The International 2025 (TI14) has concluded in Germany, back to where this saga began. The final eight teams marched into the Barclays Arena with many returning attendees, past champions, and even first-time appearances, but all equally deserving of a shot at the Aegis.

From the group stages to high-stakes playoffs, up until the very last moment of the fifth and final game in the grand finals, TI14 has cemented itself as one of the best iterations of Dota 2’s most prestigious annual tournament. Here’s how TI14’s main event unfolded:

Tundra Esports and Tidebound were the first two teams to be eliminated from the playoffs. Both teams were unable to score any map wins on the main stage, but both made their opponents work for their victories.

Tundra first went up against tournament favourites, Xtreme Gaming. The first match ended after 55 minutes and, unfortunately, showcased the glaring weaknesses of Juggernaut on the side of Tundra. Ame picked Clinkz for the first time in the tournament and was punished over and over again with great ganks from Tundra, but the early lead slipped away, as did the series.

In the lower bracket, Tundra would go up against HEROIC, who had just lost to Parivision 0-2. The nerdiest team in the tournament would get outdrafted by the chaotic South American team who picked anyone they liked, including first picking a Pudge.

The second game was a high-kill stomp for HEROIC, where its midlane Broodmother and carry Pudge had free rein on the game. HEROIC also has Phoenix, Tusk, and Shadow Demon to create this save-heavy line-up, making it extremely difficult for Tundra to secure any kills at all. 

Tundra’s elimination removed the last remaining person who could win three TIs in the tournament, 33, away from the tournament. While shaky, Tundra had a great run considering the team had to find a last-minute stand-in for its hard support, Whitemon.

Meanwhile, Team Tidebound was one of the best teams to perform in the group stages, but failed to carry its momentum to the main event. The Chinese roster had to endure two slow stomps from the Falcons. In its first game, Tidebound had a small lead largely thanks to Bach’s Timbersaw, but its carry shiro couldn’t find proper teamfights on Marci because of the lockdown from Mars, Beastmaster, and the saves from Pugna.

The second game was much worse for Tidebound since the drafting phase, letting Falcons have Naga Siren, Sandking, and Bristleback without any answers to it. Falcons pushed Tidebound to the lower bracket in 44 minutes with an outstanding 35k gold lead and 22 kills to just five. 

HEROIC and Nigma Galaxy have their share of loyal followers, especially the latter, but they exceeded expectations to make it to the playoffs and even placed in the top six.

HEROIC had a tough match in its series against PARIVISION to begin with. The match went to 52 minutes with PARIVISION holding a huge gold lead for most of the game, and Satanic even ended with 19 kills and only two deaths on Lifestealer. 

The only reason its opponents could last for long was because Yuma’s Ursa was carrying that game on his back. 9class’s support Monkey King also played a pivotal part by constantly securing vision in tandem with Helm of the Dominator.

HEROIC’s second match was an unfortunate 38-minute stomp in favour of PARIVISION, closing out the series 0-2. DM’s offlane Phoenix proved too much of a problem with their attack speed-reliant carries, Ursa and Shadow Fiend.

After defeating Tundra 2-0 in the lower bracket, HEROIC would go on to fight BB Team in one of the most thrilling series in the tournament. It was three bloody games with high action and no dull moments. BetBoom’s midlaner GPK was the standout player of this series and proved that he’s one of the best midlaners in Dota 2.

Game 3 is a must-watch decider with so many twists and turns, as it looked like HEROIC was scraping by a comeback off the cusp of Yuma and Scofield’s 2v4 teamfight. But Pure on Gyrocopter staged his own defiant stand to take back the game. Just as you thought the game was over, KingJungles on Enigma hit a clutch blackhole that somehow BB was able to recover from to finally end the series 2-1.

This is the highest placement of a South American team in TI, tied with the Peruvian roster Thunder Awaken in 2022.

The other team tied with HEROIC in this tournament is Nigma Galaxy, who also had another tense 2-1 series against BetBoom in the opening match. The first match went all the way to 64 minutes, which was won thanks to GH saves on Phoenix. 

After that, Nigma was unable to get another win in the series. Ghost had a questionable Morpling game in the last match as he was so reserved that he pressed his BKB that it ended up costing them crucial teamfights. 

Nigma Galaxy would regain its confidence against a shaken Tidebound. The first match was uncontested as its carry and midlane went deathless, while the second game was hard carried by No!ob’s Mars, who pulled a lifegame with the amount of great plays he executed. For both series, Nigma had this synergistic duo between SumaiL’s mid Muerta and OmaR’s Clockwerk.

Sadly, Nigma’s run ended in the next series in two very anticlimactic stomps against Xtreme Gaming. Nigma put up a fight in the first game but was extinguished in the second one, as XinQ’s Snapfire played a big part in getting them 30 kills to Nigma’s four. 

Nonetheless, longtime Nigma fans are extremely happy for this result, as this is the first TI the organisation has attended after years of attempts.

PARIVISION and BetBoom, two CIS teams, had deep runs but could not make it to the grand finals. Based on the teams’ numerous notable LAN wins throughout the season, at least one of the teams was expected to make it to the grand finals.

