More EEU Than WEU Players Will Compete in WEU’s TI14 Qualifiers

Dota 2

June 4, 2025

Marcus Wong

Controversy has erupted over The International 2025 Western Europe Regional Qualifiers as fans and analysts note that huge numbers of players not from the WEU region have taken the closed qualifier spots.

It’s yet another V-Tune incident all over again! For the uninitiated, V-Tune was infamously known for his time with Night Pulse, a team that comprised of three Eastern European and one Asian player. This team participated in a MENA regional qualifier for the Riyadh Masters 2024 despite not being based in MENA-based countries.

Nevertheless, we see a much larger scale of similar scenario happening right now at TI14 Western Europe Regional Qualifiers.

TI14 Western Europe Qualifier (Image credit: Dota 2)

TI14 Western Europe Qualifier (Image credit: Valve)

More EEU Than WEU Players Competed in WEU’s TI14 Qualifiers

The TI14 WEU Regional Qualifier finally has its full list of participating teams after the open qualifier concluded. However, it’s perhaps a concerning sight for WEU fans when all six of the open qualifier teams that qualified for the WEU regional qualifier are primarily EEU teams.

Each of these Dota 2 consists of teams of majority EEU players, and several are full five-man Russian and Ukrainian players, such as 1win Team, 4Pirates, NAVI Junior, Virtus.pro and Yellow Submarine. This explains the motive behind Virtus.pro declining their invitation to play in their own EEU regional qualifier.

Is this allowed at the International 2025?

Displeased fans have taken it onto the Dota 2 Reddit forum to voice this potentially unfair tactic of EEU teams in a WEU qualifier. On first glance, it may seem like the entire situation is a bannable offense since as the name of the TI14 WEU qualifier suggests, it’s Western Europe’s qualifier. Moreover, EEU has their own TI14 Eastern Europe regional qualifier, which they are supposed to compete in.

Unfortunately, the rulebook is relatively lenient on how they define a participating team’s region. To quote the Road to the International 2025 Qualifiers Rulebook ,

“To determine a team’s region, at least three players must be based in a country belonging to that region at the time of the match.”

By that definition and no mention of nationality, the EEU teams simply have to be staying or bootcamp temporarily while playing in TI14 WEU regional qualifier. Thus, leading to the current situation, where we have at least half of the teams participating in TI14 WEU qualifier as EEU teams.

TI14 Western Europe Qualifier Teams (Image credit: Liquipedia)

WEU teams just need to play better to qualify for TI14

On the other hand, some fans pointed out that this disparity would not have occurred if WEU teams just performed better. The reason why many EEU teams flocked to the WEU qualifier is because their qualifiers had less strong opponents. Yet, the TI14 WEU qualifier had the privilege of having two qualifying slots to TI14.

Without stronger opponents in TI14 WEU qualifier, subpar teams, such as Nigma Galaxy and OG would have had an easier time qualifying for TI14, which (by recent performances alone) they do not deserve. Their EEU rivals simply saw the flaw in this region and took that opportunity for themselves.

Regardless, it’s not over yet for the WEU teams participating in TI14 WEU qualifier. Teams, such as MOUZ and AVULUS , are decent Western European representatives themselves, so they have just as good of an opportunity to still qualify for TI14 versus the Open Qualifier teams.