Eastern European teams have flocked to Western Europe hoping for a better chance to qualify to this year's Dota 2 world championship tournament.
The regional qualifiers for The International (TI) 2025, this year's iteration of Dota 2's annual world championship tournament, are already underway. This is a key moment in the Dota 2 season, as teams fight for eight qualifier spots in the battle for the Aegis of Champions.
Naturally, eyes were drawn to the bloodbath in the Western Europe (WEU) region, often seen as the most competitive in the Dota 2 scene. But after the WEU open qualifiers wrapped up on 3 June, the community noticed an unusual detail about the participants.
Several notable Eastern European (EEU) teams showed up in the WEU open qualifiers. These included 
1win, 
Yellow Submarine, and more surprisingly, 
Virtus.pro (VP) and 
Natus Vincere (NAVI) Junior. VP and NAVI Junior previously declined invites to the EEU closed qualifier, only to sign up for the WEU open qualifiers instead.
In the first open qualifier, all three WEU closed qualifier slots were claimed by EEU teams: 1win placed first, NAVI Junior second, and 
4Pirates third. The second open qualifier produced similar results as more EEU entities claimed the top spots. VP finished second while Yellow Submarine came in third, with only Team Secret, winners of the second round, representing WEU.
That means half the teams in the upcoming WEU closed qualifier are from EEU. The EEU teams, namely 1win, NAVI Junior, 4Pirates, VP, and Yellow Submarine, will join the invited WEU teams in 
Nigma Galaxy, 
MOUZ, 
OG, and 
AVULUS for the closed qualifier on Friday (13 June).
A strategic move for EEU teams
This mass migration of EEU teams into the WEU region, specifically for TI qualifier season, is likely a strategic move to qualify for this year’s world championship tournament. Despite being a strong region, EEU was only allocated one slot in TI 2025 through their regional qualifier by Dota 2 developer Valve Software. Meanwhile, the WEU region gets two, thanks to its competitive repute.
In EEU, 
Aurora Gaming was heavily favoured to grab the region’s sole regional qualifier slot in TI 2025. Despite only being formed in March, Aurora previously secured Top 6 finishes in their last three Tier 1 events, including a promising fourth place finish at DreamLeague Season 26. With Aurora essentially guaranteed to win the EEU qualifier, many of the lesser teams in the region have rerouted to the WEU qualifier, likely to take advantage of its additional slot.
That decision proved to be a wise one as Aurora won TI 2025's EEU regional qualifier in dominant fashion, losing just one game en route to securing a spot in this year's world championship tournament.
In addition, most of WEU’s strongest teams have already secured direct invites to TI 2025, leaving a relatively less threatening field in the closed qualifier. OG recently overhauled its roster, which had a poor debut in the FISSURE Universe Episode 5: Play In. MOUZ, led by veteran captain 
Melchior “Seleri” Hillenkamp, also struggled in the same tournament. Although Nigma Galaxy and AVULUS have shown more consistency by qualifying to more events, neither have delivered noteworthy performances lately.
We’ll have to see how it all plays out when the WEU closed qualifier begins, running from 13 to 17 June. The four invited teams and six open qualifier winners will compete in a double-elimination bracket with best-of-three matches except for the grand finals, which will be a full best-of-five series.
The top two teams will claim a spot at TI 2025 and join the lineup of direct invites, comprising defending TI champions 
Team Liquid, 
Tundra Esports, 
Team Falcons, and 
Gaimin Gladiators from Western Europe; 
PARIVISION, 
BetBoom Team, and 
Team Spirit from Eastern Europe; as well as 
All Gamers Global (formerly 
Team Tidebound) from China.
TI 2025 will take place in Hamburg, Germany, from 4 to 14 September, pitting the world’s best 16 teams for a lion’s share of its unannounced prize pool and the world champion title.
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