At the end of a top-class final, it is Alexei „Solo“ Berezin for whom the ESL One Hamburg ends with a special honour. Voted the best player of the Dota 2 major tournament by fans and jury, the so-called “MVP” (Most Valuable Player), he now has the choice: The captain of Team Virtus.pro can choose a vehicle from the Mercedes-Benz model range worth 50,000 euros. With his outstanding performance, Solo has played a crucial role in the overall victory of Team Virtus.pro. The Mercedes-Benz MVP is one of the largest non-cash prizes in the history of eSports and was one of the highlights of the tournament.
The count of the MVP votes for the best player of the tournament, which was also shown in a live stream on the Facebook page of Mercedes-Benz, revealed Berezin to be the winner. His performance earned him a new Mercedes-Benz. “It is simply incredible. Prize money is now an integral component in eSports, but to win a Mercedes-Benz? I would not even have dared to dream of it a week ago. I am totally happy”, says the 27-year-old professional from Russia about the results of the vote in which thousands of fans took part.
“The début of the ESL One Hamburg was a complete success”, says Ralf Reichert, CEO of the ESL. “Thanks to the active support from our premium partner Mercedes-Benz, we were able to present the each 10,000 attending fans on both days and the millions of online spectators a real spectacle. The MVP award was of course one of the highlights of the weekend and we are delighted by how positively this and other items on the program were received by the community. There has never been such a prize for an individual performance before and we would like to establish such awards for the future.”
Dr Jens Thiemer, Vice President Marketing Mercedes-Benz Cars, emphasised the importance of the fans in one of the largest fan votings of the still short eSports history: “The fan voting for the Mercedes-Benz MVP will be one of our most important activation modules in eSports. eSports lives off the community and we are happy to be a part of it now. The atmosphere in the arena is emotionally charged beyond words and the tournament is rightfully one of the leading Dota 2 platforms worldwide. We are looking forward to the next events alongside the ESL.”
In excess of the MVP award, the weekend in Hamburg offered a lot more to boot. Besides the official shuttle service for players and officials, Mercedes‑Benz provided each team an individually branded team car in the run-up to the tournament and received thrilled feedback from the teams and the community on the Web for doing so.
