The invited teams and qualifiers schedule have been officially revealed for TI14 have been revealed and naturally, there are some snubs.
When Valve killed off the Dota Pro Circuit and defunded Dota 2 esports, it did so in the name of bringing back the olden days of the game. Part of that was the lack of certainty or logic to the invitations for The International. Rather than scoring points throughout a season, teams have to grind all year and say a prayer that they avoid qualifiers.
Now, Valve has officially confirmed the eight teams that will get to skip qualifiers for TI14. alongside details on the schedule and unlucky squads that will have to work their way in.
Eight teams received direct invitations to The International 2025 and eight more teams will earn their way in through qualifiers. Here is the full list of invited teams:
The lineup of teams that received invitations to the event isn’t particularly surprising. With the exception of All Gamers Global, various combinations of these seven teams have made up the grand finals of every big-money Dota 2 tournament since The International 2024. Each of these seven have reached the grand finals of a prominent tournament in 2025.
All Gamers Global was the only real contentious invitee. The team only formed in January as Team Tidebound and has placed top four in a handful of tournaments.
While those placements edge out other squads, fans lamented teams like Nigma Galaxy getting passed over. The biggest omissions also include teams accused by ESLof regularly using the smoke bug. Others lamented the lack of high-end teams from regions outside the Europe and CIS regions. The only team from outside those regions to receive an invite was China’s All Gamers Global.
Eight more teams will earn a spot in The International 2025 through the event’s qualifiers.
Each region will have between eight and 10 teams competing in the closed qualifiers. Some teams were invited to the closed qualifiers, but many more will have to work their way in through open qualifiers. The distribution of invitees to open qualifier competitors varies based on the region.
The TI14 qualifiers schedule begins on May 31 and runs through June 17. The full breakdown is as follows:
Though the qualifiers wrap on June 17, teams won’t be competing in The International 2025 any time soon. The tournament doesn’t actually begin until September 4, 2025.
Valve revealed all the teams that received invitations to the closed qualifiers for TI14. There are few surprises or omissions from the lineups of teams that were invited to the qualifiers. However, there is a dynamic number of teams competing in each region and how many will need to work their way through open qualifiers
Worth noting is that China, South America, North America, and CIS will only send one team each from qualifiers. Europe and Southeast Asia will both send two. Here are all the teams that were invited to the closed qualifiers:
Eastern Europe (two winners)
South America (one winner)
North America (one winner)
China (one winner)
Europe (two winners)
Southeast Asia (two winners)
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