The second direct invite for ESL One Hamburg 2018 has been awarded to Evil Geniuses.
Last week ESL announced that Virtus.pro would be back to defend their ESL One title. It was little surprise to see the CIS powerhouse be named the first invite, but fans had to wait a full week before hearing who else would be appearing in Germany this fall.
Without much further ado, the second team to be directly invited is none other than Evil Geniuses.
The NA organization (albeit with some different players in the lineup) have struggled at ESL throughout last season. They came in a disappointing 10-12th place finish at ESL One Birmingham at the end of the season, a sub-par 5-6th place at ESL One Katowice, a commendable 3-4th place at ESL One Genting and another mediocre result coming in 5-6th place at ESL One Hamburg 2017.
However, after a lackluster season, the organization made a shocking decision to cut loose Rasmus ‘MiSeRy’ Filipsen and Clinton ‘Fear’ Loomis two months ago, forfeiting their DPC points and being relegated to the TI8 open qualifiers, picking up Tal "Fly" Aizik and Gustav "s4" Magnusson in the process. Their debut at China Super Major was terrible, but understandable as the team had no time to practice before the big event. They then went on to claim the championship title at BTS Summit 9 and then took an impressive 3rd place at The International 8.
So far Evil Geniuses have not announced if there would be any changes to their lineup for the new season.
ESL One Hamburg 2018 Info:
ESL One Hamburg 2018 will have an expanded format featuring round robin groups and double elimination playoff brackets.
- Date: Oct 23th - Oct 28th
- Participating teams: 12 teams (Virtus.pro and Evil Geniuses so far)
Group-stage Format:
- Teams will be divided into two groups
- Round robin two-game series
- Top two teams each group will advance to playoffs Upper-Bracket
- Bottom two teams each group will advance to playoffs Lower-Bracket
Main event format:
- Double elimination bracket
- All matches are 'Bo3'
- Grand-final match will be 'Bo5'
