TI14 power rankings — how each team stacks up

The annual Dota 2 world championship event in the form of The International 2025 (TI14) is almost here, so it’s time to talk about how each team might do at the most prestigious, pressure-packed tournament of the season.

I’ve talked more than enough about the rest of the tournaments from this year with my other power ranking articles, so I’m just going to jump right into this one!

#1 — Team Spirit

Honestly, even with the possibility of Denis “Larl” Sigitov being unable to attend TI14 due to health complications (his player entry was removed from the TI14 compendium a few days ago but he’s in the team photo posted to Instagram), I still think Team Spirit have the best chances of winning in Hamburg. They have all the ingredients necessary to win a third title for the organization: loads of experience and talent, a team identity that works for them, the ability to collect themselves when they’re down, and the results this season, including the grand finals of the Esports World Cup most recently to back all of this up.

Besides, Marat “Mirele” Gazetdinov showed everyone at FISSURE Universe Episode 6 that he is more than ready to step into such big shoes. Spirit finished second behind Team Falcons at FISSURE Universe, and though it was an online tournament without the pressure of playing in front of a crowd, Mirele still did extremely well given the circumstances. If he is to be their stand-in for Larl, they’ll be in great hands despite the setback.

#2 — PARIVISION

If TI14 was to be held in April instead of September, I would have put PARIVISION in the top spot on this list without any hesitation. Prior to their slight decline in the two months leading up to now, they were hands down the best team in the world, winning major tournaments like ESL One Bangkok last December and placing second or third when they weren’t.

But now, I’m only willing to put them behind Team Spirit. They’ve taken a bit of a tumble as of late, and it seems like they’ve begun feeling themselves a little too much after garnering such quick success since their formation late last year. It doesn’t feel like they’re taking Dota very seriously right now, which could very well come back to bite them in Hamburg.

If they can lock in, though, they’ll be just as big a threat as they’ve been nearly the entire season. They just need to be in the ESL One Bangkok and Raleigh-winning form that they were in before.

#3 — Tundra Esports

It’s been a bit of a weird year for TI12 champions Tundra Esports. They’ve had to change carries twice before settling on Remco “Crystallis” Arets, and now they also have to play at TI14 without Matthew “Whitemon” Filemon due to visa issues. And yet, they’ve managed to remain as one of the strongest teams at any given tier 1 tournament this season.

It goes to show that consistency is key, and so is having mega talented players like Bozhidar “bzm” Bogdanov and Neta “33” Shapira. If I’m being honest, the only reason I have them in third here and not first or second is due to their stand-in situation — but even then, I know for a fact that Tobias “Tobi” Buchner is not a downgrade compared to Whitemon.

It’s just that they won’t have much time to gel with him for TI14 in particular. I’m sure Tobi will slot in just fine for Tundra, but when you’ve played with someone as good as Whitemon for so long, the fact remains that the rest of the squad will miss his presence. If Tundra can get around this factor, though, they’ll be one of the favorites for sure. Until then, I’m keeping a tiny bit of (healthy) skepticism regarding this team.

#4 — Team Falcons

I know, it sounds crazy to be putting the Esports World Cup second placers and FISSURE Universe Episode 6 champions below the podium, but honestly, I don’t care that it does. I don’t trust Team Falcons enough to not bottle it at TI14, even knowing just how disgustingly good this squad is individually and as a whole.

Just look at the uncharacteristically poor results they’ve shown this season in a few select events. 10th at DreamLeague Season 22, 11th at PGL Wallachia Season 4, and sixth at both ESL One Raleigh and Bangkok are way below what this club is capable of. They took the Dota 2 scene by storm last season, destroying everyone in their path — but this year, they’ve seen lows that I thought were way beneath them.

They also didn’t make the final day at TI13 last year. With all that combined, I just can’t see them anywhere higher than fourth on this list. I know they can be better, but they have to prove it first.

#5 — Team Liquid

I’m putting defending champions Team Liquid next to Falcons because they’ve also suffered through inconsistency issues this season, but below Falcons because they’ve not had the better results this year comparatively. While Liquid did win two straight seasons of PGL Wallachia and came pretty close to doing the same at ESL One Bangkok, their performances elsewhere have been mid on average.

I suppose it’s to be expected when you swap out two-time champion 33 for Jonáš “SabeRLight–” Volek, who honestly isn’t as good of an offlaner straight up. This isn’t really SabeRLight-‘s fault, of course, because 33 is one of the greatest offlaners of all time and SabeRLight- hasn’t even gotten within spitting distance of an International grand final. It takes time for a player who’s never been in that position before to develop, and so does the team’s chemistry with him in turn.

Still, the rest of the squad is composed of the defending champions for a reason. They’ve proven before that they know what it takes to win and how to execute at the highest level, so as long as they don’t trip over their own toes at TI14, there’s still a world where we see them win back-to-back titles.

#6 — BetBoom Team

So, which version of BetBoom Team is going to show up at TI14? The one that won BLAST Slam 1, or the one that threw a 30,000 gold lead at ESL One Bangkok against PARIVISION? Being the most mechanically skilled roster in Dota 2 is great and all, but it doesn’t do you much good to farm like the wind only to lose all that gold in the span of a few minutes anyway.

I really enjoy watching this team when they’re firing on all cylinders, but it’s such a coinflip on whether or not they will at any given event. The International in particular has shown us in the past that lower-skilled teams will pounce on any opportunity to upset the frontrunners, so if BetBoom want to avoid embarrassing themselves on the world stage, they’ll have to find ways to really secure games they should be winning.

That’s something they’ve been working on over the past few months, and for the most part, I’d say they have improved on that end. Have they improved enough on that end to not bomb out of The International? Only time will tell.

#7 — Team Tidebound

I’m aware that Team Tidebound technically won the last major LAN before TI14, but that unfortunately doesn’t discount the fact that they’ve otherwise been mediocre at best throughout the rest of the season. As a fan of the former Wings Gaming players, I really wish I could put them higher up on this list, but given the number of European competitors they’ll have to go through, I can’t be too confident in their chances.

Nevertheless, I think they’re good enough to at least make the top 8, if not the top 6 at Hamburg. It took them a long time to do so, but they did finally hit their stride at Clavision Masters. Beating Tundra Esports in a five-game grand final match could not have been easy, so that’s one more thing they’ll have going for them heading into the world championship.

#8 — Aurora Gaming

Aurora Gaming are in much the same boat as Team Tidebound, with the one caveat being that they don’t have a LAN win to their names this year. I thought they would finally have their breakthrough tournament at DreamLeague Season 26 after hanging around the 5th-6th range in most tier 1 events, but alas, they fell just short of the podium there.

They made up for it with third place at FISSURE Universe Episode 5, but then went back to their middling ways at EWC and FISSURE Episode 6. This team has plenty of potential given the names on their roster like Alexander “TORONTOTOKYO” Khertek and Myroslav “Mira” Kolpakov, both of whom are former TI champions — but they’ve not really found the means to really hit that next level.

Thus, I don’t expect things to be much different from them in Hamburg.

The Rest

And then there’s the bottom eight, which I consider the cutoff for TI14 in particular when it comes to who even has a shot of making a deep run. Xtreme Gaming are, for what feels like the fifth or sixth time this season, my pick for dark horse. I don’t even want to talk about Nigma Galaxy, because while they did qualify fair and square, I have even less faith in them than Team Falcons.

Even though I have them dead last, I am curious as to what Wildcard might bring to the table here. As a fan of Paul “Speeed” Bocchicchio, I’d be happy to see Wildcard finish anywhere but last place.