival has been held for nearly two decades, including some classic tournaments and moments, so excitement for it and ESL One to appear for the first time in the UK will be high.
Dreamhack Birmingham is a full all round gaming convention and festival. It features:
- Cosplay competitions
- Creator and influencer appearances, including popular YouTubers Sidemen
- Community tournaments
- Gaming expos and demos
- Qualifiers for the Esports World Cup in various games
This will give the event a unique mix of hardcore competitive gaming and a more casual celebration of the gaming experience and culture and festivities, in one of Europe’s premier exhibition centers.