1win Essence III Preview: Teams, Favorites & Predictions

Zloster Published November 11, 2026

1win Essence III is one of the last few big Dota 2 tournaments of 2026 that fans and bettors alike will keep a close eye on. Organized by BASED Esports, the online event features 12 teams competing for a $200,000 prize pool.

With the tournament kicking off on November 12, this article covers everything you need to know about 1win Essence III, including its format, participating teams, prize pool and where to watch the action.

1win Essence III Overview & Format

Dota 2 fans wishing to watch the 1win Essence III have to tune in from November 12 to November 18. We will see a total of 12 teams playing in the Group Stage, which will begin on November 12 and end on November 14.

1win Essence III will have four single-round-robin groups, each containing three teams. The top two will advance to the playoffs, while the rest will be eliminated. All games here are in a best-of-three format.

The playoffs start on November 15 and run until November 18, featuring a classic double-elimination bracket with Bo3 games and a Bo5 Grand Final.

📈 Stay ahead of the event with the latest Dota 2 Stats, tournament results and betting odds.

Participating Teams & Where to Watch

8 of the 12 participating teams at 1win Essence III received a direct invitation, while the remaining four teams had to go through the qualifiers. The current list of participants is:

1w Team
Aurora Gaming
DO KONCA
GamerLegion
Team Spirit
Team Liquid
LGD Gaming
PARIVISION
TBA
TBA
TBA

For those who don’t want to miss the action, you can tune in live on the official Twitch channels in English and Russian. The talent list includes big names such as Nikola “LeBronDota” Popovic, Admir “lizZard” Salkanovic and Lachlan “Ares” Williams.

Don’t miss a moment and watch the live action here with us! Visit our 1win Essence III grand finals match page for everything you need ahead of the final, including historical stats, team performance, head-to-head records, previous encounter results, live bookmaker odds and embedded live streams. Get all the match insights in one place!

1win Essence III ~ Teams to watch out for

After taking a good look at all of the participating teams, we can clearly see that three teams stand out: Team Liquid, Team Spirit and PARIVISION.

PARIVISION have been in excellent form throughout 2026, including a second-place finish at The International.
Led by Alan “Satanic” Gallyamov, their roster is always one of the most favored at every tournament, and this one is no exception. Yet, PARIVISION have also shown us they are not invincible, recently losing the LB quarterfinal match against Team Spirit at the PARI Universe 1.
Team Spirit, the reigning champions of The International 2026, are a top pick once more. Following their surprising defeat by OG at PARI Universe 1’s UB quarterfinals, Spirit fought their way through the lower bracket, winning five consecutive series. During that event, the team achieved several impressive results, including a clear 0:3 sweep against Team Yandex at the Grand Final
As for Team Liquid, Michael “miCKe” Vu and his teammates have struggled to replicate their earlier success in recent months. Despite winning 1win Essence II in August, the team hasn’t secured another tournament title since. Their latest event, PARI Universe 2026, ended with a lower-bracket semifinal defeat against Team Spirit.

The Underdogs:

DO KONCA (ex BetBoom Team) and GamerLegion also deserve attention here, as both have formidable rosters. The latter actually reached the UB and LB final just a few days ago, whereas BB Team are always a dangerous opponent.

Closing Thoughts

Overall, 1win Essence III promises to be an interesting Dota 2 tournament that will give us a good idea of what to expect at BLAST SLAM IX. Despite having a smaller prize pool than most Tier 1 Dota 2 events, we will see many of the big names in action. Make sure to check some of the leading Dota 2 betting sites if you don’t want to miss out on competitive odds.