ESL One Hamburg powered by Intel, Europe’s largest Dota 2 festival, will return to Barclaycard Arena on October 26-28, 2018. After its successful first edition last year, ESL One Hamburg 2018 will not only increase the duration of the tournament up to six days, including group stages and playoffs, but also double the number of participating Dota 2 teams. Only the world’s best sixteen teams will get the chance to battle over the coveted championship title and a lion’s share of the prize pool.
In addition to the Dota 2 tournament, ESL One Hamburg will feature various side activities including signing sessions with pro players and the cosplay contest, which has been a long-standing part of the festival experience. Once again the most talented and aspiring cosplayers will come together to unveil their newest creations in front of a jury and thousands of like-minded fans.
“We are looking forward to bringing ESL One back to Hamburg after such a successful debut of our flagship event series last year,” said Ulrich Schulze, Senior Vice President of Product at ESL. “This year ESL One Hamburg is going to be even bigger and better, as we are expanding both: tournament days being held in the arena and the number of participating teams.”
Last year, Barclaycard Arena welcomed over 10,000 fans on each of the two main event days to ESL One Hamburg, the first Major of the 2017/2018 competitive season. Over the course of four tournament days 38.5 million social media impressions have been generated by more than 8 million users, marking a 50% increase compared to last year’s ESL One which was held in Frankfurt. ESL One Hamburg 2017 saw a 250% growth in unique viewers compared to ESL One Frankfurt 2016. After some competitive matchups, it was Team Virtus.pro who was able to beat Team Secret 2-0 in the grand final, and winning their very first championship title.
Ticket sales for ESL One Hamburg 2018 start on Monday, May 7 at 3pm CEST and will range in price from 39€ for weekend tickets up to 229€ for premium tickets. Further information on each of the available ticket types can be found here.
For more information about the event visit the official website and check out the ESL One Hamburg 2018 announcement trailer. Be sure to follow ESL One Dota 2 on Twitter and Facebook for all the latest updates.