TI14 Playoffs – XG carry momentum while Nigma falter for the nth time

The greatest show on earth is now on, as the playoffs of The International 2025 (TI14) are well underway. The first four matches between the eight surviving teams were played today, with all but one series ending 2-0. Xtreme Gaming’s victory over Tundra Esports was the highlight of today’s proceedings, as the Chinese squad proved that their overall performance in the Swiss group stage wasn’t just a fluke.

Nigma Galaxy, meanwhile, were unable to fend off BetBoom Team in the final series of the day, which is just as much as I expected from such an emotional team that has struggled to stay consistent this season. Unfortunately, they’ll have to hope they find consistency and fast as they run the lower bracket gauntlet tomorrow.

Simply Ame-zing

Wang “Ame” Chunyu always hits his stride at The International. He seems to always find a way to channel the TI energy into something positive for him and his team, and right now it’s not looking any different. There was a stretch in the group stage where Ame didn’t die even once through a few series, showing his prowess from the carry position.

It was much the same story versus Tundra today. He went ballistic as Troll Warlord in the first game, and survived some rather questionable deaths as Clinkz in the second. Actually, that second game caught me off guard, because he managed to give Clinkz a win in this tournament.

Not the way I expected that pick to go down for sure. But anyway, Ame and the rest of XG are now guaranteed to finish at least in the top 6. I’m certain they’re hungry for more, but Ame’s tendency to choke near the finish line is still the big question here. They’re looking really good right now, but I’ve seen this movie before.

No More Heroes

PARIVISION made sure to remind everyone in attendance at the Barclays Arena in Hamburg just who the hell they are, as they put underdogs HEROIC away in two easy games. They just completely outclassed the South American hopefuls, beating them soundly even after allowing them to pick their signature Pudge-Clockwerk combo in the first game.

The second game was even worse for HEROIC, as Alan “Satanic” Gallyamov popped off as Templar Assassin. It was frankly quite painful to watch even as someone who isn’t necessarily a HEROIC fan. While HEROIC actually looked pretty good in the first game, they completely fumbled any hope of tying the series in the second.

They lost every lane matchup, which eventually resulted in a final score of 8-33. HEROIC’s eight-game winning streak from the end of the group stage came to an end, while PARIVISION will have XG to look forward to in the next round of the upper bracket.

Stemming the tide(bound)

I’m not the only one that expected the Team Falcons versus Team Tidebound series to really go the distance given these two clubs’ preferred playstyles, but we were all proven wrong by the FISSURE Universe Episode 6 champions. Falcons gave Tidebound a shellacking in their match today, proving that they are indeed the superior late game team.

As expected, Ammar “ATF” Al-Assaf was the star of the show in this one, especially in game 2 where he was able to play his signature Bristleback. His mechanical skill was on full display, and honestly I think he’s hit an entirely new gear here at TI14. And that’s just in time because Falcons are certainly looking to redeem themselves from their fourth place finish last year.

Classic Nigma

Well, well, well — what I thought might happen to Nigma Galaxy at TI14 has indeed come to pass. They performed admirably in their first game against BetBoom Team, actually showing some good late game decision-making for once in their lives. They were able to close out a 64-minute slugfest against Ivan “Pure” Moskalenko’s Lone Druid, and for a while it looked like Nigma had figured a few things out with regards to their throwing problems.

We fall to the Lower Bracket.

We'll be back tomorrow at 13:00 CEST⚔️ pic.twitter.com/icZwrapI0r

— Nigma Galaxy (@NigmaGalaxy) September 11, 2025

Turns out, that was not the case. The next two games were all about Danil “gpk” Skutin and how he was allowed to play Puck — undoubtedly his best hero. He was the difference maker in the second game, beating Syed “SumaiL” Hassan’s Nature’s Prophet easily. He transitioned into buying an Aghanim’s Scepter in the late game, which was just far too much for Nigma to handle.

Then, he and Pure threw the hammer down in the final game, with gpk playing Puck again and Pure playing his signature Templar Assassin. It didn’t help Nigma’s cause that SumaiL pulled a SumaiL yet again by getting caught out using Nature’s Prophet’s Teleportation (W) in a very questionable manner, which then snowballed into a huge teamfight victory for BetBoom.

With no one left to pick up the pieces, BetBoom simply strolled into the Dire base and took Nigma’s lunch money. Sorry, Nigma fans — I’m not too sure this is the year, either.