ESL has announced that they will be hosting a new online tournament, called ESL One Germany, from October 4 to November 1, featuring 16 teams from Europe and the CIS battling for their share of a US$400,000 prize pool.

There are 12 teams who received direct invites to the event: Team Secret, OG, Team Nigma, Alliance, Team Liquid, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Virtus.pro, Natus Vincere, Vikin.gg, HellRaisers, FlyToMoon, along with one unannounced team.

The rest of the participating teams will be determined through a Closed Qualifier from September 25-27.

ESL One Germany will kick off with a Swiss format Group Stage from October 5-20, with all the teams in one pool going through five rounds of matches to get three wins to proceed to the Playoffs.

The Playoffs, set to run from October 23 to November 1, will be a double-elimination bracket with all matches being a best-of-three except for the Grand Finals, which will be a full best-of-five series.

Here’s the breakdown of the prize pool for the event:

1st placeUS$150,000
2nd placeUS$80,000
3rd placeUS$45,000
4th placeUS$25,000
5th-6th placeUS$15,500
7th-8th placeUS$12,000
9th-11th placeUS$7,500
12th-14th placeUS$5,500
15th-16th placeUS$3,500

ESL One Germany will also have the second largest prize pool of any event since the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) was suspended back in March. The biggest prize pool belongs to the OMEGA League, which will hold its second season from October to December, with a US$500,000 prize pool.

This will also be the 12th online tournament to be hosted by ESL since the scene was shut down earlier this year.

The competitive Dota scene in EU/CIS remains robust even amidst the continued suspension of the DPC. With tournaments already set to take place in the region throughout the rest of the year, fans will have enough competition to enjoy until the DPC’s expected return early next year.

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