Tundra Esports, Team Spirit advance to upper bracket finals at ESL One Raleigh 2025

The ESL One Raleigh 2025 Playoffs opened with both Group Stage top seeds falling in 2-1 reverse sweeps.

The ESL One Raleigh 2025 Playoffs kicked off on Friday (11 April) with the upper bracket semifinals. Both the top seeds from the Group Stage fell to start this next stage as Tundra Esports and Team Spirit emerged victorious over PARIVISION and Team Falcons, respectively, to advance to the upper bracket finals.

With their victories, Tundra and Spirit have guaranteed themselves at least a third place finish and US$127,500 in winnings. They will next face off on Sunday (13 April) to determine who will be the first to advance to the grand finals, where the grand prize of US$290,000 will be up for grabs.

Meanwhile, PARIVISION and Falcons drop down to the lower bracket quarterfinals, where they will await the winners of the lower bracket round one matches to continue the fight for their tournament lives.

Here's how all the action in Day 4 of ESL One Raleigh 2025 went down:

Tundra, Spirit advance to upper bracket finals

PARIVISION1-2Tundra Esports

The Playoffs opened with Group A's top seed PARIVISION taking on Group B's second seed Tundra. PARIVISION were heavy favourites to take this series, having finished with the best record of the entire Group Stage at 9-1. Meanwhile, Tundra barely made the upper bracket, only managing a 6-4 record and securing their group's second seed through a tiebreaker.

Despite being the underdogs in this series, Tundra reminded everyone that they were still the team that dominated the first three months of the year as they pulled off a 2-1 reverse sweep over PARIVISION to become the first team in the upper bracket finals.

PARIVISION were on fire to start the series, as they stomped Tundra to the tune of a lopsided 20-3 kill lead in 27 minutes. Alan “Satanic” Gallyamov on Terrorblade, Dmitry “DM” Dorokhin on an offlane Wraith King, and Andrey “Dukalis” Kuropatkin on Ancient Apparition paced their team's kill score by combining for a clean 16 kills and 25 assists.

Game two was a much closer affair, with both teams on relatively even footing until Tundra started pulling away around the 22-minute mark. Tundra's tri-core of Remco “Crystallis” Arets' Terrorblade, Bozhidar “bzm” Bogdanov's Ember Spirit, and Neta “33” Shapira's offlane Wraith King would eventually seal the win for Tundra in just under 37 minutes of action and force the series to a decider.

Crystallis led the way for Tundra in game two with eight kills and seven assists on just one death while bzm and 33 each had six kills and 14 assists against two and four deaths, respectively.

Tundra then avenged the drubbing they got in game one by handing PARIVISION an even worse one in game three, closing out the series in just 20 minutes of action and up 28-6 in kills. Crystallis on Anti-Mage and Matthew “Whitemon” Filemon on Tinker combined for 12 kills and 18 assists while 33 on Dark Seer had seven kills and 17 assists on two deaths.

Team Falcons1-2Team Spirit

The second and final match of the day then saw Group B top seed Falcons face off against Group A second seed Spirit. Falcons put on a strong showing so far with Quinn “Quinn” Callahan as a stand-in and finished the Group Stage with a 7-3 record, though Spirit did have the better standing than them at 8-2 despite being their group's second seed. This series ended in another 2-1 reverse sweep, with Spirit proving themselves the stronger team against a shorthanded Falcons squad.

Quinn showed out to start the series on Ember Spirit to lead Falcons to a 45-minute win in game one. The stand-in mid laner had a perfect 14-kill, 16-assist performance to fuel Falcons' 33-16 kill lead in the series opener. Oliver “Skiter” Lepko on Dragon Knight and Ammar “ATF” Assaf on Beastmaster also notched seven kills and combined for 21 assists against four deaths apiece.

Spirit were quick to strike back in game two, dominating Falcons in 29 minutes behind Illya “Yatoro” Mulyarchuk's Clinkz and Denis “Larl” Sigitov's Storm Spirit. Larl paced his team's 30-6 kill lead with nine kills and 13 assists on two deaths while Yatoro added a clean seven kills and 12 assists.

Spirit then continued rolling in game three and secured the 2-1 reverse sweep after overcoming a stubborn Falcons defense in 43 minutes. Yatoro once again showed out, this time as Templar Assassin, and put up 12 kills and 13 assists on just one death out of his team's 32-12 kill lead in the closeout game. Larl on Ember Spirit also had nine kills and 20 assists on two deaths while Magomed “Collapse” Khalilov on Tidehunter and Alexandr “rue” Filin on a support Muerta added five kills each and combined for 39 assists on three deaths apiece.

The remaining three days of the ESL One Raleigh Playoffs will be played in front of a live crowd in the Raleigh Convention Center. Day two of the Playoffs will feature the two matches in the first round of the lower bracket as well as the first match of the lower bracket quarterfinals. Here are the matchups for day two of the ESL One Raleigh Playoffs:

Lower bracket round 1

Lower bracket quarterfinals

PARIVISION vs winner of Team Liquid vs AVULUS

ESL One Raleigh 2025 will take place from 7 to 13 April in Raleigh, North Carolina, and is the first ESL One event to be hosted in the United States since ESL One New York in 2015. The final three days of the tournament will be played in front of a live crowd in the Raleigh Convention Center. The champions of ESL One Raleigh 2025 will claim the grand prize of US$250,000 out of the tournament's US$1 million prize pool, alongside a hefty haul of ESL Pro Tour points that will go towards earning a direct invite for this year's Dota 2 Riyadh Masters in the Esports World Cup 2025.