Vici Gaming have pulled off another upset at the Dota 2 EWC by eliminating Team Falcons to advance to the semifinals.

China’s Vici Gaming have stunned reigning The International (TI) champions Team Falcons with an unexpected 2-0 sweep, knocking one of the tournament favourites out of the Dota 2 Esports World Cup (EWC) 2026. It marks the second major upset by the event's last remaining Chinese representative, who also eliminated 1w Team in the Survival Stage. 

The victory sends Vici Gaming to the semifinals, where they will face the winner of Nigma Galaxy versus BetBoom Team for a place in the grand final. The team now has a guaranteed Top 4 finish and look poised to complete their Cinderella run. 

The result had far defied expectations. Despite fielding a star-studded roster, Vici Gaming entered the tournament as one of its dark horses. The storied organisation only returned to the Dota 2 scene last October and had struggled to produce notable results, with a Top 8 finish at PGL Wallachia Season 7 standing as their best performance prior to the EWC. They also earned their place at the event by battling through the Chinese regional qualifiers. 

Team Falcons, meanwhile, arrived as one of the favourites. The reigning TI champions may have endured an inconsistent first half of the season, but they rediscovered their form in recent months, claiming third place at PGL Wallachia Season 8 and fourth at DreamLeague Season 29. 

Falcons were widely expected to prevail in this quarterfinal, but Vici Gaming proved the superior team, taking down the favourites in a dominant sweep. The Chinese squad have now outlasted not only the more favoured regional rivals, Xtreme Gaming, but also several other powerhouses, including Team Liquid, Aurora Gaming, 1win, and now Team Falcons. It’ll be exciting to see the Chinese organisation once again live up to its legendary pedigree, as the team march on to become the final four of the Dota 2 EWC. 

With the result, Team Falcons bow out in joint fifth-eighth place alongside Team Spirit and Rune Eaters Esports, taking home US$70,000 in prize money. The reigning world champions will now look to regroup ahead of their title defence at The International 2026 in Shanghai next month. 

Vici Gaming claim a statement victory against Team Falcons

The Vici Gaming vs Team Falcons showdown panned out dominantly for the Chinese side. In the first game, Falcons enjoyed a slight early advantage, securing valuable pick-offs through Stanislav “Malr1ne” Potorak's Snapfire and Jing “Sneyking” Wu's Winter Wyvern ultimates, while Ammar “ATF” Assaf's Windranger climbed to the top of the net worth charts by consistently finding kills.

Despite Falcons' early control and an Aegis advantage, Vici Gaming found a crucial opening when Zhang “Bach” Ruida's Dark Seer landed a spot-on Wall of Replica, followed by heavy damage from Hongcheng “Xm” Guo's Lina and Xuanang “Shiro” Guo's Spectre. Another decisive teamfight three minutes later swung the net worth lead firmly in Vici's favour.

Falcons managed to claw their way back on several occasions to level the game, but Vici regained control in the late stages and proved too overwhelming for the enemy  to handle.

At the 52-minute mark, Vici began their high-ground siege, forcing Falcons into an expensive defence that required two buybacks. Minutes later, those same heroes, and more, were picked off again, allowing Vici to claim mega creeps before eventually destroying the Ancient. Xm was the standout performer, finishing with a 19/5/14 KDA on Lina while leading the chart in net worth.

The second map was even more interesting, with Vici Gaming revealing a last-pick mid Slark for Xm against Malr1ne's Ember Spirit. The unconventional pick paid off brilliantly, forcing Ember Spirit into an early Ghost Scepter that offered little value as the game progressed.

At the 16-minute mark, Falcons grouped up to siege Vici's mid tower. However, Yiping “y`” Zhang's Treant Protector positioned himself well to provide vision and disrupt Falcons' advance, while Zixing “XinQ” Zhao's Keeper of the Light repeatedly cleared the creep wave to stall the push. The defence bought Vici enough time to turn the fight around and claim three kills.

Just two minutes later, Vici secured Roshan while picking off both of Falcons' supports. From there, the Chinese side snowballed relentlessly, chaining together kills and eventually chasing Falcons all the way back into their own base.

