The International 2025 (TI14) regional qualifiers are now well underway, with the Eastern European and South American legs concluding within several hours of each other today. Aurora Gaming and X are the first two teams to punch their ticket to Hamburg, Germany out of their respective qualifier tournaments, giving us a small glimpse into the final set of squads that will play at the world championship in September.

Dota 2 TI14 Qualifiers: Aurora Gaming and HEROIC Strike First

Eastern Europe — Aurora Brush Everyone Off

So as I predicted, Aurora Gaming have come out of the Eastern European qualifiers without breaking a sweat. They ran through the entirety of the upper bracket dropping only one map on their way to the grand final, with their lone loss coming against Na’Vi. They didn’t let the minor setback faze them at all, as they bounced back in a hurry in the third game of the Na’Vi series to close it out in just over 30 minutes.

With Na’Vi falling to Cyber Goose in the lower bracket, Aurora’s path to TI14 was made even easier than it would have been otherwise. It didn’t matter than Alexey “Solo” Berezin was leading this team from the hard support slot, nor did it matter that Aybek “TA2000” Tokayev was their carry. Aurora simply had a massive talent and experience advantage compared to Cyber Goose, and so they put their rivals away in just three games.

None of the games in the grand final even looked close. Myroslav “Mira” Kolpakov and the rest of Aurora just crushed Cyber Goose and their hopes of sneaking into The International, with each game in the series failing to even break the 40 minute mark. Cyber Goose were thoroughly outclassed in this series, valiant as their efforts to get there might have been.

For Aurora, this might be the beginning of something greater. They’ve been steadily gathering momentum over the last four months, which incidentally is the amount of time that they’ve been together as a squad to begin with. Their steady rise as of late has been something to behold, though I personally wouldn’t put them in the same stratosphere as a team like PARIVISION or Tundra Esports just yet.

They’ve got a lot of work left ahead of them if they want to get to that level, but qualifying for the most important tournament of the season is a great start. Until then, they’ve also got the Esports World Cup to look forward to.

South America — HEROIC Take Revenge on Edge

It’s official: HEROIC are going to TI14, and it’s off the back of a nice 3-1 victory over edge in the grand finals of the South American regional qualifiers. HEROIC had to fight their way through OG.LATAM in the lower bracket, after Edge sent them there in a hard-fought three-game series in the upper bracket final.

Motivated by getting so close to the early grand final berth, they proceeded to hunker down and lock in against OG.LATAM — the team I predicted would make it out of this region and into TI14. But it wasn’t meant to be, apparently, because HEROIC remembered just who they are, closing the lower bracket final out in three games.

This set them up for a grudge match with the very team that send them to the lower bracket in the first place. And they made sure to use that as fuel, because they definitely shifted to an even higher gear in the grand finals. Edge took the first game in the series off the back of Yheremi “payk” Arroyo’s great performance as Gyrocopter, but HEROIC said nah, we’re going to Hamburg. They proceeded to win the next two games with a methodical style, showcasing their stability as a team.

The fourth and final game almost looked like it would end up going Edge’s way, as they held a small advantage in the mid game with a mid game-focused draft. But HEROIC outplayed them in several teamfights thereafter, and would not relinquish their rapidly growing net worth lead from there.

Great stuff from the PGL Wallachia Season 2 champions, and they didn’t even have to rely on David “Parker” Nicho Flores’ services this time around. Naturally, they’ll still be considered underdogs when they arrive in Hamburg later this year, but at least they can breathe a sigh of relief now that they’re guaranteed to play at TI14.

Now that both EEU and SA are done, the next regional qualifiers will be China and North America — which will run from June 9th to the 12th. You can check out all the qualifier action on the official PGL YouTube and Twitch channels.