Team Spirit and Team Liquid’s road to The International 2025 ends in Swiss elimination round

It was a tense and emotional Sunday in Hamburg, Germany at The International 2025 as the final round in the Swiss system brought a few unexpected matchups that sent home some of the favourites at the title.

Team Liquid, the title defenders, were forced to play the elimination round after losing three out of five series in the Swiss system. Their adversaries for the elimination round were none other than Tundra Esports, the team that knows them the best.

33 sends Liquid home

Liquid won The International last year with Neta "33" Shapira in the captain seat. In the event aftermath, 33 left the team to form a new roster for Tundra Esports, the organisation he had won The International in 2022. He returned to Tundra with a mission and was given a free hand to build his dream team. A year later, and a few bumps on the Road to The International, 33 and Tundra have reached the playoffs at the pinnacle event of the year by denying Liquid the chance to defend their title.

Tundra came to Hamburg, Germany, with Tobias "Tobi" Buchner standing in for Matthew "Whitemon" Filemon, who couldn’t secure his visa. His arrival at Tundra mere days before TI 2025 is particularly interesting, as he stood in before for both Liquid and Tundra. He played two tournaments with Liquid in June and July this year, winning FISSURE Universe: Episode 5 and placing third at PGL Wallachia Season 5 with Liquid.

Given the shared history between all these players, the Tundra vs Liquid was incredibly close. Tundra opened the series with a win on the back of a Bozhidar "bzm" Bogdanov speciality Invoker, combined with a carry Bloodseeker who benefits from the Alacrity buff.

Game two brought over an hour of intense, back-and-forth action as Liquid fought with their backs against the wall. Clutch plays from the entire Liquid squad made the difference and kept the dream alive for one more game. But the intensity of game two might have come at a cost for Liquid, who ran out of steam in the deciding match and got run over by Tundra.

Falcons win the late game against Team Spirit

From all teams on the Road to The International Swiss system, Falcons had the hardest fought battles so far. Most of their games went well past the one-hour mark, but that came in handy when pitted against the team known for having the best late game this season.

In what looked like a potential grand finals, before the tournament, Falcons and Team Spirit were forced to a gruelling elimination match in the final round of the Swiss group stage format, and the series did indeed deliver.

Game one between Falcons and Spirit might remain the best game played at TI 2025. It was a 76 thriller where both teams were fighting with their Ancient exposed, and Spirit’s Illya "Yatoro" Mulyarchuk on Nature’s Prophet had enough damage to go through backdoor protection. For those who didn’t catch the action live, we strongly recommend watching the replay.

Despite Spirit’s incredible efforts, a timely used Glyph of Fortification made the difference for Falcons. Just like Liquid, in the series before, Spirit couldn’t channel their champions form in the next game and found themselves eliminated from TI 2025 in the 9th-13th place.

TI 2025 playoffs set

Eight teams remain standing in the battle for the most wanted trophy, the Aegis of Champions. The playoffs stage will kick off on this coming Thursday, September 11th, with the first round in the upper bracket.