Vici reached Falcons' high ground just 26 minutes into the game. Despite several attempts to hold the line, Falcons had no answer to the overwhelming pressure and were forced to tap out after 32 minutes, sealing their elimination.

How Team Falcons and Vici Gaming performed at the Dota 2 EWC

Things looked very different at the start of the Dota 2 Esports World Cup. Team Falcons entered the Playoffs as clear favourites after a dominant Group Stage, while Vici Gaming went through a rockier road to get there.

In last week's Group Stage, Team Falcons easily topped Group A with victories over Rune Eaters, Xtreme Gaming, GamerLegion, and Poor Rangers. Although they conceded a map to BetBoom Team, the only other evenly matched side in the group, they accumulated enough points to comfortably finish first and earn a direct Playoffs berth.

Vici Gaming, meanwhile, had a relatively modest Group Stage campaign in Group C. They defeated MOUZ, REKONIX, and Team Nemesis, wins that didn’t carry much weight considering their weaker status. Against the group's stronger teams, Team Spirit and PARIVISION, the Vici came up short, ultimately finishing third and dropping into the Survival Stage.

In the first round of the Survival Stage, Vici advanced by default after PlayTime forfeited amid an ongoing integrity investigation. They then pulled off a major upset in the final Survival Stage round, defeating 1win, one of the season's strongest teams, with a 2-1 reverse sweep.

The win seemed like a turning point for Vici, who seemed to have adapted and gained their much-needed momentum. The team were then paired up against Team Falcons in the first round of Playoffs, proceeding to shockingly upset another favourite contender. 

A look at how the Dota 2 EWC Playoffs is shaping up

The Dota 2 EWC Playoffs began with the final eight teams, comprising Group Stage leaders Nigma Galaxy, Team Yandex, Team Falcons, and PARIVISION, alongside Survival Stage winners BetBoom Team, Vici Gaming, Team Spirit, and Rune Eaters.

Yesterday, on 16 July, Team Spirit were eliminated by Team Yandex, who secured a spot in the semifinals. Right after, PARIVISION cruised past Rune Eaters to book a fight against Yandex.

In the matchups today, Vici Gaming eliminated Team Falcons to make the semifinals. Their opponent will be decided in a battle between Nigma Galaxy and BetBoom Team. 

On 19 July, semifinal winners will progress to the Grand Finals, where they will clash for the title in a best-of-five series. Before that, teams that lost their semifinal clash will compete in a third-place match to determine the final tournament standings.

What is the Dota 2 Esports World Cup?

The Dota 2 tournament at the Esports World Cup 2026 will be the last Tier 1 tournament of the 2025-2026 competitive Dota 2 season, before it culminates in The International 2026 in August. With many of the teams competing in the EWC also qualified for this year's Dota 2 world championship tournament, it should serve as a good preview for the battle for the Aegis of Champions next month.

The Dota 2 EWC features 24 of the best Dota 2 teams in the world and will take place from 7 to 19 July in the Paris Expo Porte de Versailles in Paris, France. The teams will be fighting for EWC glory and the lion's share of US$750,000, out of the tournament's US$25 million prize pool.

The Dota 2 EWC is split into three stages; the Group Stage from 7 to 12 July, the Survival Stage from 14 to 15 July, and the Playoffs from 16 to 19 July.  

The Group Stage will see the 24 teams split into four groups of six teams each to play in a single round-robin with best-of-two matches. The top team from each group will advance directly to the Playoffs, the second to fourth-placed teams will move to the Survival Stage, while the two bottom finishers will be among the first to be eliminated.

The Survival Stage will feature the 12 teams that finished third to fourth in their respective groups during the Group Stage, with four spots in the Playoffs up for grabs in a single-elimination bracket with best-of-three matches. The Survival Stage will open with the third and fourth seeds from different groups taking each other on, with the winners moving on to face the second place teams for the four Playoff spots.

Finally, the Playoffs will be a single-elimination bracket featuring the four teams that finished as the top seeds of their groups in the Group Stage, as well as the four teams that made it out of the Survival Stage. All matches in the Playoffs will be a best-of-three except for the grand finals, which will be a full best-of-five series.

For Dota 2 match results and updates on the go, don't forget to check out our Telegram channel.