The UK final of Red Bull R1v1r Runes (River Runes), a new 1V1 custom Dota 2 tournament, will take place at the Red Bull Gaming Sphere in London this weekend.
It will see the finest Red Bull R1v1r Runes players compete for the chance to meet and play with a member of reigning TI8 champions, Team OG, and to take home a custom R1v1r Runes ROG PC.
The event gets underway on Sunday August 17th from 2pm BST and will be hosted by UK Dota 2 commentator Darren ‘KillerPigeon’ Elmy, with more talent to be revealed soon. It will be streamed via twitch.tv/RedBull.
Red Bull R1v1r Runes (River Runes) is a custom map within the Dota 2 environment. The tournament offers a fast paced 1v1 mirror matchup that rewards finesse, intuition and quick decision making.
Seven countries – Croatia, Germany, India, Philippines, Russia, Ukraine and the UK – are hosting Red Bull R1v1r Runes tournaments in 2019, including qualifiers and main offline events.
The format for the tournament has been amended from traditional Dota 2 matches to a 1v1 setting. In order for a player to progress, they must be the first to achieve three kills, or achieve the first kill on an enemy T1 Tower.
Red Bull says this format ‘allows higher accessibility for players and encourages smart, tactical and often aggressive play styles for an awesome spectator experience’.
The UK final will be broadcast live on twitch.tv/RedBull and will see Asus as the Official Hardware Partner of Red Bull R1v1r Runes.
There’s a trailer on the Red Bull website.
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Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He has almost two decades of experience in journalism, and left Esports News UK in June 2025.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He also previously worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation.
