Conflicting statements from Gaimin Gladiators and their players on TI 2025 withdrawal
Two weeks before The International 2025, Valve announced that Gaimin Gladiators withdrew its team from the event and neither the organisation nor the players would be competing in Hamburg, Germany, this year.
Gaimin were one of the seven directly invited teams to this year’s TI. The invite was granted based on their overall performance in the 2024/25 competitive season. In their announcement, Valve mentioned that after learning that the organisation is not able to field a roster, they’ve also talked to the players directly, offering them the chance to compete as an independent team, but “they were unable to come to an agreement with their organisation that would allow them to participate.”
Following Valve’s jarring announcement, the organisation had initially refrained from making an official statement, citing legal implications, while the players remained silent as well.
Gaimin Gladiators players contradict the organisation
A day later, Gamin Gladiators decided to share bits of information stating that they decided to withdraw from TI after the players expressed their “preference to compete independently, without representing the Gaimin Gladiators banner.”
Following GG’s statement, the team’s mid lane player, Quinn "Quinn" Callahan, posted a thread on X sharing the players’ side of the story stating that “the decision to withdraw from The International was made unilaterally by Gaimin Gladiators.”
According to Quinn, the players “explicitly communicated, in writing, that they are “ready, willing and able to compete in The International under the Gaimin Gladiators banner. Gaimin Gladiators, however, refused to allow us to do so.”
A few hours later, Nick Cuccovillo, Gamin Gladiators co-founder, took on X to contradict Quinn, stating that the organisation agreed to the player’s initial request to participate at TI 2025 as independent players and informed Valve they are withdrawing the organisation from the event.
We did in fact withdraw the team from TI but this decision was predicated by a request from the team to terminate their contracts with GG so they could participate at TI as independent players. We agreed to this request and notified Valve that we would not be able to field a team for TI given their switch-out rules - Nick Cuccovillo
According to Nick Cuccovillo, the players didn’t follow up on their request with the organisation, which seems to have led to a situation where the players’ contracts couldn’t be terminated.
Two TI grand finals streak ended in a most unexpected way
What neither party is sharing is what made the players wish to terminate their contracts with GG and compete at TI as independent players.
Until more details come to light, the only certainty is that three of the players who carried the GG banner in two TI finals for two years consecutively, 2023, 2024 and also won the Esports World Cup title in 2024 with the organisation, will not be able to compete this year at the pinnacle Dota 2 event.
Quinn "Quinn" Callahan, Marcus "Ace" Christensen, and Erik "tOfu" Engel, will be watching TI 2025 from the sidelines, while Arman "Malady" Orazbayev, who was about to make his TI debut in Hamburg with GG, will have to wait for next year’s edition to see his dream come true.
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