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ESL One Los Angeles Online is going to make up for the absence of the original ESL One Los Angeles Major, which was postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Because the new online-only format is splitting the tournament up into five regions, with one being significantly bigger than the other four, there are going to be some days where teams from multiple regions play during the event, which will run from March 28 to April 19.
Thankfully, ESL has worked on scheduling and there won’t be more than six different series on any given day, but on the days there are six, those could be spread out across four different brackets. Just on day one, there will be three games in China and then one in each of North America, South America, and Southeast Asia.
And even though the tournament is split between regions, the online format allows ESL to localize the broadcast on their main channel and keep the same talent across the board, meaning you won’t have to deal with a huge variance in quality.
But since everything will still be a bit of a pain to follow, here is how to watch the ESL One Los Angeles Online over the next three weeks.
Stream
You can watch all of the matches across each region on the main ESL One Dota 2 Twitch, starting at 4am CT on March 28 as EHOME and Newbee kick the entire tournament off.
Schedule
Everything starts with China, as it has the second-highest number of teams competing with six, compared to NA, SA, and SEA with four and the massive 16 teams playing in the combined Europe and CIS bracket.
The four smaller regional brackets will all run alongside each other, hosting matches for each individual bracket starting from March 28, though the end date is still up in the air because ESL wants to be flexible with the later schedule.
As of now, China will have three series per day from March 28 until April 1, while the three, four-team regions will only have one on each of those days, and then another group of three on April 2. That plays out to three China games and one from the other regions for five straight days, and then a day of only NA, SA, and SEA games on April 2.
- China
- Group Stage – March 28 – April 1
- Playoffs – TBD
- NA
- Group Stage – March 28 – April 2
- Playoffs – TBD
- SA
- Group Stage – March 28 – April 2
- Playoffs – TBD
- SEA
- Group Stage – March 28 – April 2
- Playoffs – TBD
The biggest bracket, EU/CIS, won’t even begin until April 4, with four matches being played every day until the group stage concludes on April 16. The playoffs will begin on April 17 and wrap up alongside the entire event on April 19.
- EU/CIS
- Group Stage – April 4 – 16
- Playoffs – April 17 to 19
The dates of the other region’s playoffs are not known yet, so it is unclear if there will be some overlap with any of the smaller brackets and the EU/CIS, but even if there are, it would likely only be China.
Published: Mar 27, 2020 09:47 pm