(Photo credit: Kelley L Cox-Imagn Images)

Tundra Esports, Aurora Gaming, PARIVISION and Team Liquid each pulled out 2-0 victories on the first day of group stage play at the Dota 2 Esports World Cup 2025 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Those Tuesday results ended up providing some clarity in Groups C and D, where those four teams are off to strong starts with two more days of competition to come.

Eight other teams split their Day 1 matches, making Groups A and B quite a bit muddier.

The Esports World Cup 2025 is the final championship of the ESL Pro Tour, now in its third season. Announced in 2024 and previously known as the Riyadh Masters, the Esports World Cup takes place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and has a prize pool of $3 million, with $1 million as well as 1,000 club points going to the first-place team.

The format consists of three phases: a group stage (July 8-11) of four groups of four teams competing in a round-robin, an elimination phase (July 12-13) formatted into a gauntlet bracket that rewards top finishers from Phase 1, then a final playoff stage (July 16-19), which is single elimination.

All matches in Phase 1 are two games, while the matches in Phases 2 and 3 are best-of-three until the best-of-five grand final.

On Tuesday, Tundra downed Virtus.pro in 37 minutes and 47 minutes, playing both on red. Aurora handled Team Yandex in 45 minutes and 42 minutes, both on red. Also competing on red, PARIVISION swept HEROIC in 39 minutes and 64 minutes, while Liquid played on green in 39- and 32-minute wins over Shopify Rebellion.

In Group A, Team Spirit beat Xtreme Gaming in 47 minutes playing on green before Xtreme rallied to win in 46 minutes on green. Natus Vincere downed Talon Esports with a 51-minute victory playing on green, but Talon rebounded to win in 44 minutes on red.

Gaimin Gladiators gained the early advantage against BetBoom Team in Group B, winning in 42 minutes on green, with BetBoom taking the second game in 33 minutes playing on red. Finally, Execration took down Team Falcons in 39 minutes on green, with Falcons rallying to win in 31 minutes on green in the rematch.

The group stage continues Wednesday with eight matches:

--Team Spirit vs. Talon Esports (Group A)

--Xtreme Gaming vs. Natus Vincere (Group A)

--BetBoom Team vs. Team Falcons (Group B)

--Gaimin Gladiators vs. Execration (Group B)

--Tundra Esports vs. Aurora Gaming (Group C)

--Virtus.pro vs. Team Yandex (Group C)

--PARIVISION vs. Team Liquid (Group D)

--HEROIC vs. Shopify Rebellion (Group D)

Esports World Cup 2025 Standings (match record W-T-L, map record)

Group A

T1. Natus Vincere, 0-1-0 (1-1)

T1. Talon Esports, 0-1-0 (1-1)

T1. Team Spirit, 0-1-0 (1-1)

T1. Xtreme Gaming, 0-1-0 (1-1)

Group B

T1. BetBoom Team, 0-1-0 (1-1)

T1. Execration, 0-1-0 (1-1)

T1. Gaimin Gladiators, 0-1-0 (1-1)

T1. Team Falcons, 0-1-0 (1-1)

Group C

T1. Aurora Gaming, 1-0-0 (2-0)

T1. Tundra Esports, 1-0-0 (2-0)

T3. Team Yandex, 0-0-1 (0-2)

T3. Virtus.pro, 0-0-1 (0-2)

Group D

T1. PARIVISION, 1-0-0 (2-0)

T1. Team Liquid, 1-0-0 (2-0)

T3. HEROIC, 0-0-1 (0-2)

T3. Shopify Rebellion, 0-0-1 (0-2)

--Field Level Media