TI14 Qualifiers: Nemesis sneak past Talon in SEA regionals

The first winners of the absolute fracas known as the Southeast Asia TI14 qualifiers is now known to the world, and their name is Team Nemesis. In what may go down as one of the more surprising results in this glut of regional qualifiers for The International, Team Nemesis shocked the Dota 2 world by beating heavy favorites Flipster Talon to the punch, defeating them two games to one in the upper bracket final to secure the first qualifier slot out of SEA.

I don’t think anyone expected them to be the first to qualify from SEA, let alone qualify at all. Both Flipster Talon and BOOM Esports have been the only Southeast Asian teams to even represent the region in any major tournament this season, and so I personally predicted that they would both come out of the qualifiers without much trouble.

But it’s almost as if since OG’s miraculous run at TI8 in 2018, the phrase “anything can happen in Dota” just doesn’t ever stop being true. The better team doesn’t always win in a game with so many variables and possible outcomes, so I suppose I should stop assuming that “random” stacks have no chance against more established squads. Unless that random stack is Team Secret, but I digress.

Not Even Strangers

The name Team Nemesis was unfamiliar even to me as a resident of the region they just came out of to qualify for TI14. But apparently, this team was formed by former staff of Into the Breach (ItB), the United Kingdom-based esports organization that shut down just this January for alleged embezzlement of funds. At the time the organization dissolved itself, the roster had names like Ivan “MinD_ControL” Ivanov and Rodrigo “Lelis” Santos on there.

nem has qualified for @pglesports The International 2025 pic.twitter.com/vwLdhmrkt8

— Team Nemesis (@nmss_gg) June 16, 2025

Unfortunately, the team did not stick around for more than a week after forming, given that Into the Breach discovered that an “individual” within the organization had indeed been messing with their money. This left them in a position that they couldn’t recover from financially, and so they were forced to close their doors before their newest roster even got off the ground.

But just a few days after the dissolution of Into the Breach, former staff from ItB announced that they were “rising from the ashes” as Team Nemesis. The announcement included the reveal of a Halo Infinite lineup as the new org’s first roster. Now, they’re also back in Dota 2 — but with a full-Filipino roster this time and operations out of Southeast Asia instead of Western Europe.

Spectators familiar with SEA Dota will find a few names here that will likely ring a bell. TNC Pro Team’s former golden boy Marc Polo “Raven” Fausto is here, though curiously, he is playing the offlane position rather than the hard carry role that he made a name for himself with in the mid to late 2010s. Mc Nicholson “Mac” Villanueva likewise plays for Team Nemesis, after a short stint with BOOM Esports in the tail end of 2024 and the first quarter of 2025.

Still Unexpected

Nevertheless, it’s still quite astonishing that they ran through the SEA qualifier bracket with such ease. Not only did they win the upper bracket final to be the first team out of there, they also sent BOOM Esports to the lower bracket in the process. Talk about killing two birds with one stone. Definitely not a bad look at all for a squad that formed just three months ago.

WE DID IT! pic.twitter.com/LmoxojAfww

— Team Nemesis (@nmss_gg) June 16, 2025

According to Valve community manager Wykrhm “Wyk” Reddy, Team Nemesis is the first all-Filipino roster to make The International since 2019, as well. Great news for the country’s Dota 2 scene, which has kind of been quiet on the international stage for years now. The island nation used to be a mainstay in LANs all over the world, but the COVID-19 pandemic absolutely set the country back plenty.

I believe this is the first time since 2019 that a full Filipino team has made TI. #TI14 #Dota2

— Wykrhm Reddy (@wykrhm) June 16, 2025

It also doesn’t help that Mobile Legends: Bang Bang took over in the wake of the pandemic. Filipinos (and by extension most Southeast Asians) have moved over to the game in droves, thanks in no small part to the lower barrier to entry of mobile gaming versus PC gaming. The fact that Nemesis are headed to Hamburg in September is fantastic to hear, for those in the Philippines that are still playing what we like to consider the “national pastime”.

As for Talon, BOOM, and my predictions, they are now completely out the window. There’s still a chance that either of the two teams mentioned will make it past the remaining competition, but not both. It’s kind of crazy to think about, honestly. These two squads have been so consistent at qualifying for tournaments this year, and now one of them is going to miss TI entirely.

Just goes to show how cutthroat the SEA regionals are year in and year out.