Summary
- The International 2025 will take place in Hamburg, Germany from September 4 until September 14, 2025, with a new format.
- Latest announcement revealed eight direct invite teams including defending champions Team Liquid.
- Ticket selling for the championship event began on April 15 with teams playing in the Playoffs at Barclays Arena.
They’re starting to set up the stage for the highly anticipated Dota 2 world championship tournament. The International 2025 is going to be more exciting with Valve introducing new elements to the tournament. Now, here’s what is known so far about the teams, format, ticket sales and more.
Venue and Dates
September gets exciting as The International 2025 fills the action from September 4 to September 14, 2025. They will return to Germany for the first time since its inaugural event at Gamescom 2011 in Cologne. This time, the teams will be seeing action at the Barclays Arena with a live audience during the last three days.
Valve began selling tickets for the tournament on April 15, 2025, through AXS. Fans can purchase either single-day tickets or multi-day bundles. The single-day tickets for general admission is at €85 to €165 while premium tickets range from €199 to €279. The premium price includes benefits such as VIP entry, cloak room access, and more.
On the other hand, fans can also choose to purchase a multi-day bundle or 4-day Pass for €500. They can buy premium tickets for the entire event for €956, ensuring VIP access on all days.
Direct Invites and Qualified Teams
The International 2025 also reveals the first eight teams that joined the tournament lineup. Their competitiveness stood out during the 2025 Dota 2 season, earning them direct invites for the world championship. Fans will surely see previous champions and standout performers among these qualified teams.
- Team Liquid (defending champions)
- All Gamers Global (formerly Team Tidebound)
- BetBoom Team (FISSURE Universe: Episode 4 winners)
- Gaimin Gladiators
- PARIVISION (ESL One Raleigh winners)
- Team Falcons
- Team Spirit (previous TI champion)
- Tundra Esports (previous TI champion)
Meanwhile, the remaining eight slots for The International 2025 will be filled through regional qualifiers. They’ll be competing first through the Open Qualifiers that will be held from May 31 to June 3, 2025. The China region will hold its qualifying tournament at a later date from June 2 to June 5, 2025. These are the available spots for the regions:
- Western Europe: 2 slots (June 13-17)
- Southeast Asia: 2 slots (June 13-17)
- Eastern Europe: 1 slot (June 4-8)
- South America: 1 slot (June 4-6)
- China: 1 slot (June 9-12)
- North America: 1 slot (June 9-12)
New Tournament Format
A new tournament format surprised the teams and the competitive community following the announcements for The International 2025. Change up occurs this year with the introduction of a five-round Swiss Stage, replacing the old Group Stage. Still, it maintains the two-phase format for the entire tournament, separating the Swiss Stage (September 4-7) and Playoffs Stage (September 11-14).
There will be 16 teams competing under the new Swiss-format Group stage in a best-of-three match against opponents. Those who secure four wins will climb the ladder to the Playoffs while teams with four losses leave the tournament. At the end of the Swiss Stage, three teams will qualify directly for the Playoffs, while three will be eliminated.
They’ve added a Special Elimination Round for the remaining ten teams, introducing show-off between upper-seeded and lower-seeded teams. Only the top five teams from this round joined the three teams that qualified in the Swiss Stage of Playoffs. In this year’s tournament, all eight Playoff-qualified teams will start in the upper bracket of double-elimination format. Only the Grand Finals will be a best-of-five series to determine the Aegis of Champions.
Why the Format Change?
Valves is raising the stakes for this year’s world championship. The International 2025 changes the format to address the issues from previous years where group stage matches seem to not matter. The new Swiss format will make teams cling to every match they fight to keep their slots in the tournament.
Valve announced these changes in their blog post saying that the Swiss formats will bring unique challenges for teams. Fans will also know ahead when their favorite teams play and no team with a winning record gets to play two series in a row. A complete change from the previous tournament format they’ve been using.
Conclusion
With all that for The International 2025, which team performances are you most looking forward to? Definitely, this annual world championship tournament of Dota 2 remains one of the most prestigious events to exist in the competitive gaming scene. For now, they may start purchasing their tickets from the AXS website to watch these matchups live.
