Team Nemesis will be Southeast Asia's first representative in The International 2025

Team Nemesis are the first all-Filipino squad to qualify for The International in six years.

Filipino Dota 2 squad Team Nemesis will be Southeast Asia's first representative in The International (TI) 2025 after they pulled off a huge 2-1 upset over the region's top team in Talon Esports in the upper bracket finals of the tournament's Southeast Asian regional qualifier on Monday (16 June).

Nemesis' Dota 2 team was only formed back in March, featuring an all-Filipino roster led by decorated veteran offlaner Marc Polo Luis “Raven” Fausto. The rest of the squad included carry player Eljohn “Akashi” Andales, mid laner Mc Nicholson “Mac” Villanueva, position 4 support John “Jing” Duyan, and position 5 support James Erice “Erice” Guerra.

With all due respect to Nemesis, many saw them as the squad of Filipino rejects that had little to no chance to make it to TI 2025. But against all odds, they became the first all-Filipino squad to play in Dota 2's annual world championship tournament since TNC Predator secured a direct invite to TI 2019.

Nemesis had to take the long way to get in position for a spot in TI 2025. They failed to make it out of the first open qualifier for Southeast Asia, falling to Tech Free Gaming in the Round of 16, but managed to bounce back to win the second open qualifier.

Nemesis then kicked off their campaign in the Southeast Asian qualifier proper by getting their revenge over Tech Free Gaming in the first round of the upper bracket. They then pulled off back-to-back upsets overBOOM Esports and Execration to advance to the qualifier's upper bracket finals, where a spot in TI 2025 is at stake.

Facing them were Talon, hands-down the best team in Southeast Asia, who had a relatively easy path to the upper bracket finals versus Kopite and Ivory. As the region's top dogs, Talon were seen by many as the biggest favourites to claim one of the two slots for Southeast Asia in TI 2025. By all accounts, Nemesis were massive underdogs against Talon.

However, Nemesis drew first blood in the upper bracket finals, stomping Talon in 44 minutes to the tune of a 25-11 kill lead. Talon then responded by routing Nemesis in 29 minutes with a more one-sided kill score of 21-8 to send the series to a deciding third game.

Game three saw Talon hold a commanding lead in the mid game, but clutch plays from Nemesis in the ensuing teamfights allowed them to turn the tables and secure the 2-1 series victory as well as the all-important slot in TI 2025 after 47 minutes of action.

With their victory in the Southeast Asian regional qualifier, Nemesis will join Eastern European qualifier winner Aurora Gaming, South American qualifier winner HEROIC, Chinese regional qualifier winner Xtreme Gaming, and North American regional qualifier winner Wildcard among the teams to have successfully fought for their way to a spot in TI 2025.

Talon still have a chance to secure the second slot for Southeast Asia through the qualifier's lower bracket finals, where they will face the winner of the lower bracket semifinals between BOOM and Execration.

This year's TI regional qualifiers will take place across two weeks of competition from 4 to 17 June, with three batches of two qualifiers each being played at a time. The final set of regional qualifiers will be for Southeast Asia and Western Europe, which will be hosted from 13 to 17 June, and with two teams from each qualifier advancing to this year's Dota 2 world championship tournament.

The winners of the TI 2025 regional qualifiers will join eight directly-invited teams in this year's Dota 2 world championship tournament. The direct invite teams include 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.