Eight-team playoffs set at The International

After three days of group-stage competition and the first elimination match Saturday, things heated up on Sunday with four more eliminations at The International 2025, establishing the final eight teams who will compete for the title in Hamburg, Germany.

Sixteen teams were competing in the prestigious Dota 2 event -- eight invitees and eight teams from regional qualifiers -- but that number has now been cut in half ahead of the double-elimination playoffs, which begin this Thursday with four upper-bracket quarterfinals.

In Sunday's action, there were two sweeps and two 2-1 victories among the four elimination matches, which pitted teams with 3-2 records in the group stage against 2-3 teams.

PARIVISION, which finished group stage in fourth place, swept No. 13 Wildcard 2-0 with a 39-minute win on red and a 45-minute victory on green.

No. 7 Team Falcons swept No. 12 Team Spirit with 77- and 46-minute victories on red.

No. 9 Nigma Galaxy rallied for a 2-1 victory over No. 5 Aurora Gaming, winning in 64 minutes on red and 33 minutes on green after Aurora won the opening map on red in 48 minutes.

No. 10 Tundra Esports also knocked off No. 8 Team Liquid, the 2024 The International champions. Tundra won the opening game on map in 53 minutes on green and clinched with a 32-minute win on green after dropping the middle round in 68 minutes on red.

These four teams will join the top three finishers in the group stage: Xtreme Gaming, BetBoom Team and Team Tidebound, who advanced straight to the playoffs, and HEROIC, which won the first elimination-round match 2-0 over Yakutou Brothers on Saturday.

In quarterfinal matches, Xtreme Gaming will face Tundra Esports, PARIVISION will face HEROIC, Team Tidebound will face Team Falcons and BetBoom Team will face Nigma Galaxy.

The winners will advance into the upper-bracket semifinals. The losers will attempt to play their way out of the lower bracket, and would need to win four straight matches to advance to the grand final.

All playoff matches are best-of-three until the best-of-five grand final on Sept. 14. The tournament's base prize pool is worth $1.6 million, and it will grow as 30 percent of all supporter bundle sales will be added to the pot. The current pool is just more than $2.5 million.

--Field Level Media