While Fnatic and Team Dog have already secured their spots next to Alliance and Navi in Frankfurt’s World Cup stadium for the ESL One, the qualifiers for the other regions are reaching their climax as teams battle it out for the remaining four tickets. One spot remains for each region, and the action in Europe, America, China and South East Asia is heating up. 

Which of the favorites will manage to make it out of the group stages? Cloud 9 and Empire face off in Europe, Team Liquid and Evil Geniuses in America while South East Asia has Titan eSports, Sythe and Zephyr looking at the top spot. China is harder to predict, with all four Chinese TI4 competitors duking it out for the single ticket. Below is an overview of how things stand.

European qualifier

Although Fnatic and Team Dog have already qualified through the two finals matches, there is still one spot up for grabs in the last chance tournament. The favorites for this spot are undoubtedly the two TI4 direct invites Cloud 9 and Team Empire, who are directly seeded into the semifinals, but teams like Monomaniac eSports, Relax, rox.KIS, Power Ranger, hehe and Meet Your Makers should not be underestimated in their ability to cause upsets. With most of the remaining teams also playing in the upcoming European International Qualifiers, these matches will be an interesting look ahead.

The next European playoff matches will be on Saturday the 3rd of May - be sure to tune in!

• Power Rangers vs. Monomaniac eSports - Saturday, May 3rd at 15:00 CEST
• Meet Your Makers vs. DuzaGaming - Saturday, May 3rd at 18:00 CEST
• Relax vs. hehe - Monday, May 5th at 18:00 CEST

Chinese qualifier

The Chinese qualifier for ESL One will be an incredibly interesting tournament and one of our most stacked regional qualifiers, with four direct TI4 invitees in the form of DK, Newbee, Invictus Gaming and Vici Gaming attending. They will be going up against further high tier teams such as HyperGloryTeam, CIS-Game, LGD.cn and Dream Time.ngc in a bid to represent China at Frankfurt. The games will be highly interesting and give a good indicator of the form of the Chinese teams as we enter one of the most packed and interesting three months of Dota 2 we’ve had in a long time.

• DK vs. Dream Time.ngc - Tuesday, May 6th at 07:00 CEST
• Newbee vs. LGD.cn - Tuesday, May 6th at 07:00 CEST
• Invictus Gaming vs. HyperGloryTeam - Wednesday, May 7th at 07:00 CEST
• Vici Gaming vs. CIS-Game - Wednesday, May 7th at 10:00 CEST​

American qualifiers

We have reached round two of the American Qualifiers, with both of the favorites moving into the semifinals. Here Evil Geniuses will face the North American Rejects, who previously defeated Revenge eSports, while Team Liquid face the Peruvian Union Gaming, who looked strong in their victory over American hopefuls eHug.  

• Union Gaming vs. Team Liquid - Friday, May 2nd at 18:00 CEST
• Evil Geniuses vs. North American Rejects - Saturday, May 3rd at 21:00 CEST

South East Asian qualifiers

Although Titan, who have four players from last year's TI3 3rd Team Orange squad, are heavy favorites to book the ticket to Frankfurt, they face tough opposition not only from dangerous teams such as Scythe but also from potential qualifiers from the Battle Royale. Here teams like Zephyr and Mineski will do their best to cause upsets and take home the coveted ticket to Germany.  

Make sure to check out the ESL One website for more information on the venue, tournament and to get your tickets. See you there!