The International 2025, TI14, is in full swing but almost every fan and analyst’s predictions are in shambles as the China region takes a surprising early lead in the standings. Both Xtreme Gaming and Team Tidebound are sitting at an undefeated 3-0 score after two days of competition.
The turn around in fortunes of the region is a return to form for China, whose recent performances (for around the past three years) had been far from top-tier. Now with both Xtreme Gaming and Tidebound undefeated, it’s time to ask the question: Is China Dota 2 back? And how did this happen?
These two teams have had a surprising set of performances, starting out with Xtreme Gaming’s defeat of Aurora Gaming and favorites Team Spirit to open up the tournament. In their opening two series, Wang “Ame” Chunyu died just a single time. That’s one death across five matches.
Tidebound looked similarly strong, knocking off NAVI, Team Liquid, and PARIVISION (the latter two some of the tournament’s top contenders and best Dota 2 teams around) to earn their 3-0 record. Cheng “NothingToSay” Jin Xiang has looked like one of the best midlaners in the entire world these past two days, performing at a level we’ve not seen from him since 2023.
Unfortunately for these two teams, their next matchup is against each other, due to the Swiss system format. However, even with one of these teams dropping to 3-1 (and potentially, eventually, 4-1), China is looking strong as a region at TI. It’s a strange thing to write, given that maybe a few months ago, you’d have been laughed at for suggesting China would dominate at TI14.
Looking back to 2014, China was one of the dominant regions in Dota 2, with teams like Newbee, Vici Gaming, Wings Gaming, and PSG.LGD winning majors and even The International. The fall, unfortunately would come after TI10, where PSG.LGD were defeated by Team Spirit in the Grand Finals. Following this loss, the China server underwent a dramatic decline, with players even going so far as to leave to play on SEA servers instead. This move was spurred on by wintrading and griefing in high elo games.
With a weakened high elo presence on their server, China’s tournament performances started to fall during the 2022 Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) season, before reaching rock bottom in 2023. Arguably the floor of this decline was the Lima Major 2023, where Knights and Team Aster finished dead last, and PSG.LGD only managed 9-12th place. Knights would also be entirely disqualified from the DPC shortly after.
Image credit: Valve
With the dismantling of the DPC for the 2024 season, China seemed doomed to mediocrity. But a revival in the region’s Dota scene started to take hold in early 2025, starting with pro players returning to reclaim the China server, and culminating in the DOTA2 Immortal Cup Season 1. That tournament, which featured retired and famous pro players, appeared to respark the passion of the region.
A few months later, at the end of July, Zhangjiakou, China would host Clavision Masters 2025: Snow-Ruyi, one of only two Tier 1 LANs hosted in the country since 2019. With homefield advantage, Team Tidebound picked up the win, while Xtreme Gaming claimed third. A month later, and with momentum intact, China is now the top region at TI14. Even last-minute Gaimin Gladiator replacements, Yakutou Brothers, are doing well in the middle of the pack.
TI14 still has a long way to go before it’s wrapped up and one team lifts the Aegis. But the face of the competition has fundamentally changed. Going into the event, all the focus had been on the likes of Team Spirit, PARIVISION, Team Liquid, Falcons, and others. Now we’ll have to recalibrate our expectations. The era of Western Dota 2 dominance could be at an end as The International 2025 concludes.
Featured image credits: Team Tidebound via X (@TeamTidebound)
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