Yakutou Brothers to replace Gaimin Gladiators at TI14

Yakutou Brothers, better known as Yakult Brothers, will be replacing the outgoing Gaimin Gladiators at The International 2025 (TI14) — as announced by on the official TI X account. This once again completes the field of 16 teams participating at the world championship event, which starts next Thursday, September 4th in Hamburg, Germany.

On August 22nd, it was also announced that Gaimin Gladiators had withdrawn from TI14, as it was confirmed that the players were “unable to come to an agreement with their organization that would allow them to participate”. Since then, Gaimin’s decision has been a hot topic within the Dota 2 community, as it would appear that the squad’s withdrawal stems from contract disputes between the players and the organization.

A few figureheads in the professional scene have since come forward to make statements on social media regarding the matter. International-winning player and coach Kurtis “Aui_2000” Ling took to X in this regard, saying that the Gaimin players “had requested not to play under the organization” for TI14. Gaimin mid laner Quinn “Quinn” Callahan also weighed in on his team’s situation from a firsthand perspective.

Another chance for China

Yakutou Brothers will now be playing in their stead. The Chinese club finished second at the TI14 Chinese regional qualifiers, right behind Xtreme Gaming who swept them three games to none in the grand final match. It was speculated that OG, who finished third overall in the Western European regionals, would replace Gaimin since they were from the same region as the outgoing team — but Valve have instead chosen to go with China on this one.

Yakutou Brothers will be competing in The International this year. #TI14 #Dota2 pic.twitter.com/SC1M6bux9u

— Wykrhm Reddy (@wykrhm) August 27, 2025

Not that I’m personally too surprised, because while China hasn’t necessarily been the most compelling region to watch over the last year or two, it seems that it’s still an important market for Valve to keep around. Dota 2 used to be huge in China, but it has since fallen by the wayside compared to other esports titles like League of Legends, Valorant, and Honor of Kings.

Slotting Yakutou Brothers in gives the region another representative on top of Xtreme Gaming and direct invitees Team Tidebound. And while I don’t really think Yakutou Brothers have the chops to make a deep run in Hamburg, I’ve seen much stranger things in this game over the years. This is TI after all.