Not that it was ever going to be a surprise, but Dota 2 at the Esports World Cup and its gauntlet bracket just saw another day where the lower-tiered teams were completely unable to put up a fight against the top-billed squads.

Esports World Cup Dota 2: Another day of clean sweeps

Every single series today ended in just two games each just like in the previous day, leaving just the absolute best teams in the world to fight for the rest of the $3 million prize pool.

The (PARI)vision, taking shape

PARIVISION and ESL tournaments: truly a match made in heaven. Although they didn’t get to skip the gauntlet bracket, having placed second in Group D, it was just another day at the office for them playing against Xtreme Gaming today. Fortunately for us Dota fans, the series wasn’t just a complete formality — mainly because Alan “Satanic” Gallyamov busted out the safe lane Meepo pick in the first game.

I honestly thought this pick would backfire hard, because XG actually had a few decent counters to Meepo. Lin “Xxs” Jing played Kunkka, who has a ton of AoE damage to help deal with Meepo’s Divided We Stand (R) clones. Zhao “XinQ” Zixing meanwhile had Batrider, who can use Flaming Lasso (R) to isolate a single Meepo clone for the rest of his team to jump on.

But unfortunately for XG, these two weren’t nearly enough to stop Satanic. Paired later on with Dmitry “DM” Dorokhin’s offlane Undying, the sheer control and damage coming from these two was just too much for XG to handle. Oh, and speaking of DM’s Undying, I’m just amazed that XG even picked Morphling for Wang “Ame” Chunyu knowing that. I don’t care how flexible Undying is in terms of roles — you don’t ever want to play Morphling against him.

True enough, XG lost the top lane matchup for their poor draft choices, and eventually the entire game.

Game 2 was a little better to start for the Chinese squad, with them holding a small lead heading into the mid game, but Volodymyr “No[o]ne” Minenko would not let them even sniff a possible comeback. He went ballistic on his signature Storm Spirit, going 13-2 in a dazzling display of aggressive but calculated play.

PARIVISION are now poised to make yet another deep run here, and are once again one of the heavy favorites to win the entire tournament. Capping their ESL Pro Tour (EPT) season off with a victory at the Esports World Cup would make their run through the tour itself one for the record books, and would give them immense momentum heading into The International in September.

Getting their wings back

Now this is more like it from Team Falcons. They beat Navi in extremely convincing fashion, with both games being reminiscent of their dominance from the 2023-2024 season. They absolutely crushed Artem “Niku” Bachkur and the rest of Navi, giving them no quarter — and yet it still didn’t even look like they broke a sweat.

The first game was a masterclass by Stanislav “Malr1ne” Potorak on Primal Beast, showing the world just why he is the best player on the planet as far as this hero is concerned. He ran roughshod over Navi’s lineup the whole way through, putting in an 11-0 record. What’s more, he actually managed to hold his own against Niku’s Monkey King in the mid lane matchup, something that doesn’t normally go well for melee heroes like Primal Beast.

His buddy Ammar “AT” Al-Assaf wasn’t far behind on his signature Razor, going 8-0 and absolutely destroying Taras “gotthejuice” Linnikov’s laning phase as Abaddon. Navi just couldn’t get anything going in the first game, and so they tapped out just 60 seconds shy of the 40 minute mark in this one.

atf esports world cup 2025
Credit: Sarah Ruhullah

If you thought the first game was bad, oh boy, it had absolutely nothing on the second game. Malr1ne went to his trusty Timbersaw this time around, and unfortunately for Niku, who this time tried playing Primal Beast himself, he was just no match for one of the best mid players of this generation. He got stomped hard by Malr1ne, and it certainly didn’t help that his hero was pretty hard countered anyway.

Leveraging their incredible start, Falcons proceeded to lay down their will on the map, hunting down Navi wherever they could find them. With no answer to Malr1ne’s onslaught, Navi had to concede the second game.

Honestly though, not a terrible showing for Navi, who placed second in their group after going 3-3 in maps. Niku in particular is just 16 years old, but he’s already playing at what will be one of the biggest tournaments of his career. This roster has potential, but it will take a lot for them to full realize it in the months to come. Hey, at least they’ll be playing at TI14 in two months.

Ready to rumble

The other two elimination phase matches ended just as expected. Gaimin Gladiators thoroughly outclassed Team Yandex, and Tundra Esports did the same versus Talon Esports. The final eight teams have now been determined, with the single elimination playoffs set to start on June 16th.

The matches will be:

  • Team Spirit vs. Gaimin Gladiators
  • Aurora Gaming vs. PARIVISION
  • BetBoom Team vs. Tundra Esports
  • Team Liquid vs. Team Falcons

All of these matchups will be absolutely cutthroat and extremely competitive. It’s the eight best teams in the world right now, after all. We do have to wait a few days before they kick off, though, so for now, it’s time for the remaining squads to take a much-needed breather.