ESL One Hamburg 2019 has been wrapped up, and a new team has been crowned Champions. As one of the first major tournaments post-International, both fans and players alike were keen to see the results of countless roster reshuffles and transfers. Time for the recap!

The Groups

From Day 1 it was clear both Vici Gaming and TNC Predator meant business coming into the tournament; both teams lost only a single game in the entire Group Stage. Alliance with their completely new roster stood out, whilst CIS team Gambit Esports also showed some serious potential. Beastcoast had an extremely rough first day, having lost every single game, but bounced back with full force to secure the wins necessary to advance to the Main Stage. Meanwhile Virtus.pro struggled to perform and only narrowly managed to crawl through the Groups.

It wasn’t all happy tales though, as both Team Liquid and Quincy Crew, two teams that many expected good things from, bombed out of the tourney with only two series wins between them. Alongside them Vikin.gg and Fighting PandaS also failed to get the points they needed to advance.

The Mainstage

The Lower Bracket was truly a thing to remember; beastcoast narrowly managed to defeat Wind and Rain in a nail-biting series with two hour-long games, and then went on to take out one of the favourites of the tournament - Vici Gaming. Meanwhile Alliance, having been knocked down by TNC Predator, dispatched Virtus.pro and beastcoast in succession, before finally being taken out by Gambit Esports.

The Grand Finals were set. TNC Predator had already beaten Gambit Esports 2-0 twice in the tournament so far, but would the CIS team learn from their mistakes? Game 1 seemed to suggest not, as Gambit got crushed by TNC in just over 20 minutes. But they clearly weren’t about to be walked over again, and came back to take both Game 2 and 4.

It all came down to the last map. However, TNC with Armel on Alchemist proved near-impossible to stop. Despite some serious gameplay from dream´ on Lifestealer and gpk- on Ember Spirit, TNC Predator finally managed to close out the series 3-2, making them the first ever SEA team to win an ESL One title. To add to their accolades and lion's share of the $300,000 prizepool, newly recruited captain March won the Mercedes MVP.

That’s it for ESL One Hamburg! We have plenty more fantastic Dota 2 tournaments coming up throughout the year, so make sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for all the latest news and updates!