The group stage at ESL One Raleigh is over, with PARIVISION standing head and shoulders above most of the field. The ESL One Bangkok champions posted a near-flawless record of 9-1 in maps after all was said and done, and it looks like they might just go all the way again like they did in Thailand last year.

ESL One Raleigh: PARIVISION Keep Hot Streak Going

ESL One: PARIVISION’s Playground

This team is hitting its stride again at a pretty good time, considering that they’ve not won a premier tournament since Bangkok — which took place all the way in September 2024. And while they did win that competition in highly convincing fashion, another first place finish here would certainly help their case in terms of direct invites to The International.

It really seems like they love playing at ESL events, because they just turn it up a notch whenever they’re at an ESL One tournament. They are currently sitting on a huge pile of momentum, and the general vibe within the roster just looks immaculate to say the least. They genuinely look like they enjoy playing with each other, which bodes well for any team not just in Dota 2, but in basically any competitive endeavor.

Following closely behind them is Team Spirit, which completes a one-two finish for Eastern Europe in Group A. Winning DreamLeague Season 25 was obviously a huge confidence booster for Team Spirit despite the odd circumstances that surrounded the grand finals of that tournament in particular, and it really shows here at Raleigh. This squad seems to have figured things out this season, and I think they’re going to be a frightening opponent for anyone to face over the months leading up to TI14.

Nigma Galaxy: Already On the Way Out?

Fan favorite squad Nigma Galaxy are in a spot of trouble right now, as they will start from the lower bracket after losing six straight games between days 2 and 3 of the group stage. This is a rather unfortunate outcome for the team after starting so well on the first day, when they won every single game that they played to get off to a 4-0 start.

Now, they’re back to being the Nigma we know and love (or love to hate). Honestly, with the way their day 2 and day 3 panned out, the only reason they’re not out of the tournament yet is because Shopify Rebellion and Talon Esports managed to be even worse than them. Those two teams actually got eliminated yesterday, so at that point it was already impossible for Nigma to not make the playoffs no matter how poorly they did from there.

And, well, they did as worse as they could have — literally. Losing all six of their remaining games after their 4-0 start is nasty work, and surely doesn’t help their confidence heading into the playoffs. And it doesn’t stop there, because their next opponent is BetBoom Team, one of the best teams in the world and the winners of FISSURE Universe Episode 4.

The best they can hope for, in my opinion, is for BetBoom to choke like they tend to in high pressure situations. But of course, this isn’t nearly as reliable as just getting good, and I think it might already be too late for that.

AVULUS On the Rise

AVULUS is a team that’s been hanging around the middle of the pack in tier 1 Dota this year, and one that’s been looking for their breakout tournament for some time now. Their best LAN result of the season thus far was a top 6 finish at ESL One Bangkok, though lately they’ve not looked anywhere close to as good as they did in Thailand.

I mean, 9th-11th at FISSURE Playground Belgrade, 16th at DreamLeague Season 25, and 14th at PGL Wallachia Season 3 are not results to be particularly proud of. But their performance so far at Raleigh leads me to believe that they might accomplish something respectable here. They actually look like a cohesive team for once, even though they only managed to win one best-of-two match in the group stage.

They’re sitting on an even 5-5 map record coming out of the group stage, which was just enough to see them through to the lower bracket ahead of Team Tidebound — the very squad that they 2-0’d in the aforementioned set. They’re still well below the top dogs in terms of relative strength, of course, but at the very least they seem to be figuring things out one step at a time.

Breaking even against Tundra on the first day of play and then Team Falcons on the second day was just the beginning. Could team captain Akbar “SoNNeikO” Butaev lead his team (as well as their two stand-ins Fabian “Mo13ei” Knehr and Athanasios “dEsire” Kartsabas”) to a better result than what they achieved at Bangkok?