Dota 2 tournament kicks off, 2025 eSports World Cup: Top 16 to compete for $3 million prize

The world's most anticipated eSports World Cup (EWC) has officially begun, with the Dota 2 event taking the lead. 16 top teams from all over the world are competing for a total prize pool of up to US$3 million and the title of world champion.

This year's Dota 2 event will be held from July 8 to 19. As one of the highest prize money events in EWC, the competition has attracted many heavyweight teams to participate. Among the top 16 teams, 8 teams were directly invited through the ESL Pro Tour (EPT) annual points ranking, and another 8 teams stood out from the regional qualifiers.

Directly invited teams include:
Gaimin Gladiators (defending champions), Team Spirit, Team Liquid, BetBoom Team, Team Falcons, PARIVISION, Tundra Esports, Talon Esports and Aurora Gaming.

The teams that advanced through the regional qualifiers are:
Xtreme Gaming from China, Natus Vincere from Western Europe, Team Yandex from Eastern Europe, Virtus.pro from the Middle East and West Asia, Execration from Southeast Asia, Shopify Rebellion from North America, and HEROIC, the representative from South America.

This competition is divided into three stages:

• Group stage (July 8–11): Four groups of round-robin matches, two rounds of points-based elimination matches. The first place in each group advances directly to the playoffs, the second place enters the second round of the elimination round, and the third and fourth place enter the first round.

• Knockout Round (July 12-13): The Gauntlet challenge system is adopted, with the winners advancing and the losers being eliminated to compete for the final four playoff spots.

• Playoffs (July 16–19): Single-elimination format, all games are best-of-three, the championship game is best-of-five, and there is also a third-place match.