Tidebound go all the way at Clavision Masters 2025 grand final

Chinese Dota 2 is starting to rise from the dead, as Team Tidebound have completed their tournament-winning run at Clavision Masters 2025. This is the team’s first major win at a LAN this season, after being the top team from the Chinese region for the longest time.

They did this by beating Tundra Esports — which was by no means an easy feat, as evidenced the the full five-game series played between both squads.

Game 1 — Tundra flex their muscle

The first game was a serious statement win for Tundra – they let Tidebound know that they came to play. Bozhidar “bzm” Bogdanov in particular popped off hard, cruising to a 15-1 score as Ember Spirit and showing off his immense mechanical skill and top tier decision-making.

This came at just the right time too, because Tundra actually lost the laning phase for the most part. You wouldn’t really have been able to tell just by looking at the net worth difference, which stayed even through the first 10 minutes. Things started to tilt towards Tundra’s side after the laning phase and they didn’t let go of the lead for the rest of the game.

Tidebound picking Doom, Queen of Pain, and Undying, three of the best Dota heroes in the game right now, still wasn’t enough to help them survive. It’s kinda hard to when bzm just runs you over like he did, and so Tidebound had to concede the early series advantage.

Game 2 — shiro weaves Tundra’s fate

Tidebound really hunkered down for the second game in order to even the series. They brought out the carry Weaver for Guo “shiro” Xuanang, something that I personally didn’t expect given the limited number of viable carry heroes in this meta.

But shiro proved why I should’ve more faith in their drafting, as he ran roughshod over Tundra’s lineup with a 20-1 performance. Getting a Desolator at 16 minutes in helped him snowball way out of control, which allowed him and his team to put the game in a chokehold through the first 35 minutes.

There was a bit of a nervous period for Tidebound afterwards, as they lost a teamfight that saw shiro dieback along with losing his teammates at the same time. The gold swing at this point going the way of Tundra was frankly disgusting, and I really thought that Tidebound would lose the game off the back of this loss.

Fortunately for them and the Chinese fans, it was just that: a nervous period. With shiro still the most farmed person on the server, Tidebound just had to limit their mistakes from there, which they did nicely and stemmed the bleeding. They would go on to win the final fight at around the 45 minute mark, putting them on the board for this series.

Game 3 — The tide(bound) turns

The third game was Tidebound’s turn to put the hurt onto Tundra, as Zhang “Bach” Ruida (formerly known as “faith_bian”) made sure that the Queen of Pain pick went to him this time. QoP must be an S-tier offlaner right now, and it really showed in this game as Bach simply crushed Tundra’s safe lane duo in the laning phase.

He leveraged this great start and went roaming, ganking Tundra’s heroes and keeping them from hitting their timings. This helped them grab a small but not insignificant net worth lead heading into the mid game, which they wouldn’t relinquish until a teamfight gone wrong for them close to the 30 minute mark.

It didn’t really matter in the end, as shiro’s Terrorblade was just way too far ahead thanks to Bach’s machinations earlier on. The former ended the game with a 10-1 KD, while Bach enjoyed 8-2 scoreline of his own. Tundra, on the other hand, never really got to play much in this game, with Crystallis in particular starving for gold.

Game 4 — Tundra force a decider

With the wind from their emphatic game 3 win now urging them onward, Tidebound strolled into game 4 with a certain kind of swagger that allowed them to run away with the laning phase. And by run away with the laning phase, I mean they had an 8,000 gold advantage just 15 minutes in.

Yeah, they were really taking Tundra’s lunch money and then some early on. Their lead increased to 10,000 by 20 minutes, and it was at this point that I was starting to think that Tidebound had this in the bag. Unfortunately, this is where the odd draft came back to bite them. Oh, did I forget to mention that they had a weird draft? They picked QoP in the safe lane this time, which meant that they had a severe lack of damage once the late game came around.

Props to Tundra for even surviving long enough for me to say that, but that’s what happened. Without the right click damage that was necessary at this point, shiro just could not carry the load for Tidebound past 30 minutes. Tundra were quick to take advantage, turning the game around with Neta “33” Shapira’s Axe to take teamfights on their own terms.

Left with no answers and no late game damage to speak of, Tidebound had to let go of this game, and with it their chance to really put the hammer down in this series.

Game 5 — NothingToSay makes the people proud

What a guy Cheng “NothingToSay” Jin Xiang is. He showed the hometown crowd that he is still one of the best Dota midlaners. He was all over this closely-contested final game as Ember Spirit, and what a time for him to just go ballistic.

I mean, how’s 17 kills and zero deaths sound to y’all? The man was all over the place in this game, dishing out tons of damage and crowd control and he sliced through Tundra’s lineup. He made all the right decisions in clutch moments to give Tidebound the edge in such a close game.

He was also assisted by Bach in this one, who gladly took on the offlane Queen of Pain once again. Bach went 11-2 as QoP, and had the highest damage output versus all of his teammates, including NothingToSay. But don’t get me wrong, this was absolutely the NothingToSay show.

Sorry, bzm, but your Invoker ain’t saving you from this Ember Spirit. Although Tundra put up a pretty good fight all things considered, Tidebound made sure that they would not let this opportunity slip by.

Is Chinese Dota so back boys?

Huge congratulations to Team Tidebound for winning their first LAN of the season, and in front of the Chinese fans, no less. This is definitely a great way to make good on their group stage performance as well.

For their troubles, they walk away with $213,500, and a massive confidence boost. It was only a matter of time until they finally broke through and won a major tournament, and it’s just all the sweeter to do it in their home country.

Will this result be enough to bump their stock up heading into The International in September, though? Probably not, but I’m sure they will take this win and savor it.