ESL One Mumbai changes format as teams drop out

Five teams have withdrawn from the event due to other commitments, including the MDL Disneyland Paris Major competition.

After many of the teams dropped out of the ESL One Mumbai competition for Dota 2, ESL has announced some changes going ahead with the competition, now featuring eight teams in a modified group stage. The schedule for the arena at the NSCI Dome, however, remains unchanged.

The final roster includes Team Team, who joins the already-known sides of Mineski, Natus Vincere, The Pango, CompLexity Gaming, Keen Gaming, Signify, and TNC Predator, meaning half of the squads here also qualified for the MDL Disneyland Paris Major event, a competition that Ninjas in Pyjamas, Alliance, and Gambit chose to prioritise. Chaos Esports Club and J.Storm also dropped out due to other commitments.

"We are disappointed that we could not work out a way for the affected teams to attend both tournaments", said Alexander Nehr, Tournament Director at ESL. "We think that the remaining seven squads and the addition of Team Team makes this a very competitive lineup where now every team is guaranteed to play on stage in front of thousands of fans."

"Unfortunately our team will not be participating in ESL One Mumbai. While we consider the event a great opportunity to compete in front of a passionate and underserved community, the dense Dota circuit has caught up with us," Chaos said in a statement. "At this time we consider it better to pass on an event in order to focus on practice, team chemistry, and avoiding burn out. We take full responsibility for the [missed] expectations for the fans planning to attend and spectate the event. Our hope is that with better planning and awareness of our players' fatigue we can avoid this situation going forward."

The group stage will be a best-of-three double elimination bracket with four teams each, with the results deciding seeding for the playoffs. All eight teams will go through to the arena days too, meaning an Indian team is guaranteed to play on the main stage. The playoff format is still the same though, meaning the live action on April 19 and 21 will go ahead as intended. Below are the groups:

Group A

Natus Vincere (CIS)
TNC Predator (SEA)
compLexity (NA)
Team Team (NA)

Group B

Keen Gaming (CN)
Mineski (SEA)
The Pango (CIS)
Signify (India)

Does this affect your excitement for the event?