DreamLeague S25 grand final postponed mid-series amid DDOS attacks

DreamLeague Season 25 grand final took an unexpected turn when the series was abruptly halted due to widespread DDOS attacks.

Team Spirit were leading Tundra 2-1 in the best-of-five series, when, during game 4, two of their players began disconnecting and found themselves unable to launch Dota 2 or enter the game lobby, forcing ESL to reschedule the remainder of the grand finals.

Team Spirit confirmed that Magomed "Collapse" Khalilov and Denis "Larl" Sigitov, were targeted by a Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDOS) attack. Collapse later explained on his Telegram account that the attackers flooded their Steam accounts with party invites and messages at an alarming rate—up to 100 per second—causing Dota 2 to crash repeatedly. Despite efforts to switch accounts and mitigate the issue, the attacks persisted, eventually affecting teammate Yaroslav "Miposhka" Naidenov as well.

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After a two-hour “technical pause,” ESL, announced the postponement of the final two games. "Due to severe technical issues, we are unable to proceed with the DreamLeague Season 25 grand finals," the organiser stated. The remaining matches are now set to resume on March 4 at 4 PM CET. However, the decision has left fans disappointed, as the series was shaping up to be a thrilling contest. Team Spirit had earlier defeated PARIVISION in the lower bracket final and taken a 2-1 lead over Tundra in the grand final, including a 72-kill, hour-long game three.

While DDOS attacks were common in the 2000s and early 2010s, improved network security and the shift to LAN-based competitions had largely eliminated such issues. However, this attack exposed vulnerabilities in Valve’s Dota 2 client, particularly its susceptibility to mass invite and chat spam, a flaw that has reportedly existed for years.

While DDOS attacks were common in the 2000s and early 2010s, improved network security and the shift to LAN-based competitions had largely eliminated such issues. However, this attack exposed vulnerabilities in Valve’s Dota 2 client, particularly its susceptibility to mass invite and chat spam, a flaw that has reportedly existed for years. Tundra support player Martin "Saksa" Sazdov expressed his frustration in the in-game chat, sarcastically suggesting that Team Spirit should ensure DDOS protection by 2025. The postponement has also raised questions about the impact on the players’ momentum. As Tal "fly" Aizik noted on X.

With Valve yet to comment on the incident, the community is left wondering whether this will prompt long-overdue fixes to Dota 2’s client security.

For now, fans eagerly await the rescheduled grand final, hoping for a resolution free of technical disruptions and a fitting conclusion to an otherwise thrilling DreamLeague season.