DreamLeague S25 grand final postponed mid-series as DDOS attacks strike Dota team
ESL has been forced to push the final matches to Tuesday, March 4.
As a passionate gaming enthusiast, it feels as though I’ve stumbled upon a scene from the infancy of eSports. In the heat of the season 25 grand final for ESL’s DreamLeague event, the competition was abruptly halted halfway through the series, all due to a series of devastating DDOS attacks.
In the climactic best-of-five match, Team Spirit held a 2-1 advantage over their opponents in the final round when an unexpected technical issue prevented the players from starting Dota 2 or joining the lobby. This predicament has necessitated a postponement of the grand final to March 4 by ESL, leaving fans disgruntled.
“Make sure you have DDOS protection in 2025”: Saksa rips in as Spirit forced off DreamLeague servers
The organizer of ESL has changed the schedule for the remaining matches in the DreamLeague final, which will now take place on March 4 at 4pm CET, due to some severe technical problems that prevent us from holding the DreamLeague Season 25 grand finals as planned.
During the DreamLeague grand final, our team had to deal with a Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDOS) attack on the fourth map. Team Spirit confirmed this. They stated that the accounts of players Magomed “Collapse” Khalilov and Denis “Larl” Sigitov were affected by this attack.
In the 2000s and 2010s, DDOS attacks were prevalent in networks that lacked protection. However, with the advancement of network security and the majority of competition moving towards closed Local Area Network (LAN) play, such incidents have become extremely rare.
According to Collapse’s Telegram post following the announcement of the delay, a multitude of party invitations and messages flooded the players’ Steam accounts because Dota was overloaded with requests. In essence, Collapse was rapidly sending chat and party invites at an astounding rate of 100 per second, causing the game to malfunction.
Initially, Collapse and Larl managed to swap accounts, but teammate Yaroslav “Miposhka” Naidenov faced the same predicament. After prolonged delays and attempts to resolve a DDOS problem, ESL ultimately decided to forfeit and rescheduled games four and five for March 4.
There are several theories as to why Spirit players were singled out, with many spectators suspecting gambling and betting might be at play. An inquiry has been launched to uncover the motive behind these targeted attacks and identify their origin.
On DreamLeague Dota’s otherwise thrilling day, an incident occurred that cast a shadow. In the lower bracket final, Spirit displayed great resilience against PARIVISION. The grand final kickstarted with a 39-minute victory for Spirit over Tundra. The upper bracket winners recovered in game two, but Spirit staged another comeback in a breathtaking, hour-long match that resulted in 72 kills.
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The excitement of DreamLeague Dota’s day was marred by an incident. In the lower bracket final, Spirit showed determination against PARIVISION. The grand final began with a 39-minute win for Spirit over Tundra. However, the upper bracket winners regrouped in game two, only for Spirit to respond yet again in a spectacular, 72-kill match that lasted an hour.
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An incident spoiled what could have been an unforgettable day at DreamLeague Dota. In the lower bracket final, Spirit overcame PARIVISION with grit. The grand final started off with a 39-minute victory for Spirit against Tundra. Despite the upper bracket winners coming back in game two, Spirit managed to bounce back once more in an exhilarating, hour-long match that ended with 72 kills.
All three versions convey the same information but use different wordings and structures to keep it engaging and varied.
In Game Four, takeoff was challenging due to the onset of DDOS attacks. Martin “Saksa” Sazdov from Tundra expressed his irritation openly, messaging Spirit via the game’s chat. He suggested, “Perhaps Team Spirit should ensure they have DDOS protection by 2025.
However, some users have pointed out potential problems with Valve’s Dota client regarding mass invitations and chat floods – issues that have been ongoing for quite a while now. It remains uncertain if this is truly the case since Valve has yet to address or comment on the matter.
ESL temporarily halted game four for up to three hours in an attempt to resolve Spirit’s DreamLeague DDOS attack, but a solution could not be found. As fly Aizik expressed on X/Twitter, this was regrettable, particularly for the players involved, since best-of-five matches often rely heavily on momentum. Therefore, the game will likely play out differently when they resume play.
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2025-03-03 08:10