Aurora, Falcons sweep second-day matches at ESL One Birmingham

Aurora Gaming swept both of their matches Monday to jump to the lead of Group B after two days of group play at the ESL One Birmingham event in England.

Team Falcons were the only other team in the 16-team event to go 2-0-0 on Monday.

The $1 million Dota 2 tournament, featuring 16 teams, will award $750,000 in prize money and $250,000 in club rewards as well as 35,460 ESL Pro Tour points spread among all participants.

The group stage runs through Wednesday, with two single round-robin groups of eight teams each. All series consist of two games.

The top two teams from each group advance to the upper bracket of the playoffs. The third- and fourth-place teams are delegated to the lower-bracket playoffs, and the remaining teams are eliminated.

The playoffs will be contested Thursday through Sunday with a double-elimination bracket. All matches are best-of-three except for the grand final, which is best-of-five.

On Monday, Aurora opened play with a 2-0 win over Nigma Galaxy, taking the maps in 50 and 33 minutes, and both times on green. Aurora then took down Xtreme Gaming in 39 and 32 minutes, winning the first map on red and the second on green. The wins propelled Aurora atop the Group B standings at 3-0-1.

Falcons handed Team Spirit their first loss, winning in 48 and 35 minutes, and both time on red. They followed that up with a sweep of Nigma Galaxy, 40- and 44-minutes victories, both times on green. The only other triumphs Group B were by Spirit (over OG in 57 and 31 minutes, both on red), and Virtus.pro (a 48-minute win on red and 56-minute win on green over paiN Gaming).

Also in Group B, OG tied Virtus.pro and Xtreme Gaming tied paiN.

Half of Group A's matches ended in ties. The only team not involved in a tie was the only team in Group A to go 2-0-0 on Sunday, as MOUZ went 1-1 on Monday.

MOUZ opened with a loss to Yakult Brothers, falling in 38 minutes and 42 minutes, both times while on green. MOUZ followed that up with a win over BetBoom Team, taking the first map in 33 minutes on red and the second in 46 minutes on green. That kept MOUZ atop the Group A standings at 3-1-0. Team Yandex and Tundra Esports are tied at 2-0-2.

Tundra drew twice on Monday, including in a match against Yandex, who won their other match, in 35 and 31 minutes against REKONIX, winning both on red.

The other Group A winner was GamerLegion, who beat PARIVISION 38 and 41 minutes, both times on green.

Each group will play eight more matches on Tuesday, then five on Wednesday.

ESL One Birmingham standings

Position, Team, Match W-L (Maps W-L)

Group A

1. MOUZ, 3-1-0 (6-2)

T2. Team Yandex, 2-0-2 (6-2)

T2. Tundra Esports, 2-0-2 (6-2)

T4. GamerLegion, 1-1-2 (4-4)

T4. Yakult Brothers, 1-1-2 (4-4)

T6. BetBoom, 0-2-2 (2-6)

T6. PARIVISION, 0-2-2 (2-6)

T6. REKONIX, 0-2-2 (2-6)

Group B

1. Aurora Gaming, 3-0-1 (7-1)

T2. Team Falcons, 2-1-1 (5-3)

T2. Team Spirit, 2-1-1 (5-3)

4. Virtus.pro, 1-0-3 (5-3)

T5. OG, 0-1-3 (3-5)

T5. Xtreme Gaming, 0-1-3 (3-5)

T7. Nigma Galaxy, 0-2-2 (2-6)

T7. paiN Gaming, 0-2-2 (2-6)

ESL One Birmingham prize pool (prize money, club reward)

1. $250,000, $40,000

2. $100,000, $30,000

3. $80,000, $25,000

4. $60,000, $20,000

5-6. $40,000, $15,000

7-8. $27,500, $12,500

8-10. $20,000, $10,000

11-12. $17,500, $10,000

13-14. $15,000, $10,000

15-16. $10,000, $10,000

--Field Level Media