ESL One Birmingham-Team Yandex, Tundra Esports make the Top 3

Team Yandex and Tundra Esports opened the Playoffs by defeating Team Spirit and Tundra Esports to advance to the upper bracket finals.

The ESL One Birmingham 2026 Playoffs are now underway, with the upper bracket semifinals kicking off the battle for the lion's share of the tournament's US$1 million prize pool. Team Yandex and Tundra Esports advanced to the upper bracket finals and guaranteed themselves at least a Top 3 finish after they defeated Team Spirit and Aurora Gaming, respectively, in the upper bracket finals.

Here's how all the action in Day 5 of ESL One Birmingham 2026 went down:

How Yandex cemented themselves as Eastern Europe's top team versus Spirit

Eastern Europe has arguably been the most hotly-contested region in Dota 2 this year, but a new power seems to have cemented themselves as the region's new top dogs. Yandex defeated Spirit in three games to kick off the ESL One Birmingham 2026 Playoffs to secure a spot in the upper bracket finals and stake their claim as the juggernauts of Eastern Europe.

Yandex were on fire to start the series, routing Spirit in just under 50 minutes of action to take their first win of the match behind the one-two punch of carry player Alimzhan “Watson” Islambekov and mid laner Ilya “CHIRA_JUNIOR” Chirtsov. Watson on Beastmaster fueled Yandex's dominance in game one by notching a series-high 21 kills to go with 16 assists on just one death. CHIRA_JUNIOR on Void Spirit added 15 kills and 19 assists on four deaths to round out Yandex's 49-19 kill lead in game one.

Spirit shook off their game one loss by forcing the series to a deciding game three with a comfortable 43-minute win in game two. Illya “Yatoro” Mulyarchuk reminded everybody of his status as arguably the best carry player in the world by posting 11 kills and eight assists on two deaths as Muerta to help his team force a game three.

Despite Spirit's best efforts to keep things interesting in game three, Yandex soundly trounced them in the decider as Watson and CHIRA_JUNIOR once again showed out. In a 34-minute stomp where Yandex finished with a lopsided 40-7 kill lead, Watson on Ursa and CHIRA_JUNIOR on Void Spirit notched a clean 12 kills apiece and combined for 24 assists to lead their team to the upper bracket finals.

Tundra humble Group Stage leader Aurora to make the Top 3 at Birmingham

The second match of the day then saw Group A's second seed Tundra take on a streaking Aurora, who ended the Group Stage as the top seed of Group B with a stage-best 13-1 record. While Aurora have looked nigh-unbeatable in the best-of-two matches of the Group Stage, Tundra proved themselves superior in a best-of-three showdown in the Playoffs.

Tundra kicked off the series with a comfortable 35-minute win behind Ivan “Pure” Moskalenko's Alchemist and Bozhidar “bzm” Bogdanov's Pangolier. Pure paced his team's 25-15 kill lead with 10 kills and six assists on two deaths, but bzm was undoubtedly the star of the show in game one. Tundra's mid laner had a perfect nine-kill, nine-assist performance and ended the game with over 27,500 gold in net worth–over 6,000 gold clear of Pure who was on the game's best farming hero.

Game two was the longest game of the day at 54 minutes, where Aurora showed their mettle by claiming a hard-fought win in the late game to send the series to a decider. Just like in the Group Stage, Egor “Nightfall” Grigorenko and Rafli Fathur “Mikoto” Rahman were instrumental to their team's success. Nightfall on Gyrocopter finished with 14 kills and 15 assists while Mikoto on Storm Spirit added 11 kills and 20 assists, with both players only having three deaths apiece.

The series decider then saw both sides draft high-tempo lineups. Tundra picked Alchemist for Pure once again, backing him up with strong teamfight heroes in bzm's Sand King and Neta “33” Shapira's Largo. Meanwhile, Aurora opted for heavy teamfight and pushing power with Luna for Nightfall alongside Mikoto's Puck and Chung “Ws`” Wei Shen's Brewmaster.

In the end, Tundra proved superior in the crucial clashes and claimed the 2-1 series victory after 44 minutes of action. Bzm was the standout in the decider with nine kills and 11 assists on two deaths out of his team's 29-18 kill lead.

What's next in the ESL One Birmingham 2026 Playoffs?

With the first round of the upper bracket concluded, competition now shifts to the first round of the lower bracket, which will be played in front of a live crowd at the bp pulse LIVE Arena. The day will kick off with MOUZ taking on Xtreme Gaming, followed by a showdown between Team Falcons and PARIVISION.

The winners of those matches will advance to the lower bracket quarterfinals, where Spirit and Aurora await, while the losers will be eliminated in 7th-8th place and with US$40,000 (split between US$27,500 for the playing roster and US$12,500 for their organisation) in consolation.

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.