Some say this is the most exciting finals of the year: Tidebound gets ready for The International 2025 with a 3-2 victory over Tundra. Is this the ex-Wings comeback?
While most fans thought there wasn't a match for Xtreme Gaming, Tidebound was cooking their strategy to dominate Tundra at the Clavision Masters 2025: Snow-Ruyi, and become the champions in front of their home crowd.
Despite beating Tundra in the Grand Final, this victory shouldn't be a surprise for the fans. Tidebound performed extraordinarily well at the group stage and only dropped one series during the playoffs.
One of the most impressive things about the finals is how Tidebound managed to save their Queen of Pain strats until their last series against Tundra. Before the previous BO5, Tidebound only picked QoP once. However, they picked her in four of the five matches against the European powerhouse.
After this victory, Tidebound secured $213,500 – the biggest amount of money the organization has earned yet. In May 2025, Tidebound was signed by All Gamers Global, but the deal fell off quickly after. The team remains unsponsored despite this huge success.
Game 1: Tidebound's first proof of superiority against Tundra
Tundra had this game figured out in their heads. Previously, at the Upper Bracket Finals, they beat Tidebound with mobile heroes that can engage in fights quickly. Despite playing different heroes from that series, during the Grand Finals, they got to play their Ember-Marci-Natures Prophet. This trio is perfect for early ganks and map control.
By the thirty-four-minute mark, they had over forty kills. A stomp that started just ten minutes into the game.
Game 2: Shiro did what?!
Many would think that losing that first game so convincingly would be the sign of a 3-0 win. Most of this season's tournament has ended this way, but Tidebound's game against Tundra proved that the series was as close as possible. This match had some ups and downs, but Shiro's weaver got unstoppable. He ended with a 20-1-11 score, and killing him was practically impossible.
He even had a 5v1 fight, where he got four kills. The game continued for a few more minutes, but it was useless.
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Game 3: After 15 games, this is the fourth (and last) game that Kunkka won
Stop it. This is not an invitation to play Kunkka again. The hero finished the tournament with a 26% win rate. However, the important thing about this Tidebound draft was how Cheng "NothingToSay" Jin Xiang's Kunkka baited the whole lane composition of Tundra by sending Queen of Pain offlane for Zhang "Bach" Ruida (a.k.a. Faith_bian).
Guo "shiro" Xuanang had a simple job: Wait for QoP or Kunkka to enable him and then kill everything. Neta "33" Shapira's Lycan was doing more damage than Tidebound's backline could stand, but the disable of the Tidalwave was way too disruptive for the quick fights Tundra needed.
Game 4: Tundra's comeback against Tidebound
It looked like another one-sided finals: Tundra was losing by a 10k difference before the 20-minute mark. Tidebound was securing kills around the map, and the Europeans were avoiding every fight possible. But, like every Dota 2 game, one mistake was enough to turn the tables.
Tidebound was about to lose their support Tusk to a 4-man gank. Just another ordinary play, but they saw him resisting way more than expected, and decided to take the fight, counting on their item advantage. However, Tundra found Windranger out of position, a much more valuable kill. After taking the support duo out, Tidebound found themselves in a very awkward situation, getting a kill on Remco "Crystallis" Arets while losing four other heroes.
For a big part of the community, this is the most entertaining game of the Clavision Masters 2025: Snow-Ruyi Grand Finals. Tundra managed to stop Tidebound's dominance and got them to panic-buy back to lose the fourth game.
Game 5: Tidebound gets their first Champions' title!
Everyone loves an even game: The tension, the importance of every kill, how the economy works around the smokes and objectives. The fifth game of the final clash between Tundra and Tidebound was a poem to every fan of strategy games. But it was also the show of NothingToSay's Ember Spirit.
Every lane worked thanks to the midlane advantage. Ember's early BKB was a nightmare for Tundra's supports, who never got the chance to get good positioning during teamfights. And after 35 minutes of suspense, the biggest teamfight of the game finally happened. NothingToSay held onto his BKB as much as possible until he baited three of Tundra's heroes. This was punished immediately by the QoP and Dawnbreaker to give Tidebound the game's control.
This victory made multiple fans excited ahead of The International 2025, where they expect that three of the four legendary Wings Gaming players from 2016 can bring the glory back to China, a region that deserves more attention, considering how creative they are with the meta.
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