Thanks to an announcement late last night, we now know the first eight Dota 2 teams competing at the International 2025 (TI14) – The teams that received a direct invite. TI14 is taking place in Barclays Arena, Hamburg, Germany this September. Alongside the eight direct invites for the best Dota 2 teams of this season, Valve’s announcement also includes qualifier details, which will determine the remaining eight teams competing at TI14.
Image Credit: Valve
The International 2025, TI14 Direct Invite Methodology
Despite not hosting any Dota 2 tournaments this year, Valve has always kept close watch at the world’s best Dota 2 team for this very announcement of TI14 direct invites. Some of these selected teams are obvious choices due to their performance in Dota 2 tournaments of 2025, while others are more unexpected to make the direct invite list.
Some of the most promising Dota 2 teams to receive direct invite to TI14 include PARIVISION, Team Spirit and BetBoom Team. These teams, especially PARIVISION, have dominated the major tournaments, such as PGL Wallachia, ESL One Raleigh and BLAST Slam. In fact, they are also top-three on the ESL Pro Tour Leaderboard, which scores teams based on performances in DreamLeague and ESL tournaments.
Team Falcons and Tundra Esports also secured themselves a direct invite, having been staples in these major tournaments themselves.
The Defending Champions
It wouldn’t be a proper TI without the previous Champion to defend the Aegis. Hence, Team Liquid also made the cut, but that’s not to say they simply got the direct invite because they were the International 2024 Champions last year. Liquid has performed adequately themselves, and it’s even more convincing lately, after they won PGL Wallachia twice.
And then, there’s Gaimin Gladiators, the runner-up of TI13. Gaimin Gladiators’ name being among the direct invites unfortunately raised quite the debate among Dota 2 players as they haven’t been at their best form this season. Coupled with the fact that they kicked Anton “dyrachyo” Shkredov, it’s a compelling reason for many to question Gaimin’s worth among the TI14 direct invites.
Last but not least, All Gamers Global, formerly known as Team Tidebound, deserves an honorable mention. They are the only Chinese team to be given a direct invite to TI14, which is a concerning state for the region’s Dota 2 Esports scene. Nevertheless, AGG has a stacked line-up of prodigies, which could give many of its Western rivals a run for their money. We have Cheng “NothingToSay” Jin Xiang, previously from LGD Gaming, and former TI Champions, Zhang “Faith_bian” Ruida and Zhang “y`” Yiping, leading this powerhouse team.
TI14 Qualifiers
TI14 is not complete without another eight Dota 2 teams’ participation, which are decided by qualifiers. There are six regions, where Western Europe and Southeast Asia get two regional qualifier slots. Whereas the other regions, China, Eastern Europe, North and South America only gets one.
Nevertheless, these regional qualifiers are full of promising teams, especially in the Western and Eastern European qualifiers. We have OG, Nigma Galaxy, MOUZ and AVULUS among the notable names in Western Europe, while Aurora Gaming, Natus Vincere, NAVI Junior and Virtus.pro compete in Eastern Europe.
South America has HEROIC and OG.LATAM, while China has Xtreme Gaming and Yakult Brothers. These are names that we often see in recent tournaments, so it wouldn’t be surprising if one of them qualifies for TI14. Then, there’s Shopify Rebellion and Wildcard in North America while TALON and BOOM Esports in Southeast Asia qualifiers, which look decent. Note that these are just the few teams participating in regional qualifiers, and open qualifier teams will be joining eventually.
Although TI14 won’t be in the running for Dota 2 tournament with highest prize pool this year, it’s still one of the most important tournaments in Dota 2 tradition.