TI14 Day 4 — Defending champions Liquid, frontrunners Spirit miss out on top 8

The International 2025 (TI14) giveth, TI14 taketh away. Two of the best teams in the world just got booted out of the tournament in the elimination stage, as neither defending champions Team Liquid nor fellow two-time winners Team Spirit will even make it to the playoffs.

That’s right — these two clubs are indeed going home this early, as part of all the unexpected results coming out of the Swiss group stage. It just goes to show how cutthroat TI really is year in and year out, and how nothing can be taken for granted in the competitive Dota 2 scene.

Sudden evaporation

Liquid’s series today versus Tundra Esports produced yet another trio of games that had me and the rest of the Dota community on the edge of their seats. Seeing how the two teams involved know each other inside and out as a result of being top tier squads from the same region, it was inevitable that sparks would fly in this matchup.

Remco “Crystallis” Arets proved me wrong as a doubter in this set with his carry play, particularly in the first game where he imposed his will with his signature Bloodseeker. Sometimes you just gotta give your teammate one of his favorite picks, and it paid off big time for Tundra. It didn’t matter that Michael “miCKe” Vu was also doing well on the other side as Monkey King, because Crystallis was just wailing on the rest of Liquid anyway.

Game 2 went Liquid’s way, though it took nearly 70 minutes for them to actually close things out. Crystallis didn’t have nearly as good a game this time around, as his Faceless Void didn’t really have the kind of impact that one would expect from it. Instead, it was miCKe as Marci and Michał “Nisha” Jankowski as Primal Beast that would leave their marks on the map, carrying Liquid to the finish line and forcing a deciding game 3.

Unfortunately for Liquid, they would go on to lose game 3 in just over 30 minutes. This game in particular was just a masterclass in drafting by Tundra, who saw that Liquid’s lineup didn’t have any good answers to offlane Phoenix. Neta “33” Shapira would recognize this glaring weakness, punishing Liquid’s lack of foresight in the process. With no answers to the Phoenix pick, Liquid simply folded over without a fight.

Falcons versus dragons

Falcons put on an absolute clinic against Spirit in their series, showcasing their ironclad decision-making and impeccable mechanics. That is to say that this squad just looks nigh unstoppable when they’re not in their own heads, which happened more often than it should have throughout the entirety of this competitive season.

mood #TI2025 https://t.co/JMJzr6WP01 pic.twitter.com/V69euXZAQu

— Falcons Esports (@FalconsEsport) September 7, 2025

But anyway, Falcons are absolutely back in form, and it showed in full versus Spirit. The first game was a classic late game marathon — something that TI14 has produced over and over again throughout the first four days. And when you put two of the best late game teams in the world against each other in a single elimination bracket, crazy s*** happens.

I’m talking base races involving Illya “Yatoro” Mulyarchuk’s Nature’s Prophet, and Falcons having the game sense to keep heroes near their Ancient to prevent Yatoro from simply going all-in on it with Teleportation (W). This game was Dota at its finest, with heart-stopping moments all throughout the nearly 77 minutes of play. If there’s one game in particular I’d recommend that you watch if you weren’t able to catch it live, it’s absolutely this one.

Game 2 was a much shorter affair, as Falcons seemed completely disinterested in the prospect of having to play a third game after such an exhausting first map. They threw the hammer down on Spirit in this one, recognizing that Spirit were taking a bit too long farming up in order to get their heroes online.

Falcons took it upon themselves to choke Spirit out of the map early and often, taking immediate map control and limiting the available space. They held a net worth lead of 14,000 gold just 25 minutes into the game, and would only increase this lead further as the game went on. It did take them another 20 minutes from there to finally seal the deal, but knowing Falcons’ late game execution, their victory was never truly in doubt.

So with these two series done and dusted, there remains only one player capable of winning a third Aegis of Champions. 33 and the rest of Tundra are still alive at TI14, so there’s still a chance for a three-time winner. He’s going to have to pull out all the stops to accomplish this, though, as Falcons are looking extremely dangerous heading into the playoffs.

As an aside, shoutouts to Wildcard for taking my 0-4 prediction and throwing it right out the window. They put on a much better performance than I had originally anticipated, and they should definitely be proud of finishing where they did. Are they the next great hope for North America? Maybe, if the region can get back in gear in Dota 2.