The weaker teams were, as expected, the first to fall in the Esports World Cup 2025's Dota 2 competition.

The Esports World Cup (EWC) 2025's Dota 2 competition witnessed its first wave of teams to exit the competition after the first round of the Elimination Phase. With 2-0 sweeps across the board, the weaker field of teams made up the lineup of early eliminations. Execration, Shopify Rebellion, HEROIC, and Virtus.pro (VP) have all been eliminated in 13th-16th place.

The Elimination Phase pitted bottom-placed teams from the Group Stage against each other. While most were considered underdogs, big names like Team Falcons and Xtreme Gaming (XG) were also knocked down to this early elimination round.

Here’s what went down in the first round of the Dota 2 EWC Elimination Phase:

Xtreme Gaming 2-0 Execration

XG were under immense pressure as the only Chinese representative at the EWC. But Southeast Asian underdogs Execration were hungry to prove themselves, being one of the teams no one expected to see at the event. But between the two, XG held the upper hand in terms of game mechanics and team chemistry.

The first game went easily in XG’s favour, steadily snowballing to rake in net worth and momentum. It ended in 36 minutes with a 28-9 kill score. Although they had a discouraging start, Execration pulled off a strong fight in the next game. 

The second map saw a completely different draft lineup by the full-Filipino team, grabbing the Witch Doctor on Bryle “cml” Alvizo. It is a hero rarely seen in competitive games and has only been picked by them in the tournament so far, which notably held a 0% win rate.

Though risky, the draft proved better than the previous game as Execration fought toe-to-toe against the Chinese veterans. The game went back and forth with both teams alternating in teamfight victories. 

Entering the late game, Execration held the net worth advantage and initiated the siege of XG’s high ground. But they failed to overcome the opponent’s strong defense, which led to a teamfight loss and a significant swing in net worth. XG rode on that momentum to secure the Aegis and ended the series 2-0. 

With Execration’s defeat, Talon Esports remains as the only Southeast Asian rep in the Dota 2 EWC. Meanwhile, XG march forward as the only Chinese hope and will meet a much stronger PARIVISION in the next elimination round.

Team Yandex 2-0 Shopify Rebellion

Team Yandex may be the newer name in this matchup, but the team holds potential as it is headlined by veteran captain Alexey “Solo” Berezin, who leads young talent like Aybek “TA2000” Tokayev and Evgeniy “Noticed” Ignatenko. But Shopify Rebellion has held a well-established reputation, being North America’s top team for a while now. 

The first match between the two erupted into the tournament’s longest game so far, stretching to 72 minutes of game time. A mega late-game challenge was a test of resilience and discipline, and it turned out in favor of Yandex.

The first game started evenly for both sides, but Shopify Rebellion won most of the counter-fights and eventually took the net worth lead. The North American squad even chipped away at Yandex’s base, taking both the mid and bottom rax. At this point, 30 minutes in, it seemed like Shopify Rebellion had victory secured in their hands.

But as the game gradually entered the super late game, Yandex found their momentum and took successful teamfights, courtesy of clean Ravage-into-Wukong's Command executions from their Tidehunter-Monkey King duo. Yandex pulled off a comeback to flip the script and take the first win of the series.

Losing an hour-long game might have had a rough effect on Shopify Rebellion's performance in the second game. It seemed like they ran out of steam as Yandex easily dominated the second map, taking them down in 33 minutes with a 27-9 kill score.

With this 2-0 sweep, Shopify Rebellion bows out of the tournament, leaving no more North American representatives at the Dota 2 EWC. Meanwhile, Yandex advances to the second round of eliminations to play against the defending champions, Gaimin Gladiators.

HEROIC 0-2 Talon Esports

This battle between the top teams of South America and Southeast Asia drew plenty of attention as passionate fans of both regions rallied to lend their support. It was even more intense as Talon had just become their region's sole representative at the Dota 2 EWC with Execration's loss.

But in this matchup, one easily dominated the other. Talon showed cleaner movement across the map, picking up wins in skirmishes and full-blown teamfights. Even though HEROIC managed to somehow keep up with the kill score, most of their kills were small pick-offs that didn’t significantly contribute to their net worth or experience gain. 

A defining moment was when Talon successfully contested HEROIC’s Roshan attempt. Tri “Jhocam” Kuncoro's Axe jumped into the pit and snatched the Aegis, leading to another lost fight for the South American squad. From here on, Talon snowballed to victory, ending the game at 54 minutes.

Surfing on the momentum, Talon went into the second game strong, winning the laning stage and rapidly accumulating a net worth lead. It was smooth sailing for them as HEROIC ultimately surrendered at 34 minutes. 

HEROIC’s support lineup suffered the most in both series, raking up a devastating total KDA–Elvis “Scofield” De la Cruz Peña's Shadow Shaman with 0-24-25 and Matheus Santos Jungles “KJ” Diniz with 3-22-16 on both Phoenix and Bane. 

HEROIC was eliminated in another 0-2 sweep, leaving no South American representatives at the Dota 2 EWC. Talon advance to the next elimination round and will battle against Tundra Esports for a spot in the Playoffs.

Team Falcons 2-0 Virtus.pro

The final series of the first-phase elimination round sees the notable Team Falcons lineup take on the Eastern European underdog VP. Falcons were the only team with a top-team pedigree at early risk of elimination. But as expected, they reigned supreme against an exhausted VP, taking them out in the quickest BO3 round so far.

The first game ended in only 26 minutes with a dominating 22-9 kill score in Falcons’ favour. They stomped all lanes and swiftly rode to victory with no hiccups. The second game was a similar stomp, as Falcons easily dominated the laning stage and closed the second game in 32 minutes.

VP, who qualified via the MESWA (Middle East and Southwest Asia) route, was lackluster throughout this tournament. The team failed to grab a single win, finishing their group stage run with 3 losses, and bowed out of the tournament after another rough series loss. 

Meanwhile, Team Falcons will move to the next elimination round and face Eastern Europe's rising team, Natus Vincere. 

More eliminations ahead

The second round of elimination is set to start today, July 13. In this phase, the winners of the 3rd-and 4th-placed teams will play another set of elimination games against the 2nd-placed teams from the Group Stage. 

Here are the pairings for the Elimination Phase 2:

  • PARIVISION vs Xtreme Gaming
  • Gaimin Gladiators vs Team Yandex
  • Tundra Esports vs Talon Esports
  • NAVI vs Team Falcons

The winners will join Team Spirit, BetBoom Team, Aurora Gaming, and Team Liquid in the Playoffs–where they are confirmed a Top 8 placement at the Dota 2 EWC. 

The EWC is a multi-title mega event with a stacked prize pool of over US$70 million–the Dota 2 competition alone claiming one of the largest shares at US$3 million. While the entire event spans nearly two months, fitting in 25 unique esports, the Dota 2 tournament will be one of the first to run, running from 8 to 19 July. 

For everything you need to know about the EWC's Dota 2 competition, check here.

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