All teams invited to ESL One Birmingham 2020 Online

The direct invites are out, which means the 2020 ESL One Birmingham Online roster is starting to paint a picture full of the most dominant teams across every region. 

Thirty teams are already gearing up for the event, while the remaining eight are going to be decided over the next few days as the closed qualifiers wrap up. 

The combined Europe/CIS region will once again make up the biggest portion of the tournament, with 16 teams, 14 of which were directly invited by ESL. Two teams will qualify through the closed qualifiers, though some smaller teams that would normally be competing in them have already made it into the main event. 

OG and Virtus.pro both host two teams, their main roster and a developmental roster, with OG.Seed and VP.Prodigy doing very well on their own over the last several months. ESL only allows one team per organization to enter its events, however, meaning the main OG roster and Prodigy will be playing. 

Nigma is also not present, though it is unclear why KuroKy and his team will not be playing. Their absence opened the door for Cyber Legacy to get an invite. Here are all of the teams that have been invited from EU/CIS to compete in the event. 

China is the second-largest region represented at eight teams, with two qualifiers spots open for teams that didn’t receive an invite. 

The largest omission here is Vici Gaming, though according to esports statistician and head of DatDota Ben “Noxville” Steenhuisen, that is because the team declined to participate. CDEC Gaming quickly claimed the first qualifier spot after being left off of the invite list.

Both the North America/South America bracket and Southeast Asia only got one qualifier spot, with five teams being invited to compete directly. 

SEA’s invites were very straight forward as all of the top teams received invites while only a few notable roster were left to fight for the final spot in the region. Reality Rift is currently sitting in the grand finals of the closed qualifiers, poised to join the final lineup. 

Meanwhile, NA/SA have the top four NA squads locked in, while beastcoast is the only SA roster that made the cut. This seems odd considering how strong Thunder Predator have been in comparison to BC in recent months, and now they have to play in through closed qualifiers. 

Overall, the tournament is shaping up to be another massive event that will keep Dota fans entertained for weeks with all of the matches going on. Final tournament details are still being worked out by ESL and its partners, but a full schedule including dates for all regions, talent, and stream info should be released soon.