Team Falcons rally, win upper-bracket final at The International

Team Falcons staged a comeback to defeat PARIVISION in the upper-bracket final in the playoff stage at The International 2025 on Saturday in Hamburg, Germany.

Team Falcons advanced to Sunday's grand final, where it will face the winner of the lower-bracket final. PARIVISION dropped to the lower-bracket final and will take on Xtreme Gaming on Sunday.

In the lower-bracket semifinals, Xtreme Gaming swept BetBoom Team after sweeping Nigma Galaxy in the lower-bracket quarterfinals. BetBoom had taken down HEROIC in the quarterfinals.

The prestigious Dota 2 event began with 16 teams -- eight invitees and eight teams from regional qualifiers -- but that number was cut in half ahead of the double-elimination playoffs, which run through Sunday.

All playoff matches are best-of-three until the best-of-five grand final on Sunday. 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 $2.6 million.

In Saturday's upper-bracket final, Team Falcons dropped the opener to PARIVISION in 40 minutes on red, but rebounded with two wins on red in 31 minutes and 65 minutes. Denmark's Andreas "Cr1t-" Nielsen led a balanced attack with a 6.0/2.6/13.0 average K-D-A.

In the lower-bracket semifinal, Xtreme Gaming notched a pair of 63-minute wins on green to sweep BetBoom Team, with China's Wang "Ame" Chunyu sparking the victory with a 10.5/2/7.5 average K-D-A.

Xtreme Gaming swept its lower-bracket quarterfinal against Nigma Galaxy with back-to-back wins on green in 43 minutes and 35 minutes. China's Guo "Xm" Hongcheng posted an 11.5/2.5/14.0 average K-D-A for Xtreme.

Facing HEROIC in the other lower-bracket quarterfinal, BetBoom Team won the opener on red in 43 minutes, then fell in 35 minutes on green before clinching the win with a 48-minute victory on red. Danil "gpk" Skutin posted an 8.0/5.0/12.6 average K-D-A to lead BetBoom.

The tournament concludes Sunday with two matches:

-- PARIVISION vs. Xtreme Gaming (lower-bracket final)

-- Team Falcons vs. TBD (grand final)

--Field Level Media