ESL One Birmingham 2026-Yandex, Tundra, and Spirit join Aurora in the upper bracket

Meanwhile, MOUZ, PARIVISION, Team Falcons, and Xtreme Gaming will start the Playoffs in the lower bracket.

The ESL One Birmingham 2026 Group Stage concluded on Thursday (26 March), with eight out of the 16 participating Dota 2 teams advancing to the Playoffs and earning the right to play in front of a live crowd at the bp pulse LIVE Arena.

Team Yandex, Team Spirit, and Tundra Esports will be joining Aurora Gaming–who were the first to punch their tickets to the Playoffs after Day 3 of the Group Stage–in the upper bracket. MOUZ, PARIVISION, Team Falcons, and Xtreme Gaming round out the list of Playoff-qualified teams at Birmingham and will start in the lower bracket.

Meanwhile, GamerLegion, Virtus.pro, BetBoom Team, paiN Gaming, Yakult Brothers, OG, Nigma Galaxy, and REKONIX failed to make it out of the Group Stage and have all been eliminated.

The final day of the ESL One Birmingham 2026 Group Stage notably saw the teams fight for a spot in the Playoffs after the sudden release of Patch 7.41, which saw the removal of the ‘Facet’ game mechanic and the additions of nine new items, among a long list of gameplay changes.

How the eight Playoff-qualified teams at ESL One Birmingham 2026 earned their spots

With Aurora having already claimed one of the upper bracket spots in Day 3, the final day of the ESL One Birmingham 2026 Group Stage saw the other teams (sans REKONIX, who were already eliminated after Day 3) fight for the remaining seven spots in the next stage of the tournament.

Yandex claimed the top spot in Group A by sweeping MOUZ, securing their spot in the upper bracket with a 12-2 record. Yandex finished with the second-best record of the Group Stage behind Aurora, including a six-game win streak to close out their campaign in the preliminary stage.

Tundra took second place in Group A with an 11-3 record, making short work of the already-eliminated REKONIX squad to secure their upper bracket berth. MOUZ finished third in Group A with an 8-6 standing, with their clean 4-0 start in Day 1 of the Group Stage providing them just enough cushion to secure a lower bracket start in the Playoffs.

Meanwhile, PARIVISION claimed the fourth and final Playoff spot in Group A after an incredible turnaround in the final day of the Group Stage. Despite a measly 2-6 record after Day 2, PARIVISION swept Yakult Brothers in their final match to get in a three-way tie with GamerLegion and BetBoom. PARIVISION then scored back-to-back wins over GamerLegion and BetBoom in the tiebreaker to punch their tickets to the Playoffs.

Over in Group B, Spirit secured second place in their group by soundly sweeping Nigma Galaxy to finish with an 11-3 record. Falcons then swept Virtus.pro to end the stage with a 9-3 record, good enough for a lower bracket start in the Playoffs. Finally, Xtreme Gaming swept OG in their final match to claim the fourth and final Playoff spot in Group B despite a 6-8 record.

Here are the full results for Day 4 of the ESL One Birmingham 2026 Group Stage:

Group A

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

Group A tiebreakers

PARIVISION 1-0 GamerLegion
PARIVISION 1-0 PARIVISION

Group B

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

Here are the final standings for the ESL One Birmingham 2026 Group Stage:

Group A

Team Yandex: 12-2 (5-2-0) - QUALIFIED FOR PLAYOFFS UPPER BRACKET
Tundra Esports: 11-3 (4-3-0) - QUALIFIED FOR PLAYOFFS UPPER BRACKET
MOUZ: 8-6 (4-0-3) - QUALIFIED FOR PLAYOFFS LOWER BRACKET
PARIVISION: 6-8 (2-2-3) - QUALIFIED FOR PLAYOFFS LOWER BRACKET
GamerLegion: 6-8 (2-2-3) - ELIMINATED
BetBoom Team: 6-8 (2-2-3) - ELIMINATED
Yakult Brothers: 5-9 (1-3-3) - ELIMINATED
REKONIX: 2-12 (0-2-5) - ELIMINATED

Group B

Aurora Gaming: 13-1 (6-1-0) - QUALIFIED FOR PLAYOFFS UPPER BRACKET
Team Spirit: 11-3 (5-1-1) - QUALIFIED FOR PLAYOFFS UPPER BRACKET
Team Falcons: 9-5 (3-3-1) - QUALIFIED FOR PLAYOFFS LOWER BRACKET
Xtreme Gaming: 6-8 (1-4-2) - QUALIFIED FOR PLAYOFFS LOWER BRACKET
Virtus.pro: 5-9 (1-3-3) - ELIMINATED
OG: 4-10 (0-4-3) - ELIMINATED
Nigma Galaxy: 4-10 (0-4-3) - ELIMINATED
paiN Gaming: 4-10 (0-4-3) - ELIMINATED

The ESL One Birmingham 2026 Playoff picture

With the conclusion of the Group Stage, ESL One Birmingham 2026 will go on a one-day break before competition resumes in the Playoffs in front of a live crowd at the bp pulse LIVE Arena. The ESL One Birmingham 2026 Playoffs will follow a double-elimination format with best-of-three matches except for the grand finals, which will be a full best-of-five series.

The Top 2 teams from each group in the final Group Stage standings will start in the upper bracket finals, while the third and fourth-placed teams from each group will start in the first round of the lower bracket. The Playoffs will start with the upper bracket semifinals, here are the matchups:

Team Yandex vs Team Spirit
Aurora Gaming vs Tundra Esports

The second day of the Playoffs will then feature the first round of the lower bracket, here are the matchups:

MOUZ vs Xtreme Gaming
Team Falcons vs PARIVISION

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.