FISSURE Playground Belgrade Day 1: GG, XG, Tundra, and More Stumble Early

Well, FISSURE Playground Belgrade 2025 is certainly off to an exciting start. Some of the teams I predicted to be at the top of the food chain in the tournament power rankings have already taken early losses, with Gaimin Gladiators, Xtreme Gaming, Tundra Esports, Team Falcons, and PARIVISION  slipping up right away.

Not all of the squads that I thought would make it far at the event have dropped maps in the first round of the Swiss system group stage, but enough of them have to make things nice and spicy heading into the second round. BetBoom Team, Team Spirit, and Team Liquid have all avoided defeat early on.

Also, it’s important to note that this is just day 1, round 1 of the group stage. This is not meant to be an indictment of any of these teams so soon after the competition just started, but rather a look at how stimulating the tournament might shape up to be.

Gaimin Gladiators vs. Talon Esports

Just when they had maybe figured a few things out at BLAST Slam 1, Gaimin Gladiators have taken a loss they would rather live without in their journey to get themselves back up to the upper echelons of competitive play. The team that dealt them this blow was Talon Esports, whose two primary cores John Anthony “Natsumi-” Vargas and Rafli “Mikoto” Fathur Rahman dominated the game as Tiny and Lina respectively.

Not how we wanted to start our Friday. 😔

Well played to TALON, we go 0-1 in the Swiss for FISSURE Playground. We'll be back later today to try and bounce back.#AgainstAllOdds | #GGcolosseum pic.twitter.com/tTUzkkDC0O

— GG | Gaimin Gladiators ⚔️ (@GaiminGladiator) January 24, 2025

Certainly, Quinn “Quinn” Callahan and the rest of the Gladiators could have done without this early defeat, but there’s still plenty of time for them to make up for it. One loss isn’t going to make a huge difference this early in the tournament — but they’re going to want to avoid unnecessary losses in this format in particular.

Xtreme Gaming vs. Wildcard

This fixture in particular has to be the most shocking result of the day thus far. Xtreme Gaming is the best Dota team the Chinese scene has to offer, and while that may not mean all that much these days, they’re still way better than Wildcard just in terms of sheer talent and experience. But the North American team triumphed in this case in fairly convincing fashion, beating XG in less than 25 minutes of play with a well-executed Broodmother draft.

Dota 2 team is so LOCKED IN for fissure 🔒 pic.twitter.com/bTyleJVxcV

— Wildcard (@Wildcard_GG) January 23, 2025

It actually looked kind of hairy for Wildcard heading into the mid game after stomping XG in the laning phase, but fortunately they were able to keep their cool to close the game out before XG could recover. Great start for Wildcard, in a tournament where I don’t really expect them to place higher than 12th.

Tundra Esports vs. Yakult Brothers

The matchup between Tundra and Yakult Brothers is closer on paper than the XG vs. Wildcard game, but this time it was the Chinese squad that got the better of their stronger opponents. With a frankly cheesy Lycan pick in their draft, Yakult’s Brothers stormed through this game in just 28 minutes and 54 seconds, showing once again that they are indeed capable of taking games here and there from top clubs.

Of course, I say it was a Lycan draft, but Zhou “Emo” Yi’s stunning performance as Puck was what really fueled their victory — alongside Nicholas “zeal” Lim Eng Han’s as Lycan. Whether or not they can ride this momentum into the next three days of the group stage is still up in the air, though, so it’s definitely too early to make big judgment calls about how far the Yakult Brothers will get.

Team Falcons vs. HEROIC

I don’t know if I’m ready to call this an unexpected heated rivalry just yet, but a pattern is certainly starting to form between these two teams. HEROIC seem to have Team Falcons’ number sometimes, with their grand final victory over the most dominant team of the 2023-2024 Dota 2 season at PGL Wallachia being the highlight of their budding feud.

Damn, @heroicdota2 got hands. 🥲

We start off our journey at FISSURE Playground 0-1.#FalconsAreHere pic.twitter.com/2jvSV3HnT8

— Falcons Esports (@FalconsEsport) January 24, 2025

Sure, it took exactly an hour for HEROIC to put Falcons away in a total slugfest of a game, but a win is a win. And a 60 minute win against one of the best late game squads in the Dota 2 scene is even sweeter. HEROIC will want to leverage their early victory and make headway at this event, but it’ll still be an uphill battle for them considering how strong the rest of the field is.

PARIVISION vs. Aurora Gaming

The winners of ESL One Bangkok could not have gone into this tournament in a better position, having notched their first ever major LAN victory just a month ago. Well, that would be true, if they brought Remco “Crystallis” Arets with them instead of Alan “Satanic” Gallyamov in the carry slot.

Captain Abed MVP👨‍✈️ pic.twitter.com/5i04HDsEUU

— Aurora Dota2 (@AuroraDota2_GG) January 24, 2025

To be clear, I am not saying that one is strictly better than the other. In this instance, it’s the chemistry that I’m putting into question, considering that Crystallis was the carry player PARIVISION won with at Bangkok, and swapping him for Satanic will inevitably cause the team’s chemistry to change. This showed in their game against Aurora Gaming, as PARIVISION didn’t look like their usual selves through about 52 minutes of play.

This is great stuff from Aurora, whose roster isn’t nearly as strong as PARIVISION’s in the current competitive landscape. Beating the most recent major LAN winner is sure to boost their confidence moving forward.