PARIVISION, Aurora, Nigma Galaxy lead eight teams to survive DreamLeague Season 26 Group Stage 1

PARIVISION are dominant as expected, but Nigma Galaxy are once again punching above their weight.

DreamLeague Season 26 concluded its first Group Stage on Friday (23 May) with PARIVISION, Aurora Gaming, and Nigma Galaxy leading the pack of eight Dota 2 teams advancing to Group Stage 2.

DreamLeague Season 26 features a total of 16 teams fighting across two Group Stages and a four-team Playoffs from 19 May to 1 June for their cut of a US$1 million prize pool. This tournament also serves as the last chance for teams to earn ESL Pro Tour (EPT) points for a direct invite to the Esports World Cup (EWC) 2025's Dota 2 tournament, which will take place in July and features a hefty US$3 million prize pool.

DreamLeague Season 26's Group Stage 1 split the 16 participating teams into two single round-robin groups of eight teams each, with the Top 4 teams from each group advancing to Group Stage 2 while the rest were eliminated.

The eight teams that advanced to Group Stage 2 include Aurora, Nigma Galaxy, BetBoom Team, and Team Liquid from Group A as well as PARIVISION, Yakult Brothers, Talon Esports, and Gaimin Gladiators from Group B.

Meanwhile, Shopify Rebellion, BOOM Esports, Xtreme Gaming, OG.LATAM, Team Falcons, NAVI Junior, AVULUS, and Edge failed to make it out of Group Stage 1 and have all been eliminated.

Here's how all the action in DreamLeague Season 26's Group Stage 1 went down:

Aurora and Nigma Galaxy top Group A

Group A was arguably the most stacked group of Group Stage 1 and produced some of the most surprising results so far, with Aurora and Nigma Galaxy topping the group with 10-4 records apiece. While both teams finished with the same game record, Aurora bagged the top seed by virtue of finishing all their matches with either a 2-0 win or a 1-1 draw, whereas Nigma Galaxy suffered a 0-2 loss to Liquid.

Nigma Galaxy continue their rise to prominence with another strong Group Stage performance, ever since Daniel Chan “Ghost” Kok Hong became the team's de-facto mid laner in mid-February as Amer “Miracle-” Al-Barkawi remains sidelined due to apparent health issues. While this isn't Nigma Galaxy's first strong Group Stage showing this year, it remains to be seen if they can keep up this level of performance in the Playoffs.

BetBoom and Liquid round out the Top 4 in Group A, with both teams finishing with an 8-6 record despite having to play with stand-ins. Ilja “Kiritych” Uljanow is standing in for Ivan “Pure” Moskalenko on the side of BetBoom while Liquid are playing with Alik “V-TUNE” Vorobey as Micke “miCKe” Vu has elected to miss out on the tournament.

With both BetBoom and Liquid already qualified for EWC 2025, those two teams are basically playing with house money at this point. Meanwhile, Aurora and Nigma Galaxy will be looking to build on their strong start in Group Stage 1 to earn enough EPT points for a direct invite.

Tournament favourites PARIVISION dominate Group B

Over in Group B, PARIVISION finished with the best record among all teams in Group Stage 1 with 12 wins and two losses. Given how much they are lapping the field, PARIVISION are looking like the biggest favourites to take the title in DreamLeague Season 26. As the top-ranked team in the EPT leaderboard, PARIVISION will be looking to win their third ESL event in the past year following their victories in ESL One Raleigh 2025 in April and ESL One Bangkok 2024 last December.

Chinese team Yakult Brothers came out of nowhere to finish as the second seed of Group B with a solid 9-5 record. With Xtreme Gaming failing to make it out of Group A, Yakult Brothers are making their case as a contender for the lone spot to The International (TI) 2025 in the Chinese regional qualifiers in June.

Southeast Asia's Talon Esports finish just behind Yakult Brothers at 8-6 to claim the third seed of Group B, notably joining the second-placed Chinese team as the only squads to take a game off PARIVISION. With Nuengnara “23savage” Teeramahanon returning to the team earlier this month, Talon will be looking to cement their claim as the top dogs of Southeast Asia ahead of the TI 2025 qualifiers.

The final spot in Group Stage 2 was then left up for grabs between Gaimin Gladiators and Team Falcons, as both teams finished with a 7-7 record. With both squads also having the same number of match wins, ties, and losses, a best-of-three tiebreaker had to be played. Despite losing the first game of the tiebreaker, Gaimin Gladiators managed to pull off the 2-1 reverse sweep to become the last team to advance to Group Stage 2 and deal Falcons their second Group Stage elimination of the year.

Here are the final standings for DreamLeague Season 26's Group Stage 1:

Group A

Aurora Gaming: 10-4
Nigma Galaxy: 10-4
BetBoom Team: 8-6
Team Liquid: 8-6
Shopify Rebellion: 7-7
Xtreme Gaming: 5-9
BOOM Esports: 5-9
OG.LATAM: 3-11

Group B

PARIVISION: 12-2
Yakult Brothers: 9-5
Talon Esports: 8-6
Gaimin Gladiators: 7-7
Team Falcons: 7-7
NAVI Junior: 6-8
AVULUS: 4-10
Edge: 3-11

DreamLeague Season 26's Group Stage 2 will take place from 23 to 29 May, and pit the eight qualified teams into a single round-robin with best-of-three matches. The Top 2 teams in Group Stage 2 will advance to the upper bracket of the Playoffs, while the third and fourth-placed squads will have to start in the lower bracket. The remaining four teams will be eliminated.