Yandex move atop Group A at ESL One Birmingham

Team Yandex swept two matches on Tuesday and charged into first place in Group A at the ESL One Birmingham event in England.

Yandex beat GamerLegion 2-0 and BetBoom Team 2-0 to move to 4-0-2 in group play. Tundra Esports (3-0-3) fell into second place but remained unbeaten after defeating MOUZ 2-0 and drawing 1-1 against Yakult Brothers.

In other Group A action, BetBoom Team bested Yakult Brothers 2-0, PARIVISION wrecked REKONIX 2-0, MOUZ pounded PARIVISION 2-0, and GamerLegion blitzed REKONIX 2-0.

Aurora Gaming are still undefeated (5-0-1) and sitting atop Group B after a pair of Tuesday victories, 2-0 over OG and 2-0 over Virtus.pro. Second-place Team Spirit also posted two wins on Tuesday, 2-0 over Virtus.pro and 2-0 over Xtreme Gaming.

The day's other four Group B matches were all 1-1 draws: Nigma Galaxy vs. Xtreme Gaming, paiN Gaming vs. Team Falcons, Team Falcons vs. OG, and paiN Gaming vs. Nigma Galaxy.

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 Tuesday, Team Yandex trounced GamerLegion twice, both in 32 minutes on red. Kazakhstan's Alimzhan "watson" Islambekov registered a 25-3-21 kill-death-assist ratio for Team Yandex. Paul "Speeed" Bocchicchio wound up with a 7-13-11 K-D-A ratio for GamerLegion.

Yandex then pounded BetBoom Team in 42 minutes and 24 minutes, both on red, behind watson's 28-11-17 K-D-A ratio. Russia's Ilya "Kiritych" Ulyanov finished at 10-9-10 for BetBoom Team.

Tundra Esports manhandled MOUZ in 34 minutes on green and 43 minutes on red. Israel's Neta "33" Shapira recorded a 22-2-34 K-D-A ratio for Tundra Esports. Malaysia's Yeik "MidOne" Nai Zheng ended up at 16-14-16 for MOUZ.

Aurora Gaming defeated OG in 41 minutes on red and in 25 minutes on green. Malaysia's Chung "Ws" Wei Shen paced Aurora at 13-4-28. Erin Jasper "Yopaj" Ferrer produced a 7-8-12 K-D-A ratio for all-Philippine OG.

Aurora needed just 27 minutes on green and 35 minutes on red to dispatch Virtus.pro. Russia's Egor "Nightfall" Grigorenko had a perfect 26-0-21 K-D-A ratio for Aurora Gaming. The Philippines' Abed "Abed" Yusop posted a 7-6-5 K-D-A ratio for Virtus.pro.

Team Spirit downed Virtus.pro in 41 minutes on green and 25 minutes on red thanks to a 22-5-33 K-D-A ratio from Russia's Magomed "Collapse" Khalilov. Abed wound up at 8-9-8.

Spirit pushed past Xtreme Gaming in 39 minutes on red and 63 minutes on red. Russia's Denis "Larl" Sigitov amassed a 24-7-29 K-D-A ratio for Team Spirit. China's Wang "Ame" Chunyu totaled 11-8-10 for Xtreme Gaming.

The schedule for the final group-stage matches on Wednesday:

Group A

--Team Yandex vs. MOUZ

--BetBoom Team vs. GamerLegion

--PARIVISION vs. Yakult Brothers

--Tundra Esports vs. REKONIX

Group B

--Xtreme Gaming vs. OG

--Team Spirit vs. Nigma Galaxy

--Team Falcons vs. Virtus.pro

--Aurora Gaming vs. paiN Gaming

ESL One Birmingham standings

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

Group A

1. Team Yandex, 4-0-2 (10-2)

2. Tundra Esports, 3-0-3 (9-3)

3. MOUZ, 4-2-0 (8-4)

4. GamerLegion, 2-2-2 (6-6)

5. Yakult Brothers, 1-2-3 (5-7)

T6. BetBoom, 1-2-3 (4-8)

T6. PARIVISION, 1-2-3 (4-8)

8. REKONIX, 0-2-4 (2-10)

Group B

1. Aurora Gaming, 5-0-1 (11-1)

2. Team Spirit, 4-1-1 (9-3)

3. Team Falcons, 2-1-3 (7-5)

4. Virtus.pro, 1-2-3 (5-7)

T5. Nigma Galaxy, 0-2-4 (4-8)

T5. OG, 0-2-4 (4-8)

T5. paiN Gaming, 0-2-4 (4-8)

T5. Xtreme Gaming, 0-2-4 (4-8)

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