ESL One Frankfurt 2016 - pix and comments

For the third time the ESL One came to the Commerzbank Arena in Frankfurt/Germany: Probably the biggest DotA2 tournament in Germany (at the moment).
Because of the current Football ("soccer" for you Americans

) European Championship we also got the biggest screen ever! 550m² and 35,6 meters diagonal! Incredible! And so even me, poor, low-life guy, that didn't want to spend around 250 EUR on a Premium Ticket could watch the games quite well from seats in "the back". Only the sound was not that great back there; at least I hope and think that it was better in the front! ... actually it wasn't that important. You could just watch and enjoy the show! The only time I was a little dissapointed about the sound was during the finals, when the commentators added "local matador" Kuroky as an expert! Would really liked to hear his insights! Well, you can't have everything...

Saturday

But lets start at the beginning! Because of some phone calls from work (yes, on Saturday...) I arrived at the stadium later then planned. In the "meantime" quite an impressive line had formed in front of the entrance! But it went quite fast, so it was okayish. Anyway, my first steps - of course - lead me to Fudd and his balloons! He even had a second balloon-artist with him: Mr. Balloonatic from Ireland. As it happend he was the one knotting (what is the official term for these skills?) my ballons.
Last year I was going with Super Meat Boy (and his girlfriend). So this year it was time to move to the "dark side" and go for his villian Dr. Fetus! The most incredible about the balloon figurine was, that Balloonatic didn't just make a "cabinet" for the "glass dome" of Fetus, but really put "him" inside another balloon! Really great idea!

After I was provided with my balloon, I started a first tour of the venue ... was finished quite fast! This year there were not that many booths as last year(s). Also I don't know if we are finally "grown up", but there really were no "Booth Babes" around! Only one booth had two women in one-piece suits (and they could wear them...) and that was it. Kinda sad ... only from the professional stand-point of being a photographer (of course!

). But oh well, at least we got some nice and sexy looking cosplayers to make up for that:

Oh, btw. "cosplay". Could someone tell me, when we will reach "Peak Elsa" ... aehm, "Peak Crystal Maiden" or "Peak Lina"?

But lets get to the games! The day started classic with a delay (...) and the deciding match of Kuroky's Liquid and fnatic. Sadly I was annoyed by work again, so I didn't see everything. But Liquid showed two strong maps and finished with a 2:0 win. But at least after that I noticed, that we were missing people! What a tragedy!

A beer later (dealing with the shock) I tried to relax and gave myself up in the professional hands of the "tattoo" artists! Incredible how much skin those two great women had to go through during the weekend! You would think, at some point everything is covered (so to speak). But it is just real fun to show your support so directly. My work-colleagues are grinning at my NaVi tattoo on my arm right now

Oh, speaking on NaVi: They were the next up and against VP. They dealt with them quite nicely and managed a 2:1 win. But even with that win, we have to give major praise to G and his performance on Magnus in the third game! He keept VP in the game a long time and With 12/2/12 stat he was better than any other player on the map! Applause please!

An overpriced burger (but probably the best value for money there...) later for refreshment I watched the draft of the first match of Liquid versus Alliance ... then I had to go! I was meeting a friend for a Salsa Boat Ride. So missed the evening matches, while I was dancing "on" the Main

But for statistics: Liquid won 2:0 and after that NaVi dispatched col with 2:0 (and a 20min game to finish the day), too.

Sunday

After not much sleep I got back to the venue and discovered incredible: The only "snack-bar" all around the stadium with coffee was the Crepes-bar! And sadly this was also one of the most favorite snack-bar across the whole weekend! So to get your coffein burst in the morning, you already had to wait in line even at 9.30 am!

Seriously, ESL, get it together! WE NEED MORE COFFEE!!!
We have a commercial TV-station broadcasting from there but no second coffee machine? There must be some changes!

But ok... took some time, but I got it. And the day was a little bit more relaxed. So I started like the day before and got back to balloons. This time I asked for a "generic" dog. But it didn't turn out that "generic", more like "cute"!

Aside from that we finally could talk about the graffiti artist, that was working all saturday on a big piece at the backside of the booths. It was finally finished:

Now, on sunday, you had already seen everything. So going what we have available. Trying to catch a few more cosplayers or talents (for example Soe <3) or check out the workshop artists and see how a "Hat" is done.

Of course we still had some games! The day started out very entertaining with some "crazy" picks of both Liquid (Huskar) and OG (Meepo). But while Meepo was very hyped from the crowd, it didn't work out and in not even 20min the game was decided for Liquid. After that OG took to a more standard game plan and showed why they won the Manila Major and got the series back 2:1! But just to clarify: Liquid was no pushover! Look at the networth of game two! Or that Matumbaman kept up with a Naga Siren in game 3 ... really impressive! But in the end OG prevailed.

The second semifinals were more one-sided. It didn't look that way in game one, that actually was a 1on1 between Fn-Slark and Dendi-Timbersaw. 23/2/7 and 28/1/11 were the stats of those! Just insane! But after that, Vega seemed to be broken. An interesting Shadow Fiend pick for Dendi in game two, that worked out wonderfully, secured an "easy" second win. We now had our Grand Finals: OG vs. NaVi

Sadly OG showed their A-Game again! After they won the first two maps without that many problems, they got crazy: They picked a support Lion for "Mr. 9kMMR" and Crit had to "carry" with a Riki. At first, it looked that this didn't work out and NaVi got the early lead and good objectives. But slowly OG came back and could turn around team fights. NaVi still showed some really nice plays, it wasn't enough even against those "fun-picks". A third and last time "gg" was called!! OG are the winners of this years ESL One Frankfurt!

The day was over. People were leaving. I dallied along a little more. Thanked the balloon-heroes, that were also already closed and tried to distract the girls of the tattoo booth from cleaning up.

But after that I finished up and also went home. It was a sleepless, expensive but also entertaining weekend! Until next year!

All other pictures from me you will find in my old-school gallery!

ESL One Frankfurt 2016 - pix and comments

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