Team Falcons takes home championship at The International

Team Falcons rallied for a 3-2 victory over Xtreme Gaming in the grand final Sunday, taking The International 2025 championship in Hamburg, Germany.

The Saudi Arabia-backed Falcons fell behind 0-1 and 1-2 before rallying for the win. They lost in 52 minutes playing on red, won in 38 minutes on green, lost in 40 minutes on red, then won in 34 minutes on green and 59 minutes on red to complete the comeback.

In the deciding fifth match, Slovakia's Oliver "skiter" Lepko recorded eight kills and eight assists for the winning side. Andreas "Cr1t-" Nielsen from Denmark contributed seven kills and 16 assists, with three deaths.

Xtreme reached the final via a 2-1 victory over PVISION in the lower bracket final. Xtreme lost in 42 minutes playing on green before rallying for 36- and 65-minute wins, both on green.

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 concluded Sunday.

All playoff matches were 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.

Final Standings:

1. Team Falcons, $1.1 million

2. Xtreme Gaming, $349,229

3. PVISION, $241,707

4. BB Team, $161,174

5-6. HEROIC, Nigma Galaxy, $134,294

7-8. Tundra Esports, Team Tidebound, $107,413

9-13. Yakutou Brothers, Aurora Gaming, Wilcard, Team Liquid, Team Spirit, $48,298

14-15. Natus Vincere, BOOM Esports, $26,881

16. Team Nemesis, $13,440

--Field Level Media