The International 2026

This is it. The International 2026—TI 15—is the most prestigious tournament in all of Dota 2 and the one every single pro player has been dreaming about since they first picked up the game. No other trophy comes close. No other stage feels like this. The Aegis of Champions is on the line, and the best teams in the world are heading to Shanghai, China, in August to fight for it.

The base prize pool sits at $1,600,000 — but this is TI, so you already know that number is going to move. Sixteen teams. One trophy. Everything else this year was just qualifying.

Note: Valve does not permit betting on brand names at TI. Teams will compete under their approved names—so BetBoom, for example, will be representing themselves as BoomBoys. I'll be using the official tournament names throughout my coverage.

Group Stage (August 13–16)—Sixteen teams, Swiss system; all matches are best-of-three. This isn't a round-robin where you can afford a slow start—Swiss means you're always playing teams with your own record, and the pressure compounds fast. The top 3 teams advance directly to the Main Event playoffs. Teams finishing 4th through 13th drop into the Elimination Round for one final shot. The bottom teams? Eliminated. Their TI ends here, in the group stage, before the lights even go on in the main arena.

Elimination Round—Five teams survive and punch their ticket to the main event. Everyone else goes home. At TI, there's no softer way to put it—you either make it through or you're watching the rest of the tournament from a hotel room.

Main Event (August 20–23) — Format TBA.