India seems to be the new venue for esports events. After the successful Dreamhack Mumbai 2018, ESL will not host an ESL One event in the city. ESL has announced ESL One Mumbai 2018 which will take place in the financial capital of India.

It is a premier level event with a prize pool of $300,000. This is as much as the prize pool of a Dota 2 Minor right now. There will be a total of twelve teams in the event. The tournament takes place from April 19-21, 2019. The three days will see premier teams attending the event. While ESL has not yet announced the names of the teams in attendance, we expect some of the biggest names to be in attendance in Mumbai.

ESL One Mumbai 2019

We can’t wait to bring ESL One to a completely new location – especially since this will mark the first big Dota 2 tournament in India. We see great potential in the Indian esports market and are looking forward to further foster the growth of the local scene together with our partner NODWIN Gaming. Ulrich Schulze, Senior Vice President of Product at ESL.

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Both the tournament organisers, ESL and Dreamhack are looking to venture into new territories. Their approach to sustaining their aggressive growth means venturing into areas which have a large player base but are in the nascent esports stage. India is one such country, where the number of gamers is quite large. However, the development of esports in India is several years behind that of the west. With its English speaking population, it makes for the perfect opportunity for event organisers to host their events in Mumbai.

As the technology leader for esports and gaming and ESL’s Global Technical Partner, Intel is looking forward to delivering a world-class gaming experience to Dota 2 fans in India and around the world, at the inaugural ESL One Mumbai 2019. Prakash Mallya, Managing Director – Sales & Marketing Group at Intel India.

ESL brings along their partners and their expertise in managing this tournament. While Dreamhack Mumbai 2018 did have several issues which marred the performance overall, we hope ESL turns out much better.

ESL has partnered up with Nodwin Gaming to organise this event.

ESL One Mumbai will feature the top Dota 2 teams in attendance at the event. Seven teams will receive direct invites while four teams will qualify via online qualifiers. The online qualifiers will see one team each from North America, Europe, Greater China and South East Asia.

For the first time in Dota history, Mumbai will welcome players, talent and fans for an entire weekend of Dota 2 action from April 19th to 21st live at ESL One Mumbai 2019! Prepare yourself for the first ever big esports event in the City of Dreams featuring awesome live matches on the big stage, exciting fan activities, signing sessions with the teams, our famous cosplay contest and much more!

The final twelfth team will be an Indian team. This will allow Indian teams the chance to gain experience and compete against the world’s best teams. Judging by their current performance, we can hope that it is Signify Gaming who emerge as the Indian representative. They have had a successful series of months and have dominated the Indian scene recently.

Other features at the event

Despite being a Dota 2 centric event, ESL One Mumbai 2019 will see cosplay events. We will see many top tier cosplayers attend ESL One Mumbai 2019. Fans will also get an opportunity to meet and greet with their favourite players. This includes an open signing session where every fan can get an autograph. There will also be a separate premium signing session, where Premium Ticket holders will have an exclusive opportunity to meet and greet their favourite players. ESL is hoping that this event starts a new series of events in Mumbai, India.

Tickets

The tickets for the event will be available on Insider.in starting from January 17th. The tickets are priced as follows:

₹ 499 ( $7.02 ) . ₹ 999 ( $14.05 ). ₹ 1499 ( $21.09 ). ₹ 2499 ($35.16 ).

The final two price tiers are the premium segments. They include access to the player Walk-in area. It also has dedicated floor seating. You can register for the tickets on Insider.in here.

A great initiative, but a very hot one.-

Mumbai in April is a very hot destination. The temperatures reach 33 degrees and with the venue being in a coastal city, humidity is at a high of nearly 90%. This makes it even hotter than the normal temperature. For most of the teams and fans coming into Mumbai from other countries, this will be a challenging experience.

However, the venue is an air-conditioned one and hence you should not face any issue once inside the venue. Since the venue is within the city itself, it is easy to reach from almost all locations. Outside the venue, you get a beautiful view of the coastline. We hope to see some of the best teams in attendance at the event. We will keep you updated with the details of the online qualifiers.