Ame’s dream remains intact after Xtreme’s victory over PARI, but there’s another player who will keep waiting for his chance. And it’s time to acknowledge him.
Xtreme Gaming beat PARIVISION to make it to The International 2025 Grand Final. But this is not just another news article. I've been watching Volodymyr "No[o]ne-" Minenko play since 2016, when he was his generation's Satanic. The young blood that everyone thought would eventually dominate. And believe me, he did.
It was the year 2017 when he took the competitive scene by surprise with Virtus.Pro. Every Dota 2 fan expected to see this team in the Finals, despite facing the big names: the OG that later would win two TIs, the fearless EG, the beast era of Miracle's Team Liquid. He reached 5th-6th place in that TI. Then, he got four major first places in 2018, just to be stopped again in 5th-6th place that year. His competitive career didn't spark like that again — until PARIVISION.
That's why this hug is so important for me as a Dota fan. This is No[o]ne- playing like no one, after all these years, but being unable to achieve his dreams. I know he saw himself in Alan "Satanic" Gallyamov's eyes: just a 17-year-old prodigy, unable to fulfill his promise. This is Satanic's first TI, but a loss like this can break anyone's mental game. But they hugged like a team that will try again.
How did Xtreme Gaming beat PARIVISION to reach TI 2025's Grand Final?
Game 1: The worst Phantom Lance game
The first game, under everyone's eyes, was Xtreme's drafting mistake. The early-picked the Shadow Fiend to the instant counter pick of No[o]ne-'s Invoker. The Chinese team saw the AOE damage and control that Enigma and Elder Titan brought to the table, and still drafted Phantom Lancer for Ame. Edgar "9Class" Naltakian is no stranger to core picks in the soft support role, and his Void Spirit was the last bait for PARIVISION to beat Xtreme in their way to The International 2025 Grand Final.
The game lasted more than forty minutes, but it was a stomp since the 20th-minute mark.
Game 2: How to play an immortal Sniper
But there's one mistake you can't make against Xtreme Gaming, and Parivision made it in their most important TI 2025 game: leaving Sniper unbanned. Their draft idea was to punish the hero with a Storm Spirit pick, but it proved to be the wrong idea. It was a game of only twenty total kills, but the strategy was flawless:
- Sniper took the back-line with Hurricane Pike and Linken's Sphere, two defensive items.
- XinQ bought Aghanim's Shard as fast as possible. Then, he stood close to Sniper the whole game.
- If a Snapfire Cookie was not enough to save Xm's Sniper, Centaur's Stampede was the last resort.
This was not meant to be a draft to get kills. PARIVISION was left without any chance to punish the Sniper, and lost the game's tempo very soon. Unfortunately for them, Xtreme Gaming was unbeatable for a draft that was very early-game dependent.
Game 3: Xtreme Gaming stopped PARIVISION's dream to win TI 2025
If the second game had a low kill average, the third was even more extreme. It was 25 minutes into the game, and the score was static: two kills for each team and nothing more. Some could think this was a boring situation, but the strategic match was intense. One mistake meant the other team would earn a significant amount of net worth. The first was made by Satanic, when he died at 28 minutes, leading his Chen and Bestmaster to a certain death.
After that, PARIVISION got a team wipe against Xtreme Gaming, but they were even further away from the Grand Final at TI 2025. This fight cost them Satanic's buyback, and the fight for Roshan started. After 63 minutes of agony, Ame's unkillable Medusa finished the job.
Everyone is talking about Wang "Ame" Chunyu, the uncrowned king, on his way to finally lift the Aegis of Champions. But here, at esports.gg, we want to share with every Dota 2 fan out there how beautiful it was to see No[o]ne- fighting for his and Satanic's dream. It's not a happy ending for them, but it's definitely a beautiful tale to follow in the coming season.
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