Yandex, Tundra kick off ESL One Birmingham playoffs with wins

Team Yandex and Tundra Esports advanced to the upper-bracket final of the ESL One Birmingham event with victories Thursday in England.

Yandex defeated Team Spirit and Tundra topped Aurora Gaming, both by 2-1 scores, to get one step closer to the grand final. The losing sides are not out of the running yet, but they dropped into the lower bracket of the playoffs and will pick up in the lower-bracket quarterfinals.

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 competition began with a group stage, with teams split into two groups of eight. The top two teams from each group advanced to the upper bracket of the playoffs. The third- and fourth-place teams were delegated to the lower-bracket playoffs, with the remaining eight teams 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 Thursday, Yandex sandwiched a 50-minute win on red and a 35-minute win on green around a setback to Spirit in 44 minutes on red. Kazakhstan's Alimzhan "watson" Islambekov led the way with an average kills-deaths-assists ratio of 13.7-2.3-11.3.

Similarly, Tundra opened its match against Aurora with a 36-minute win on green, dropped the next map in 55 minutes on red and bounced back with a clinching 44-minute win on green. Bulgaria's Bozhidar "bzm" Bogdanov paced Tundra with an average K-D-A of 8.7-2.3-13.7.

The tournament continues Friday with three matches:

--MOUZ vs. Xtreme Gaming (lower-bracket Round 1)

--Team Falcons vs. PARIVISION (lower-bracket Round 1)

--Team Spirit vs. MOUZ-Xtreme Gaming winner (lower-bracket quarterfinals)

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

1. TBD -- $250,000, $40,000

2. TBD -- $100,000, $30,000

3. TBD -- $80,000, $25,000

4. TBD -- $60,000, $20,000

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

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

9-10. GamerLegion, Virtus.pro -- $20,000, $10,000

11-12. BetBoom Team, paiN Gaming -- $17,500, $10,000

13-14. Yakult Brothers, OG -- $15,000, $10,000

15-16. REKONIX, Nigma Galaxy -- $10,000, $10,000

--Field Level Media