The Theater at Madison Square Garden played host to the Dota 2 tournament ESL One NY 2014 last week, and became the largest esports event the east coast has ever seen.
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5,000 people attended live, including yours truly, with over 2 million more watching the matches online. The tournament was the third in the ESL One series, and featured eight of the world's best Dota 2 teams.
Vici Gaming, runners up at the massive The International 4 event earlier this year, took home the victory over the American team Evil Geniuses in the grand finals. The Chinese squad was awarded with the majority of the $130,000 prize pool.
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"We saw a great esports event happening last week, with thousands of fans watching exciting Dota 2 in the heart of New York and millions following it online," said Ulrich Schulze, Managing Director Pro Gaming at ESL. "There is no doubt that esports now has its place in these kind of venues."
GameNGuide had the opportunity to swing by the tournament and watch the scenes unfold for ourselves. The photo above depicts the venue and crowd, which was very much invested in the action and cheered enthusiastically during the big moments of each match. That includes, of course, several "U.S.A.!" chants in support of Evil Geniuses.
ESL's YouTube channel has plenty of VOD from the event available now--game three of the grand final is posted below. Plenty of photos from the event are available on ESL's Flickr page, as well.
