TI2025 Southeast Asia qualifiers: Teams to look out for

Southeast Asia will be represented at The International 2025 (TI2025) by two teams that will punch their tickets through closed qualifier games.

The battle for the two slots up for grabs in SEA starts this coming Friday, June 13, with ten teams fighting in a double-elimination bracket. Eight of these 10 teams have just gone through a similar qualifier competition for the Esports World Cup (EWC). However, the biggest contender for one of the two tickets to TI2025 didn’t need to go through qualifier matches for EWC.

Talon Esports secured their direct invite to this year’s World Cup by placing third at DreamLeague Season 26. But for The International 2025, they will need to go through qualifiers. They are undoubtedly the favourites at one of the two slots, but who could join Talon in Hamburg, Germany?

TI2025 SEA qualifiers participating teams

• Talon Esports (invited)
• BOOM Esports (invited)
• Execration (invited)
• Castawake (invited)
• Trailer Park Boys (invited)
• Ivory (invited)
• Tech Free Gaming (open qualifiers #1)
• InterActive Philippines (open qualifiers #1)
• Team Nemesis (open qualifiers #2)
• Kopite (open qualifiers #2)

If we look at the recently concluded EWC qualifiers, then Execration, who won those, are the obvious pick for the second ticket to TI2025 for SEA. However, there are a couple of other teams which might use what they learned in the EWC qualifiers to give them the edge in the regional battle for The International.

BOOM Esports were runners-up earlier this week at the EWC qualifiers. They have extremely experienced players in Armel "Armel" Tabios, Anucha "Jabz" Jirawong, and Timothy "TIMS" Randrup and should never be counted out.

Besides BOOM, there are also Tech Free Gaming, a full Indonesian team which placed third in the EWC qualifiers and Team Nemesis. The latter was just formed and earned their spot in closed qualifiers for TI via open brackets. We should also mention that Team Nemesis benefits from having the Philippines veteran, Polo "Raven" Fausto on their side. Raven is now playing offlane, while the carry role at Team Nemesis is taken by Talon’s former player, Eljohn "Akashi" Andales.

So far, there have been no major surprises or upsets in any of the regional qualifiers. Will that happen in Southeast Asia? Stay tuned to find out who will represent SEA at The International 2025!