ESL One Fall: Bootcamp Edition has come to a close! Over the course of the past couple of weeks we’ve seen some fantastic Dota and some serious upsets, with Tundra Esports being crowned Champions! Here’s everything you need to know:
Summary:
Prize Pool: $400,000
Teams: 12 (10 direct invites, 2 from qualifiers)
- Alliance
- Team Liquid
- Team Spirit
- T1
- Thunder Predator
- PSG.LGD
- beastcoast
- Virtus.Pro
- Tundra Esports
- SG Esports
- Team Empire
- Creepwave
Playoff VODS: twitch.tv/esl_dota2
The Group Stage
A new file has just dropped in: our #ESLOne Fall: Bootcamp Edition Groups!
Who do you think will come top of each? pic.twitter.com/6BDBbRWwSB
— ESL Dota2 (@ESLDota2) August 17, 2021
Kicking off the tournament on August 21st, the Group Stage promised to be action packed from the get-go; Group A had two-time DPC Champions Virtus.pro and ESL One Summer victors T1, whilst Group B had DreamLeague DPC Champions Alliance and the previous Major winners PSG.LGD. Furthermore, the new Dota patch 7.30 had dropped a couple days before, giving some fresh new balance changes to the game.
In Group A, it quickly became clear that Virtus.pro was the dominant team; in fact they didn’t lose a single game in the whole Group Stage! More surprising was Tundra Esports success, managing to beat every opponent they faced with the exception of VP. ESL One Summer champs T1 struggled to stay afloat, whilst Creepwave and Thunder Predator sunk to the bottom and were knocked out.
Group B was far more contested, with no clear dominant team. South American team beastcoast managed to surpass PSG.LGD in points, taking the top of the leaderboard, with the Chinese team coming second. Team Liquid and SG esports unfortunately fell short and were sent packing after a string of losses.
The Playoffs
Virtus.pro got to work instantly, knocking PSG.LGD down to the Lower Bracket in a convincing 2-0, whilst Tundra Esports did the same to beastcoast. When these two dominant teams met in the Upper Bracket Finals, to many people’s shock it was Tundra that came out of the series unscathed with a remarkable 2-0 against VP. People were also shocked to find out team captain Fata didn’t know how a bottle worked.
When the enemy high-fives back
Also, watch @DotaFata try to drink with the cap on with @IntelGaming moments of brilliance replay #ESLOne pic.twitter.com/NEGauav5vT
— ESL Dota2 (@ESLDota2) August 28, 2021
In the Lower Bracket, T1 KO-d DPC Champs Alliance with a 2-1, and then went on to knock out the last remaining South American team beastcoast. However, when T1 met PSG.LGD in the Lower Bracket Round 3, it was the Chinese Major winners who ended up taking the victory. PSG.LGD then went on to knock out Virtus.pro 2-1, putting a surprising end to VP’s dominant performance in the tournament so far.
@PSGLGD_ CLAIMS THE LAST GRAND FINAL SPOT
https://t.co/jKNcjqCY84 pic.twitter.com/C6s9VF262x
— ESL Dota2 (@ESLDota2) August 29, 2021
Many fans had expected PSG.LGD to make it to the Grand Finals, but not many had put down Tundra Esports to be a Grand Finalist. However, despite the fact Tundra had failed to qualify for The International, they were a serious force to be reckoned with. The fairly recent addition of Sneyking to pos 4 had clearly had a superb impact on the team, as they managed to easily take Game 1 off PSG.LGD in just 32 minutes. The Major winners were not going to go down without a fight though, and LGD swiped two games off of Tundra Esports thanks to xiao8’s mid Leshrac. The next two games were a nail-biting 50 minutes each, with both teams giving it their all. Finally off of a Tier 3 tower dive Tundra Esports wiped PSG.LGD and with no buybacks, the Chinese team were forced to concede the 5th and final game.
WINNING MOMENT FOR @TundraEsports_! pic.twitter.com/pxoLwuOykX
— ESL Dota2 (@ESLDota2) August 29, 2021
Hopefully we see Tundra Esports continue to dominate in the post-TI season!
