ESL One Raleigh 2025 Overview – $1M Prize Pool, Teams and More

ESL One Raleigh 2025 will be the biggest Dota 2 tournament in April and an event that you definitely don’t want to miss out on. Aside from gathering some of the best in the world, this will be ESL’s first tournament in the US since 2015.  There’s a lot to talk about here, so join us as we reveal the ins and outs of this tournament.

Overview

As mentioned, ESL One Raleigh 2025 will be the first tournament in the US that ESL has organized since 2015. Taking place in North Carolina, the tournament will bring together the world’s best Dota 2 teams. Those lucky to get  ESL One Raleigh 2025 tickets can watch the competition if they go to the Raleigh Convention Center.

Besides the impressive prize pool of $1,000,000, teams will also compete for EPT Points. In fact, ESL One Raleigh 2025 will be a penultimate tournament for these kinds of points. Teams need them because this will be their ticket for the Esports World Cup 2025 that will take place later this year. This has become Dota 2’s biggest event in terms of prize pool.

Speaking of the Esports World Cup, this is just one of the event’s sponsors. Other companies include the likes of 1xBet, DHL and Qiddiya

Before discussing the teams that will attend this tournament, we’d like to point out that ESL One Raleigh 2025 had its controversies. Perhaps the biggest one was during the qualifiers when NAVI Junior was disqualified. It will be interesting to see if the team that received the invitation instead of them will live up to the expectations.

ESL One Raleigh 2025 Format & Prize Pool

An important thing you need to know after this ESL One Raleigh 2025 review is the format. There will be 12 teams in total, 8 of which earned their slot following a series of regional qualifiers. As for the remaining 4, they received an invitation from the EPT Leaderboard.

ESL One Raleigh 2025 will have two single round-robin groups containing six teams. Each series in the group will have two games. Once all the games are over, the best two teams will advance to the Upper Bracket, whereas the 3rd and 4th-place squads will advance to the Lower Bracket. All other Dota 2 teams will be eliminated.

The playoffs are standard and will include two brackets (UP and LB) with Bo3 matches. Once two teams reach the Grand Final, they will have to determine the winner in a Bo5 clash.

In terms of the prize pool, $750K out of the $1M will be given as Player Prize Money. The remaining $250K will be provided as Club Rewards.

Alongside the cash prize, this tournament will also grant 27920 EPT Points in total. As mentioned, Dota 2 teams need these points to receive a slot for the biggest event of the year.

Teams

Considering the importance of the tournament, it’s no surprise that we will see the 12 best Dota 2 teams in the world. Here is a list of every participant:

• BetBoom Team – Invited via the EPT Leaderboard
• Team Falcons – Invited via the EPT Leaderboard
• Team Liquid – Invited via the EPT Leaderboard
• PARIVISION – Invited via the EPT Leaderboard
• Tundra Esports – Western Europe Qualifiers
• AVULUS – Western Europe Qualifiers
• Team Spirit – Eastern Europe Qualifiers
• Nigma Galaxy – MESWA Qualifiers
• HEROIC – South America Qualifiers
• Shopify Rebellion – North America Qualifiers
• Talon Esports – Southeast Asia Qualifiers
• Team Tidebound – China Qualifiers

Some teams are in a better position than others to win this tournament, so let’s learn more about them.

BetBoom Team

Late 2024 and early 2025 have not been the best for BetBoom Team. However, it seems like the Eastern European squad has an excellent understanding of the current meta after its dominance at the FISSURE Universe 4. BetBoom Team ripped through everyone and won the tournament.

Since the event took place just a few days ago, BetBoom Team is in an excellent position to win ESL One Raleigh 2025 as well. With that said, this will be the first full Dota 2 event played on 7.83c, a patch that brought significant meta changes. It will be interesting to see if BB Team can adapt.

Team Liquid 

The second ESL One Raleigh 2025 favorite that has an excellent chance of winning the tournament is Team Liquid. Despite the team’s disappointing results at FISSURE Universe 4, Liquid is one of the best teams in the world. The squad is almost always in the top 3 and has consistent results. 

Tundra Esports

If there’s one team that stands out in 2025 so far, it is Tundra Esports. After the roster changes, Tundra rose from the ashes and won several big tournaments in a row.

With that said, Tundra had to swap their carry player a few days ago, so they may need some time to adjust. In case you don’t remember, dyrachyo decided to step down from the team, meaning that Tundra added Crystallis to their roster. 

Team Falcons

Another of the favorites to win the ESL One Raleigh 2025 is Team Falcons. The best Dota 2 team in 2024 had a slow start this year, but it seems like things are changing. Falcons achieved some pretty good results recently, including a top 4 finish in the last big event. 

One thing that Team Falcons excels at is adapting to meta changes. Since this will be the first big Dota 2 event on the new patch, we expect Falcons to come up with unique tactics that other teams won’t be aware of.

Final Thoughts

ESL One Raleigh 2025 will begin on April 7, and you can follow it live on Twitch. As expected, it will give us access to all of the popular Dota 2 talents, such as Sheever, Tsunami, Fear, Cap, syndareN, and more. Aside from the English streams, you can watch the event in Chinese, Russian, Portuguese, and Spanish.