One of the great aspects of offline tournaments is that they allow interaction between players, fans and the media. This means they generate lots of awesome photos, interviews and reports, which go further than just looking at the games that were played. ESL One was no different in this regard, with lots of fan interaction, player interviews and great coverage in German TV and newspapers. Here we've collected some of the most interesting content from around the web.

Interviews

Even before ESL One kicked off, PC Gamer interviewed our very own Paul ”ReDeYe” Chaloner about Frankfurt, casting and the future of eSports. As well as discussing how he was preparing to host his first big Dota 2 tournament, Paul also reflected on the constant question of whether getting onto ‘normal TV’ is the ultimate goal in truly establishing the legitimacy of eSports, saying: “We didn't need mainstream. The mainstream is now coming to us.”

During the event, there were plenty of big names to talk to. GosuGamers filmed this great interview with Cloud 9’s Aui the day after their defeat at the hands of Alliance in the first round. As well as reflecting on the game, Aui also spoke about his feelings regarding the team’s bootcamping and coaches as well as the format of the upcoming International 4.

onGamers’s Matthew “Cyborgmatt” Bailey interviewed a number of the big personalities who were at ESL One Frankfurt, speaking to players to commentators alike. He chatted to Na’Vi’s Danil “Dendi” Ishutin about his training regime as well as his thoughts on the imminent International 4, also asking Sébastien “7ckngMad” Debs about the latter and his opinions of the event and games so far as an ESL One analyst. Matt also gave a comprehensive tour of the venue (as well as giving Bruno the opportunity to explain the dramatic cause of his hand injury), unravelled the secrets of the Secret Shop and orchestrated this amazing video in which Na’Vi’s Puppey gamely tries his hand at interviewing N0tail.

We even had an appearance of the legendary Uszat, who got a chance to interview Cloud 9’s SingSing.

Redbull managed to grab a hold of Bruno Carlucci to talk about Stats, ESL One and his thoughts on TI4.  PC Gamer on the other hand took the chance to speak to Loda after the event, asking him about Alliance’s matches and performance during ESL One as well as his feelings as they approaching the upcoming International 4.

If you're an interview fan, make sure you also check out our own interviews and spotlights from the lead-up to ESLOne, where we sat down with many players and personalities including Arteezy, Dendi, Ferrari_430, SyndereN, paS and ReDeYe. You can also browse our Dota 2 section for all the articles.

Photos

In addition to the pictures that can be found in our Flickr album, a number of other photographers both amateur and professional were busy taking snaps throughout the event.

GosuGamers’ album can be found here, and features everything from cosplay to the roaring crowd and even a few behind the scenes shots, while Fnatic also uploaded a great album of the team going about their business at the Commerzbank Arena.

joinDOTA also produced albums for both day one and day two of ESL One Frankfurt, which captured a number of great moments including set up, autograph signings and even Bruno meeting some attendees whose suits were even louder than his.

Other content

In addition to the many pictures and interviews, a variety of other interesting content can be found throughout the web. Extremely cool is this first day recap produced by Natus Vincere:

PC Gamer also did a day one review that set things up nicely for the next day’s nail-biting matches, while GosuGamers produced an impressively detailed post-event roundup article that looked at the twists and turns of each match right down to each player’s final score. Following iG’s stunning victory, onGamers also produced their own post-event analysis article, it looking at the teams, their performances and the intricacies of running the event. Their verdict?

“The presentation ESL arranged at the Commerzbank Arena eclipsed nearly every other Western eSports event to-date. Just the fact that it managed to bring 10,000 people together to cheer for the world's best Dota teams is almost enough to say that it single-handedly became a bigger spectacle than anyone could have hoped for.”

Red Bull also put together an awesome article after the event giving their top five video highlights of ESL One, which covers everything from top plays to cosplay.

Got any other awesome ESL One Frankfurt coverage to share? Post it in the comments below!

To finish off, here are the best plays as summarized by DotaCinema: