An unexpected reason was revealed for why Valve gave an invite to Gaimin Gladiators

Alexei “Lex” Phillipov said that Valve could invite Gaimin Gladiators to The International 2025 only for the sake of an even number of invites.

The commentator offered this explanation in his Telegram channel.

“It seems like the only real reason why Gaimin Gladiators got an invite to The International is because it was impossible to announce 7 (seven!) teams. An odd number on the roster for the main tournament of the year would have looked really kind of weird. The team has certainly done a good job over the last couple months, but still. I'm sure Quinn and company are a little shocked that they won't have to play quals”

Lex believes that the unusual choice of GG is due to the number of invites. According to him, even the team itself is probably surprised to receive an invitation to the Dota 2 World Championship, because this season was not the best for them.

It's worth noting that an invite from Valve could indeed be a surprise for Gaimin Gladiators. During one of the interviews Quinn “Quinn” Callahan even said that his team will have to prepare for The International 2025 qualifiers, because they are unlikely to get a direct invite this year.

Recall, earlier it became known that the manager of Team Spirit is extremely dissatisfied with the invites to The International 2025.