The International 2025 Dota 2 World Championship Arrives

The International 2025 (TI14), the annual Dota 2 world championship, started in Germany at Hamburg’s Barclays Arena on Sept. 11, 2025.

Following four straight days of sixteen five-on-five teams battling their way through the Road to the International: Playoffs, Xtreme Gaming, BB Team, Team Tidebound, Heroic, Pvision, Nigma Galaxy, Tundra Esports, and Team Falcons will fight in a double-elimination bracket, with all matches except the Grand Final being best-of-three, while the Grand Final set for Sept. 14, 2025 will be best-of-five.

Known simply as TI within the esports community, The International is produced by the game’s developer, Valve, during which teams compete for the symbolic Aegis of Champions, a physical trophy forged out of bronze and silver by Weta Workshop, which will be engraved with the names of each player on the winning team.

Besides the winning glory and the trophy, teams are also fighting for a massive prize pool, which has seen a slight decrease in recent years due to Valve’s decision to discontinue the Battle Pass system, which previously contributed significantly to the prize pool through community funding. The International 2024 (TI13) featured a total prize pool of $2,602,164, marking the lowest since 2013, while TI14’s prize pool drops even lower, at $2,590,670.

Return to Germany marks a significant milestone in TI’s history, as the event revisits the country where it all began as the initial event of The International in 2011 took place at Gamescom in the German city of Cologne, where Natus Vincere secured the first-ever championship title.

Winners chart for previous years:

• The International 2024 – Team Liquid
• The International 2023 – Team Spirit
• The International 2022 – Tundra Esports
• The International 2021 – Team Spirit
• The International 2019 – OG
• The International 2018 – OG
• The International 2017 – Team Liquid
• The International 2016 – Wings Gaming
• The International 2015 – Evil Geniuses
• The International 2014 – Newbee
• The International 2013 – Alliance
• The International 2012 – Invictus Gaming
• The International 2011 – Natus Vincere

Team Liquid, the reigning champions from TI13, won’t defend their title, as they didn’t make it through the playoffs and the qualification process.