ESL UK intends to bring another ESL One Dota 2 tournament to the UK next year.

The news follows astonishing ticket sale success for their upcoming Birmingham Major, the first large esports tournament to come to the UK.

ESL One showcases competitions at the highest level between the top Dota 2 and CS:GO teams across the globe.

Heather Dower, ESL UK’s Marketing and Communications Manager, said: “ESL One will definitely return next year, even if we can’t secure another Major. The opportunity to host an event of this calibre in Birmingham is the best thing that could have ever happened to UK esports.

“We have been starved of this kind of content in the UK so this has been a long time coming. This will inspire viewers and create this kind of reflection in themselves which will hopefully transform into a desire to work within esports and further a demand for more events.

“The big teams are coming, and they will come next year too. The community has shown the hype and their dedication to the game and these teams want to be a part of that.

“The connotation of UK esports being a meme needs to stop. We have some of the biggest cis-region teams coming to play, but regardless of who competes, it’s going to be amazing.”

The Birmingham Major puts 12 of the world’s best Dota 2 teams against each other for a share of a £719,100 ($1m) prize pool.

Six teams have been invited to participate, with the other slots decided via online qualifiers from teams in North America, South America, Europe, CIS, Southeast Asia, and China.

Virtus Pro, Newbee, Evil Geniuses, Team Liquid, Vici Gaming, and Mineski have all confirmed their attendance for the May 25-27 tournament.

The event will be the second-to-last chance for teams to earn qualifying points for The International 8, the largest Dota 2 tournament in the world. The top four teams will earn a share of 1,500 points.

These points will determine which teams are invited to compete in the upcoming International, with the other teams fighting for a chance to compete in regional qualifiers.

The International 7 had a prize pool of almost £18m ($24.7m), with £16.5m ($23) raised via fan donations and in-game purchases. So far, each iteration has seen the prize pool increase and fans grow more and more excited.

Birmingham was chosen for its accessibility by air for international teams, whilst also allowing the event to make an impact on the area, instead of being swallowed up by London.

UK Dota 2 fans are the second largest group willing to travel to tournaments, so national accessibility was a large consideration in the location decision. Birmingham and the Midlands also hold the highest percentage of UK gamers.

The ESL UK team had just over three weeks to create their pitch for bringing the event to Birmingham and went up against three other place who have been awarded Majors in the past.

The short time scale was due to Valve making the decision to cancel the Major planned to take place in Manila as they believed the laws of the country were not fair for the participating players.

The team found out that they had won the chance to host the Major in the UK in March whilst they were at IEM Katowice in Poland, another event hosted by ESL that featured the IEM World Championship of CS:GO.

The organisers have worked with their sponsors such as Mercedes, Alienware, and Intel to shape the expo space in order to bring fans an interesting place to explore whilst no games are taking place.

The company will not need to employ any extra staff for the event due to the large number of freelancers available from the global counterparts of the company. They will, however, be looking for additional volunteers for the event who are looking for their first step in an esports career.

There are 3.3m players, and 7.1m esports viewers in the UK and this will be their first opportunity to come together and spectate a major tournament. Previously, the largest UK competition was the finals event of a CSGO series hosted in Wembley.

ESL started in 1997 and has grown to become the world’s largest independent league for esports players.