ESL One Birmingham 2026 - Aurora Gaming take over the lead in Group B

Aurora Gaming hold the best record of the entire tournament so far with seven wins and just one loss.

The action is picking up at the ESL One Birmingham 2026 Group Stage as the multinational Dota 2 squad of Aurora Gaming have taken a commanding lead in Group B as the second day of the competition came to a close. Thanks to the continued excellent play of its Eastern European and Southeast Asian roster, Aurora now hold the best record of the Group Stage so far with seven wins against one loss.

Meanwhile, the struggle for dominance over Group A has seen Eastern Europe's Team Yandex contest Western Europe's Tundra Esports and MOUZ for the Top 2 spots in their group. But while one Eastern European squad have made their presence known in Group A, two of the region's other heavyweights in PARIVISION and BetBoom Team have been struggling mightily.

Read on as we break down all of the action in Day 2 of ESL One Birmingham 2026:

How did Aurora Gaming take over the lead in Group B at ESL One Birmingham 2026?

After a solid 3-1 start in the opening day of the Group Stage, Aurora caught fire in Day 2 by scoring back-to-back sweeps over Nigma Galaxy and Xtreme Gaming to improve their record to 7-1 and take over the lead in Group B.

Key to Aurora's success has been the excellent play of Indonesian mid laner Rafli Fathur “Mikoto” Rahman, who is averaging 11.75 kills and 12.38 assists against 1.25 deaths in his team's eight games so far. Mikoto's most impressive outing in this early stage has to be his perfect 14-kill, 14-assist performance on Storm Spirit in Aurora's dominant game two win over Xtreme.

But while the spotlight in Group B is squarely on Aurora, other teams in the group have also enjoyed a successful run in Day 2. After a horrid 1-3 start in Day 1, reigning The International champions Team Falcons bounced back with a clean 4-0 outing in Day 2 off of sweeps over Team Spirit and Nigma Galaxy. Falcons are now in a three-way tie with Spirit and Virtus.pro for second place in Group B, with all three teams having a 5-3 record.

On the outside looking in for Group B are OG, Xtreme, Nigma Galaxy, and paiN Gaming. OG and Xtreme both have a 3-5 standing and still have a decent shot at making the Playoffs if one of the Top 4 teams start slipping up. Meanwhile, Nigma Galaxy and paiN sit squarely at the bottom of their group with 2-6 records apiece, with a Playoff berth for either squad looking like a pipe dream at this point.

Over in Group A, the competition is looking even more stratified compared to the state of affairs after the opening day of the Group Stage. After perfect starts in Day 1, both Tundra and MOUZ have each suffered two losses but still maintain their hold over the group's top spots with 6-2 records apiece. Yandex had another 3-1 outing off of a sweep over REKONIX and a 1-1 draw with Tundra, making it a three-way battle for the two upper bracket spots in Group A.

North America's GamerLegion and China's Yakult Brothers have notably given a good account of themselves despite low expectations with 4-4 records apiece.

But while some squads have been punching above their weight, others have not put up the fight many expected they would. PARIVISION and BetBoom, two squads who should have been in the fight for the top spots in this group, have only managed two wins so far. After going 1-3 in Day 1, both teams repeated that run in Day 2 by drawing 1-1 against each other and getting swept in their next match. BetBoom looked like easy pickings against MOUZ while PARIVISION were stunned by GamerLegion. BetBoom and PARIVISION join REKONIX in the bottom of the standings, with an early exit looming over their heads.

Here are the full results for Day 2 of the ESL One Birmingham 2026 Group Stage:

Group A

BetBoom Team 1-1 PARIVISION
Tundra Esports 1-1 GamerLegion
Yakult Brothers 0-2 MOUZ
Team Yandex 2-0 REKONIX
Tundra Esports 1-1 Team Yandex
MOUZ 2-0 BetBoom Team
GamerLegion 2-0 PARIVISION
Yakult Brothers 1-1 REKONIX

Group B

Team Falcons 2-0 Team Spirit
Aurora Gaming 2-0 Nigma Galaxy
OG 1-1 Virtus.pro
Xtreme Gaming 1-1 paiN Gaming
Team Spirit 2-0 OG
Aurora Gaming 2-0 Xtreme Gaming
Team Falcons 2-0 Nigma Galaxy
Virtus.pro 2-0 paiN Gaming

Here are the standings after Day 2 of the ESL One Birmingham 2026 Group Stage:

Group A

MOUZ: 6-2 (3-0-1)
Team Yandex: 6-2 (2-2-0)
Tundra Esports: 6-2 (2-2-0)
GamerLegion: 4-4 (1-2-1)
Yakult Brothers: 4-4 (1-2-1)
BetBoom Team: 2-6 (0-2-2)
PARIVISION: 2-6 (0-2-2)
REKONIX: 2-6 (0-2-2)

Group B

Aurora Gaming: 7-1 (3-1-0)
Team Falcons: 5-3 (2-1-1)
Team Spirit: 5-3 (2-1-1)
Virtus.pro: 5-3 (1-3-0)
OG: 3-5 (0-3-1)
Xtreme Gaming: 3-5 (0-3-1)
Nigma Galaxy: 2-6 (0-2-2)
paiN Gaming: 2-6 (0-2-2)

What you need to know about ESL One Birmingham 2026

ESL One Birmingham 2026 is the latest event in the 2025-2026 ESL Pro Tour (EPT) and is the fourth ESL One tournament to be hosted in Birmingham, the United Kingdom after the previous edition in 2024. ESL One Birmingham 2026 features 16 of the best teams in the world competing for their cut of the tournament's US$1 million prize pool and EPT points that will go towards qualification for the Esports World Cup 2026's Dota 2 competition.

ESL One Birmingham will take place from 22 to 29 March, split between the Group Stage from 22 to 25 March and the Playoffs from 26 to 29 March. The Group Stage splits the 16 participating teams into two round-robin groups of eight teams each, where they will compete in best-of-two matches to be among the eight total teams advancing to the Playoffs. The Playoffs follow a double-elimination format with best-of-three matches except for the grand finals, which will be a full best-of-five series.