Throughout the year, Dota teams around the world battle to prove themselves worthy of direct invitation to The International — and a chance to compete for the Aegis of Champions on the world's biggest stage. Teams that secure invites can begin to focus on their final preparations, while the remaining contenders face one last chance to fight their way in.
Direct Invites
With less than three months until we raise the curtains on the big show, we’re excited to extend these seven teams invitations to Shanghai, China to compete in The International 2026:
- Aurora Gaming
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Egor "Nightfall" Grigorenko Rafli "Mikoto" Fathur Rahman Wei Shen "Ws`" Chung Myroslav "Mira" Kolpakov Oleh "kaori" Medvedok - BoomBoys
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Ilia "Kiritych~" Ulianov Danil "gpk~" Skutin Matvei "MieRo`" Vasiunin Vitalie "Save-" Melnic Vladislav "Kataomi`" Semenov - Team Falcons
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Oliver "Skiter" Lepko Stanislav "Malr1ne" Potorak Ammar "ATF" Alassaf Andreas "Cr1t-" Nielsen Jingjun "Sneyking" Wu - Team Liquid
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Michael "m1CKe" Vu Michał "Nisha" Jankowski Marcus "Ace" Christensen Samuel "Boxi" Svahn Erik "tOfu" Engel - Tundra Esports
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Ivan "Pure" Moskalenko Bozhidar "bzm" Bogdanov Neta "33" Shapira Matthew "Ari" Walker Matthew "Whitemon" Filemon - Xtreme Gaming
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Chunyu "Ame" Wang Jin Xiang "NothingToSay" Cheng Jing "Xxs" Lin Linsen "fy" Xu Jian Wei "xNova" Yap - Team Yandex
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Alimzhan "医者watson" Islambekov Ilya "CHIRA_JUNIOR" Chirtsov Dmitrii "DM" Dorokhin Martin "Saksa" Sazdov Arman "Malady" Orazbayev
Regional Qualifiers
The seven teams above have already earned invitations, which means there are still nine slots available at TI, just waiting for the squads that can survive the crucible of Regional Qualifiers. This year, we've merged the Eastern and Western Europe qualifiers into one single European qualifier with four advancement slots. Check out the full schedule below.
- China, June 15-18 (2 slots)
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Vici Gaming Roar Gaming Yakutou Brothers Team Resilience (+4 teams from Open Qualifiers) - South America, June 15-19 (1 slot)
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LGD Gaming PlayTime Estar Backs Red Hot Chili Pibble Amaru Gaming Hokori (+4 teams from Open Qualifiers) - Southeast Asia, June 19-23 (1 slot)
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REKONIX OG Execration Team Nemesis GLYPH (+5 teams from Open Qualifiers) - Europe, June 21-28 (4 slots)
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TEAM VISION Team Spirit MOUZ Natus Vincere Nigma Galaxy Virtus.pro enjoy Power Rangers (+8 teams from Open Qualifiers) - North America, June 24-26 (1 slot)
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GamerLegion (+3 teams from Open Qualifiers)
Once qualifiers wrap up on June 28, we'll have the full tournament field decided, and the next stop is Shanghai. Group Stage kicks off August 13 - 16 with a three-day, five-round Swiss bracket, followed by five elimination matches played on Sunday. The eight remaining teams bring the competition into the arena August 20 - 23, where the Aegis of Champions awaits.