Dota 2 has found its UK home in Birmingham, having first hosted ESL One Birmingham in 2018, then breaking viewership records in 2019. After the pandemic saw the 2020 event cancelled, we are now finally back with ESL One Birmingham 2024. But why bring it back to Birmingham, at a different venue? How does the crowd here compare to other cities, and what’s next? We ask Shane Clarke, ESL Faceit Group’s Director of Game Ecosystems for Dota 2 (pictured above, photo by Adam Lakomy).
Why bring ESL One back to Birmingham, as opposed to other UK cities?
The first thing we focus on when choosing an event is the audience. We want to deliver Dota to the most fans possible.
The secondary factor is how much the city or region is going to support us, and we received support here from Solihull Council and the NEC. They offered us a partnership where we’re trying to build something together – that’s extremely important to us.
We go to a lot of countries where we don’t have a lot of experience, and we need partners who understand the local rules and guidelines and how that works.
The last point is logistics. How do we fly this amount of people in Europe on time, how do we get all the equipment in, how is the customs? All of this. Usually the whole city and this partnership can help us deliver these things.
We did [think about other UK cities like London and Manchester]. The strength of Birmingham was essentially historic. We had two events here before, the audience is absolutely wild. I’m sure if you go back over [to the arena] after the large beers are finished, you’ll see!
It’s just been something that personally it was my first [ESL Dota] event I worked at, so maybe there’s some bias, but it’s mainly due to the audience.
Resorts World Arena is finding a home in esports, having hosted the Apex Legends Championship last year and now ESL One Birmingham. Why did you choose this venue in particular?
Yeah. When it comes to the Arena itself, what we look for is something modern that has good infrastructure.
It’s hard with esports, because unlike a concert or basketball match, the setup of the arena is quite unique. We have one central stage and then three projectors outside the stage to allow a good viewing experience.
We did an outside arena years ago, it’s possible but extremely challenging. This limits you to venues.
What’s the capacity here? How many fans have come through the doors at ESL One Birmingham 2024?
Over the weekend we expect to see 15,000+ attendees. Actually I’m underselling it, we’re seeing about 6,000 people per day.
How does this event compare to the other ESL / Dota / esports events you’ve worked on?
I’ve worked on Counter-Strike, PUBG Mobile and Rocket League and other events in the past. The interesting thing about Dota is because it’s such a difficult game and is hard to understand, people feel this deep sense of connection through this.
When you come to these events, the audience often already know each other. We’ve gone through the same hardships, we’ve all had that toxic teammate and had other similar stories!
The atmosphere is unmatched [in Dota events compared to other esports events]. I’m a little biased [as a Dota fan myself] though.
The crowd here feels really lively. Their DHL chants aren’t really seen in other events. Do you think it’s that British crowd humour and banter that makes a difference?
I think it’s a mixture of things. We actually put a lot of effort in to developing content that you wouldn’t necessarily see from DHL. We have a series with SirActionSlacks, that was my first job actually – I built that series with SirActionSlacks.
It was a long time ago, six or seven years ago now.
“The original ESL One Birmingham event was so successful it almost changed the company and public perception of Dota. So doubling down on that now feels awesome – it’s great to be back. I’ve been waiting for this for five years!”
Shane Clarke, ESL Faceit Group
At the first ESL One Birmingham?
Yeah. I didn’t work on the very first one, but when we started developing the content series, that’s when I got involved.
We tried to build it as, I’m a Dota player – what do I want? We want to include DHL in the process, but it’s about what the Dota audience truly wants. We made content we think the Dota audience will like, because we are the Dota audience.
2024 is the biggest year for esports in the UK, with so many major events taking place here. What’s it like to be a part of that, as one of the first big events of the year?
I think the UK historically has always been an important market for us. The original ESL One Birmingham event was so successful it almost changed the company and public perception of Dota. So doubling down on that now feels awesome.
It’s great to be back. I’ve been waiting for this for five years! And here we are.
There was an ESL One Birmingham due in 2020 then the pandemic hit. The industry seems to have navigated that pretty well.
We’re pretty fast-moving. We change, we adapt extremely quickly, a lot quicker than most, and that meant that when the pandemic hit, obviously it was not easy but it was definitely quicker to adapt.
Tell us about your background in esports, you were a streamer, right? How did you get into esports and Dota 2?
I studied chemistry at university, and I was not the biggest fan of chemistry (laughs). I liked the concept but not the practical side – doing the same thing 100 times in a row!
I worked in a community that helped new players. We built it in a way where every weekend some people would come in, like influencers or whatever, and I would just DM them and say, ‘hey, we run this beginner-friendly community, come and join us’.
I was pretty experienced, I’d been playing Dota for about ten years at that point, and I just tried to help people. Through that I met PyrionFlax, one of the broadcast talent at ESL One Birmingham 2024. He introduced me to his group of friends and we started playing Dota together.
They said, ‘Shane, you should stream Dota, we think you’re kind of funny’. So I packed my bags from university and headed off to Sweden and just went for it.
Since then I’ve worn many hats. I think I did make-up at one point when we were desperate, IT, I ran my own events in Ireland called IreLAN, which started in 2014, or 2015, around then. The concept was you just get extremely drunk and play Dota!
What was your background like in Ireland and your views on Irish esports?
I don’t know much about Irish esports. Back then I just wanted to make something for people who like playing Dota. When I was working on IreLAN, it was more about having a fun time.
We had tier one talent, Sheever, ODPixel, great observers and play-by-play casters, all of the top names at IreLAN.
We all slept in the same hotel room together and I slept on the floor, there were five of us in a bed! I paid for the hotel. My dad built the stage with me!
“I ran my own events in Ireland called IreLAN, which started in 2014, or 2015, around then. The concept was you just get extremely drunk and play Dota! We had tier one talent there like Sheever and ODPixel.”
Shane Clarke, ESL Faceit Group
Do you have any other memories from UK/Ireland Dota?
Epic.LAN was the first time I ever cast Dota 2, around 2012 or so. I worked with PyrionFlax, I just went over for the laughs. I had a lot of friends that played in the UK, so I headed over to play Dota, have a few drinks and have a good time.
I was absolutely bricking myself! The lights are on, the cameras are rolling, I could barely even speak!
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
I think the cool thing about us is we finally have a circuit. This event is part of many in the ESL Pro Tour that leads to the Esports World Cup, the Riyadh Masters. That’s our future. It’s growing at a speed I’ve never ever seen before. It’s so important for the Dota 2 ecosystem. A few years ago everyone was talking about The International, now everyone is talking about the Riyadh Masters.
See more ESL One Birmingham 2024 content on Esports News UK here
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
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 worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
