DreamLeague S25 grand final is postponed due to Dota 2 exploit similar to DDoS attacks
2025-03-03 08:54:00ESL released a decision regarding DreamLeague Season 25 grand final between Team Spirit and Tundra Esports. The match wasn't finished because of what was initially described as a DDoS attack. The official statement came out on X.
Team Spirit had a significant advantage in game four. Now, the series will be delayed, and the fourth match will be replayed from the start. It is scheduled to start on March 4 at 16:00 CET. The series will resume with the 2:1 score in favor of Spirit.
Many criticized ESL for seemingly breaking their rules regarding DDoS attacks. However, even if the mechanism is similar, this was reportedly a result of an exploit abuse. Technical issues started at the beginning of the fourth map. The admins put several pauses, which lasted more than two hours in total. Spirit even tried logging into the match under other accounts, but this did not help.
According to Spirit's official statement, the attacked players were Larl and Collapse. They blamed a loophole in the game's structure that allowed for the attack to happen.
We regret to announce that on the fourth map of the Dreamleague Season 25 Grand Final, we encountered a DDOS attack on the Steam accounts of Collapse and Larl. This became possible due to a vulnerability inside Steam/Dota 2.
We are doing everything possible to eliminate the threat and want to continue playing Dota without problems as soon as possible.
According to Collapse on Telegram, the attack was made via a massive wave of party invites in the game client. Some fans on Reddit revealed that the exploit has been known for more than two years. There's a complaint from December 2022 describing the problem on Valve's official bug tracker. It was first reported by a prominent Russian streamer, LenaGolovach.
DreamLeague S25 is running online from February 16 to March 4 with $1 mln in the prize pool. The teams also get EPT points, which are required for future invites to ESL events, including Riyadh Masters 2025.
