This one might be in the bag, but ESL One Munich isn’t anymore.
We’re incredibly proud to announce that the next location for ESL One will be at the BMW Park in Munich, brought to you by ESL and the Arsenal Magus from April 4-11 (he demanded equal credit).
Check ticket prices and more on the ESL One Munich website
We wanted to write to you all, now that our announcement and trailer are out (many thanks to the wonderful John Patrick-Lowrie for lending us his voice once more!) to share some of the changes we’re making since our last ESL One event.
Missed the trailer? Check it out here:
Finding a new arena
ESL One Birmingham 2026 was an incredible event, thanks to the fans and players that joined us in the BP Pulse live arena this Spring.
One thing we were particularly proud of was the time we spent to transform the stage broadcast elements to better fit with our mascot for the event (Pudge the Butcher). Being able to bring players through the hanging plastic, with hooks hanging from the ceiling and a panel set built to match the gruesomeness of our lovely mascot felt great, like we were really bringing Dota to life for that weekend.
We want to take this further, much further if we can, and without making too many promises, when we found the BMW Park with its full LED floor, it felt like a dream come true. We hope you’ll enjoy what we have in store for you when the time comes. This did mean however that the traditional seat setup we had with Bleachers and Infield seating wouldn’t work! We needed a new home for fans of Dota that wanted the best experience.
Luckily for us, the BMW Park is primarily a basketball arena; it already had a well-prepared courtside seating in a VIP section. These higher-quality seats came with a better location, a better view of the action, and even included a space with private bathrooms and a bar that we could then offer to our Premium and Ultimate ticket buyers.
Introducing Invoker
To bring ESL One Munich to life properly, we needed a mascot that would allow us to push our limits.
Discussions went on for far longer than we expected, with many heroes pushed and debated. In Third Place we had Largo, a favourite of ours after Brewmaster was eliminated from consideration (for many of the same reasons Brewmaster was chosen for Birmingham 2024 — Dota fans really know how to sink a pint) with Meepo coming in at Second Place — the challenge with Meepo was as exciting as it was daunting, to make an event where we could bring the personality of each Meepo to different aspects of the event would be fun, and we liked the idea of Meepo being a Wolpertinger! Ultimately, however, we weren’t confident enough that we could overcome the challenges in delivering a Meepo event, especially in comparison to our final choice.
Sometimes selecting the mascot for the event isn’t just about what fits geographically, but what you can do with them once you’ve chosen them. After all, there isn’t a hero in Dota that wouldn’t enjoy a pint (or several) of Festbier and Wiesnhendl during Oktoberfest! There could be no better choice to bring Dota to life in an arena with a full LED floor than the Arsenal Magus and all the spells he has developed.
He has made his home in Neuschwanstein Castle until the event is finished, so if you’re in the area do watch out for sunstrikes and tornadoes!
Hopefully we’ll also have one or two Invokers joining us in cosplay at the venue, and you can thank them personally for their help making the event happen.
Reserved Seats
One thing we noted during previous ESL One events was that fans were often asked to compromise — get to the event, get your hoodie down on the seat, then you can relax or explore.
This mad dash for the best seats in the house, and the uncertainty that you would come back from a toilet break only to find your hoodie in a beer puddle and someone in the seat you believed you had safely reserved, has led to us introducing Reserved Seats for certain sections.
Upper Ranks tickets will remain free seating, for those fans that are happy to roam, or are looking to enjoy the event for the best value option available.
For the Upper Central, Premium and Ultimate ticket types, reserved seats will be trialled for the first time. We’re aware that a lot of people will book in large groups, so we’ve increased the total number of tickets per purchase up to 12 for this event, to enable you to select a larger group altogether, and we’re very interested to hear your feedback on this new seat selection method!
Free Drinks
Finally, any Ultimate ticket buyer will also receive 6 free drinks per day, 18 vouchers in total.
This has always been a popular choice at previous events when we could offer it and we know how much it elevates the event experience, not to have to worry about budgeting for a weekend of drinks. We negotiated continually with the arena to ensure that fans would be able to secure their weekend’s drinks at a discounted price until we were satisfied with the offer we secured. This is true for future and past events too — as long as we can find a deal for fans to save money on the drinks they buy, we’ll make it happen.
Want more information? Check out the current drinks prices here.
There is a ton of amazing Dota coming in this next Season, and if you haven’t thought about it since TI, there’s a lot of time for you to get back into it before ESL One begins in April. If you missed the DreamLeague Season 30 qualifiers, we now know all of the teams outside of Division 2 that will be joining us in December. Try picking a team at random and supporting them for the event!
Stay tuned for more announcements regarding ESL One Munich in the near future (especially if you’re interested in cosplay!) and make sure to follow ESLDota2 on X, Instagram, and Facebook, to not miss a moment for anything Dota 2 related.