1win Essence 2026

BASED Esports is kicking things off with 1win Essence Season 1—a brand-new $100,000 Tier 2 online tournament running from May 2 to 11 on European servers. It's not a Tier 1 LAN, sure, but don't let that fool you, because we have 6 of the best teams invited for the playoffs, so it makes this tournament kind of Tier 1. Six teams are getting direct seedings straight into the playoffs, while the remaining eight have to fight through a two-phase group stage just to get there. This is exactly the kind of tournament where you see unexpected runs, weird drafts being tested, and teams figuring out what they actually want to play heading into the summer. I'll be covering every match, sharing my analysis before each series, and keeping the prediction accuracy honest—win or lose.

Group Stage Phase 1 (May 2 – May 4) — Eight teams are split into two single round-robin groups of four. All matches are Bo3. The top team from each group goes directly to Round 3 of Phase 2 (the final), the 2nd-place team drops to Round 2, and the remaining two teams fall to Round 1. No team is eliminated yet—everyone gets a second shot.

Group Stage Phase 2 (May 5 – May 6) — This is where it gets brutal. It's a single-elimination bracket, still Bo3. The bottom teams from Phase 1 start in Round 1, the mid-seeds enter in Round 2, and the group winners parachute in at Round 3. Two teams make it out and enter the upper bracket of the playoffs. Round 1 losers are gone—eliminated. Round 2 and Round 3 losers survive, but they drop into the lower bracket of the playoffs.

Playoffs (May 7 – May 11) — The six teams who were directly invited skip all of that and are seeded straight into the playoffs bracket. Combined with the survivors from Phase 2, you get a full double-elimination playoff. All matches are Bo3 except the Grand Final, which is Bo5. The format rewards the invited teams for their status, but it also means the teams that clawed through the group stage will have a shot to cause upsets. Classic setup for chaos.