China’s Dota 2 dreams rest on Xtreme Gaming at Esports World Cup 2025

Xtreme Gaming are the sole Chinese team heading to Riyadh Masters, the Dota 2 competition at Esports World Cup 2025

16.05.2025

Xtreme Gaming are the sole Chinese team heading to Riyadh Masters, the Dota 2 competition at Esports World Cup 2025.

A total of 16 Dota 2 teams will be battling this summer in the Saudi Arabia capital, Riyadh, for a shot at the Esports World Cup title, and all China’s hopes and dreams will rest on Xtreme Gaming (XG).

It’s been a couple of underwhelming years for CN Dota. The region, which once was one of the strongest in the competitive Dota 2 scene, is now struggling to stay afloat. **Xtreme **and Team Tidebound (recently signed by All Gamers) were the only two forces in the current competitive season, but neither has been able to threaten a championship title so far. Their lackluster season leads to a significantly reduced presence for their region at the two pinnacle tournaments of the year.

Tidebound had a top 3 and a top 4 placement throughout the year, which was enough to receive a direct invite to The International 2025. However, the Esports World Cup is using its own ESL Pro Tour rankings to select the participants. The top 8 teams on the EPT leaderboard have received a direct invite to the $3,000,000 Esports World Cup Dota 2 event in Riyadh, but neither Xtreme nor Tidebound had decent showings at EPT events this year to make it to the top eight.

Therefore, the sole Chinese representative at Riyadh Masters this year was to be decided through a one-day event held at the Asian Champions League 2025. Four teams fought for the only ticket to EWC, with XG and Tidebound reaching the grand finals.

Xtreme Gaming vs Tidebound 3:2

XG and Tidebound played a total of 16 games against each other this year alone. Ahead of the Asian Champions League 2025 grand finals, Xtreme were holding a 56% win rate over Tidebound, with 9 wins secured against their regional foes.

Given their head to head results, it was no surprise to see the ACL final act going up to a decisive game five.

Tidebound opened up with a 26-minute stomp, courtesy of a perfect tempo game from Cheng "NothingToSay" Jin Xiang on Puck. The match closed with Xtreme making the GG call when the kill score was 17 -2 and no barracks were taken down. They regrouped fast and bounced back in game two with a tempo controller of their own.

XG had Guo "Xm" Hongcheng dominating the game from the mid lane. He was untouchable on Monkey King, finishing with a 9/0/11 score and 100% kill participation. It was Wang "Ame" Chunyu’s turn to shine in the next game, as he managed to make a comeback from a 10,000 gold deficit. Despite throwing game three, mainly based on personal mistakes, Tidebound were able to focus in game four and push the series to a decisive showdown. However, they seemed to have run out of steam and were dominated by Xtreme from start to finish in game five, losing the only ticket for China to Riyadh Masters 2025.