Dota 2 ESL One Genting 2017 @ Genting Highlands

Thanks to Lenovo I was able to attend the ESL One Genting Dota 2 Tournament.  To those unfamiliar with ESL One, it is a 3 Day Dota 2 Tournament that came with a 250K USD prize pool, with the first prize being 125,000 USD. That's roughly half a million ringgit. 

We arrived early during Day 1 not wanting to miss any games, Ben even brought along BeaverKnight just in case a perculiar Dota 2 Player decided to show up. Suffice to say we were really pumped to be at ESL being huge Dota 2 nerds outselves.

The view of the stadium from the stands. 

A closer look at the player booths, they've even color coded the booths according to which teams are on dire / radiant side

The numerous food trucks that were available all thru the 3 days. Which was directly outside the stadium, making it super convenient to get snacks in between games

I've even managed to get a photo with my favorite Dota 2 personality. SirActionSlacks. Who was pretty friendly to anyone who approached him. Kudos to him taking the time to talk to the fans and made sure everyone who stood in line waiting for him got a photo in the end

In between matches most of our time were spent at Cafe Richard at the newly opened Genting Sky Avenue. Which now I'd rather hangout at instead of the over populated Starbucks outside

For those that did not have tickets to the stadium, Digi setup it's own tent with Live Twitch Stream of the action inside, which we took the opportunity to watch a few games as our butts were a bit sore from the stadium seats

We were able to watch the matches inside and outside the Digi camp.

The Dota 2 Secret Shop is actually located within the Digi Camp :


Wanted to get something for myself but unfortunately all the items were either sold out or a bit too expensive for me

Redbull was also present at ESL and they had a mini competition going on where spectators were able to compete in a last hit competition and a 1 on 1 competition in Dota 2

Day 2 of ESL

There were a few cosplayers that day.

An adorable female Invoker. One of my favorite heroes to play

The Vengeful Spirit

And lastly a pissed off Skywrath Mage, a costume that's sure to bump into everybody on the way in and out.

The view from the VIP section

At the end of Day 2 I managed to sneak into the stage to take a photo of the ESL One Genting Trophy

Day 3 The Semi & Grand Finals

Day 3 was a bit hectic as it was the final day where the Semi-Finals and Grand Finals were, Team Newbee was going up against Wings Gaming in the losers bracket for a spot in the Grand Finals in a best of 3.

It was definitely an exciting match as both teams were from China and the crowds were cheering irregardless of which side was winning.

Spoiler Alert, in the end Team Newbee came out on top just barely, with 2 wins 1 loss in a best of 3.

During the Grand Finals SirActionSlacks was invited to be one of the panelist. Which he had a bit of a bias due to the fact that he's the Team Manager for Digital Chaos. The Team that was in the Grand Finals that will be going up against Team Newbee

The Grand Finals were one of the most exciting games I've had the pleasure of watching live. It was a best of 5 and Digital Chaos took turns with Team Newbee taking one game from another. The crowds went wild with each team fights but overall you could feel that there were more Digital Chaos supporters than Team Newbee.

When game 5 started it was already around 11PM and if I remember correctly they were streaming the stadium to National Live TV on TV3. Which is a first in Malaysia for Free To Air Channels to air any live E-sports related events.

Sadly we didn't stay until the very end as we needed to work the next morning and as soon as Digital Chaos broke the throne at the end of Game 5, me and Ben went straight to the car and drove back down to KL while watching the Prize giving ceremony on our phones. It's either that or get stuck with all the others on the way down if we were to stay in the stadium.

Irregardless the ESL One Genting was definitely my best Dota 2 Tournament experience ever, which beat the last one *Dota2MajorAllStarscoughcough* hands down. Definitely looking forward to the next big Dota 2 Tourney in Malaysia.