Xtreme, PARIVISION, Falcons, BetBoom notch wins at The International

Xtreme Gaming, PARIVISION, Team Falcons and BetBoom Team won their opening matches on the first day of the playoff stage at The International 2025 on Thursday in Hamburg, Germany.

Xtreme, PARIVISION and Falcons all notched 2-0 sweeps in the upper-bracket quarterfinals, while BetBoom had to rally to a 2-1 victory over Nigma Galaxy. Nigma, along with Tundra Esports, HEROIC and Team Tidebound, dropped into the lower bracket as a result of their defeats.

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.

Thursday's winners advanced to the upper-bracket semifinals, while 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 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.

On Thursday, Xtreme won in 56 minutes and 46 minutes on green against Tundra. Wang "Ame" Chunyu of China averaged an 8.0-4.0-5.0 kills-deaths-assists ratio for Xtreme.

PARIVISION defeated HEROIC in 52 minutes and 39 minutes, both times on red. Alan "Satanic" Gallyamov of Russia carried PARIVISION, posting a 14.5-1.0-8.0 average K-D-A.

Team Falcons topped Team Tidebound in 47 minutes on green and 45 minutes on red. Denmark's Andreas "Cr1t-" Nielsen racked up a 7.0-2.5-12.0 average K-D-A for Falcons.

Nigma Galaxy opened with a marathon 64-minute win on red, but BetBoom bounced back and prevailed in 44 minutes on red and 43 minutes on green. Russian Ivan "Pure" Moskalenko showed the way for BetBoom on the do-or-die third map, posting a 12-7-5 K-D-A while his four teammates tallied at least 16 assists apiece.

The tournament continues Friday with four matches:

--Xtreme Gaming vs. PARIVISION (upper-bracket semifinals)

--Team Falcons vs. BetBoom Team (upper-bracket semifinals)

--Tundra Esports vs. HEROIC (lower-bracket Round 1)

--Team Tidebound vs. Nigma Galaxy (lower-bracket Round 1)

--Field Level Media