A highly unusual event occurred during the closed qualifiers for The International 2025 in Dota 2. The team eSpoiled surrendered by typing “GG” just seconds before their opponent, Nemiga Gaming, would have lost their ancient to neutral creeps. Although Dota itself registered a victory for eSpoiled, tournament rules state that typing “GG” results in an automatic loss. Consequently, eSpoiled was disqualified from the qualification stage.
The situation appears quite absurd, considering that ten professional players seemingly failed to notice the creeps destroying the ancient. Therefore, we decided to examine the conclusion of this match from the perspective of the esports athletes involved.
It seems that during the critical team fight itself, the eSpoiled players completely overlooked the enemy ancient and the possibility of using Boots of Travel to defend it. However, the team did have information about the creeps pushing the Dire base before the engagement began. Apparently, the core heroes decided against a risky defensive maneuver and instead opted for a direct confrontation.