To recap, BetBoom beat Nigma Galaxy 2-1 then lost to Falcons 2-1 in the upper bracket. In the lower bracket, they eliminated HEROIC 2-1 before going against Xtreme Gaming. Both of these games hit the one-hour mark, and both teams were playing uncharacteristically safe.

The low kill stalemate was broken by the 48-minute mark when Ame’s Anti-Mage and Xxs’ Earthshaker found a crucial kill on Pure’s Templar Assassin during a scattered teamfight. Xxs found Pure again minutes later and pulled off a tight stun sequence with Refresher Orb to hold him in place of Ame to finish him off. These two kills gave them the edge to push BetBoom’s throne.

BetBoom came with a vengeance in the second game and took an early lead that snowballed with each teamfight and objective. Even though BetBoom had most of its base destroyed and prevented them from leaving the base, Xxs had a game-winning double Flaming Lasso on Batrider to catch both supports at the 58-minute mark. Like the first game, it was Xxs who found the winning play to win the series 2-0.

The other CIS team had two flawless series to start the main event. PARIVISION went 2-0 against HEROIC and Xtreme Gaming in the upper bracket. However, the team found its first challenge against Falcons in the upper bracket final.

PARIVISION’s support and midlane, 9class and no[o]one, had the heaviest impact during its first game, finding kill after kill to end it in under 40 minutes. In the next game, Malr1ne’s Pangolier and Cr1t’s Hoodwink returned the favour to end the game in 31 minutes. 

The last game lasted over 65 minutes, with Falcons eventually winning the marathon. Even though PARIVISION was on the back foot for the whole game, the team didn’t play conservatively, frequently going out of its base to start fights. At the 62-minute mark, Cr1t pulled off a crucial play that a majority of players will not notice due to the visual clutter; Satanic surely didn’t. Cr1t reflected Juggernaut’s Omnilslash using Lotus Orb on skiter’s Gyrocopter, creating this anime-like spectacle that happened two times in that fight.

No[o]ne is another uncrowned veteran worthy of an Aegis, but just couldn’t find it this year. Satanic is another figure whose promising career is worth following, as he accomplished so much in his short time while also making a deep run in his first-ever TI. He’ll surely lift the Aegis one day, but not today.

The stage was set for the grand finals of TI14. Team Falcons had a great upper bracket run, while Xtreme Gaming went through the lower bracket gauntlet to reach the finals. All eyes are on XG’s carry, Ame, who’s rightfully earned the uncrowned king title.

Ame has never gone below top six in all seven Internationals he attended. He has been to the grand finals twice (2018 and 2021) with all games going to the fifth and final match. Now TI14 marked his third grand final appearance, and the series ended up going the whole way.

Game 1: 51:22 minutes, XG won. Xtreme Gaming started off strong in the first game, with the whole team earning 32 kills by the end. Elder Titan’s Natural Order and Hoodwink’s Boomerang amped up magic damage so much that Queen of Pain’s ultimate ended up taking massive chunks of Falcons health bars. Ame’s Ursa felt unstoppable and was able to clean up most fights.

Game 2: 37:57 minutes, Falcons won. The second game was a short stomp from Falcons, with Malr1ne’s Primal Beast gathering the bulk of the kills. ATF’s Bristleback became a wall that XG couldn’t answer, and he was able to keep them at their base on his own.

Game 3: 40:06 minutes, XG won. XG’s cores were on fire with their KDA in this match, especially Ame, ending the game with 11 kills and no deaths. However, the real key piece of its win was XinQ on Shadow Demon, who had excellent positioning and could save his cores multiple times throughout the game.

Game 4: 33:43 minutes, Falcons won. This game will be remembered as Aui_2000’s (Falcons coach) biggest brain move, right after his TI-winning Techies. 

XG had an excellent draft and was able to ban out Falcons from having a good answer to its composition. Key counters like Huskar, TImbersaw, and Slardar were banned, so Falcons decided to draft offlane Ursa. 

With the help of Malr1ne’s great performance on Sand King, the pick worked so well that the game ended shortly and with no contest.

Game 5: 58:32 minutes, Falcons won. The fifth and final game of TI14 slowly crushed the hopes of XG, as the team was winning by attrition as the game dragged out. The fatal mistake was letting Naga Siren through the draft and not picking it up, letting Falcons have it.

There’s a reason why Naga Siren has been the most-banned hero for multiple tournaments in a row. XG couldn’t make any progress, and the small opportunities the team found were shut out by Naga’s song. XG were stuck to its base as Magnus repeatedly kidnapped heroes away with Horn Toss, with xNova as a frequent target.

All the free space allowed skiter’s Medusa to free farm until they could march up to finally take down the Ancient.

Falcons won TI14, giving Sneyking and skiter their second Aegis; Malr1ne, ATF, and multiple attendee Cr1t their first trophy. Additionally, this is also Aui’s third win, taking the first one under EG and the second as Tundra’s coach.

Xtreme Gaming making it all the way to the last game in the finals shows how competitive Dota 2 esports can be, where teams like HEROIC and Nigma Galaxy can make deep runs despite lacking LAN wins throughout the season.

For fans, this TI is easily one of the best iterations of this event, with so many memorable matches to talk about. Unfortunately, Valve didn’t announce anything at the event (no new heroes or upcoming events) in what seems like their first in a decade.