Valve have confirmed the seven direct invitations to The International 2026 in Shanghai, with defending champions Team Falcons headlining a list that also brings in Aurora Gaming, BoomBoys, Team Liquid, Tundra Esports, Xtreme Gaming and Team Yandex. The announcement from the Dota 2 team locks in nearly half of the 16-team field for the event, which runs from 13 to 23 August 2026 at the Oriental Sports Centre. The remaining nine slots will be settled through regional qualifiers across June, with Europe receiving four spots and the host region of China taking two.
As of 26 May 2026, the seven invitees are confirmed and the qualifier brackets are roughly three weeks out, with China and South America opening the regional cycle on 15 June. The base prize pool starts at $1.6 million USD and grows through in-game supporter bundle sales, with 30 per cent of bundle revenue added to the total over the course of the campaign.
The Seven Direct-Invited Teams
Valve’s invitation list draws from the top performers of the 2025 to 2026 Dota Pro Circuit and the squads that posted consistent results across the international tournament calendar. Team Falcons enter as defending TI 2025 champions, joined by a mix of repeat invitees and one notable newcomer in Team Yandex.
| Team | Region | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Team Falcons | Western Europe | Defending TI 2025 champions |
| Xtreme Gaming | China | Repeat TI invitee |
| Team Liquid | Western Europe | Repeat TI invitee |
| Tundra Esports | Western Europe | Former TI champions |
| Aurora Gaming | Eastern Europe | Repeat TI invitee |
| BoomBoys | Eastern Europe | Formerly BetBoom Team |
| Team Yandex | Eastern Europe | First direct invite |
BoomBoys appear on the list under their new banner after dropping the BetBoom Team name ahead of the 2026 calendar. The roster underneath the rebrand stays largely intact from the squad that earned the invite through its 2025 Pro Circuit results, with the organisation moving away from the betting-operator naming that defined its previous identity.
Team Yandex’s invitation is the most notable addition to the top tier. The organisation breaks into a direct-invite slot for the first time, joining the Eastern European contingent alongside Aurora Gaming and BoomBoys. The depth of three Eastern European sides among the invited seven reflects the region’s competitive surge across the back half of the 2025 to 2026 season.
Nine Spots Remain Through Regional Qualifiers
The qualifier path opens on 15 June 2026 and runs through 28 June, with nine slots split across the five competitive regions. Europe receives the largest allocation with four spots, reflecting the depth of the region’s professional scene. China takes two slots as the host region, while Southeast Asia, North America and South America each contest a single seat.
Regional Qualifier Allocation And Dates
| Region | Slots | Qualifier Dates |
|---|---|---|
| Europe | 4 | 21 to 28 June |
| China | 2 | From 15 June |
| Southeast Asia | 1 | 19 to 23 June |
| North America | 1 | 24 to 26 June |
| South America | 1 | From 15 June |
Europe’s four-slot allocation continues the pattern Valve has set since restructuring the qualifier system, with the region’s depth of professional teams justifying the largest share. The two Chinese slots ensure the host nation carries a strong domestic contingent at the Oriental Sports Centre, while the single slots for Southeast Asia, North America and South America reflect the slimmer top tier in those regions through the 2025 to 2026 season.
The qualifier windows overlap rather than running in sequence, with the Chinese and South American brackets opening first and the European bracket finishing last. Teams falling out of one region cannot attempt another, with the regional gating set by organisation registration.
Prize Pool Structure And Supporter Bundles
The base prize pool opens at $1.6 million USD, the figure Valve has used as the starting point since restructuring the event in 2023. The pool grows through in-game supporter bundle sales, with 30 per cent of bundle revenue feeding the total. The supporter bundle model replaced the older Battle Pass system after the publisher moved away from the crowdfunded prize pools that had previously pushed TI totals into eight figures.
Bundle sales typically lift the final pool beyond the starting figure, though the totals over the past three editions have settled into a more modest range than the peak of $40 million reached at TI 2021. The final figure will be confirmed closer to the start of the Group Stage in August, with bundle revenue feeding the pool through the back half of the year.
The 30 per cent share is the same split Valve introduced when the bundle model was first rolled out, with the remaining 70 per cent retained by the publisher. The structure trades the headline-grabbing crowdfunded totals of the Battle Pass era for a more sustainable prize pool that does not fluctuate as sharply between years.
Shanghai Venue And Tournament Format
The International 2026 returns to Shanghai for the second consecutive year, with all stages staged at the Oriental Sports Centre. The Group Stage runs 13 to 16 August and feeds into the elimination rounds and arena finale, which take place across 20 to 23 August inside the centre’s main arena.
Sixteen teams contest the event, the format Valve has held to since the 2023 restructure. The Group Stage seeds teams into the double-elimination playoff bracket, with upper-bracket sides holding a one-loss buffer through the arena weekend. The structure favours teams that come out of the Group Stage cleanly, with the upper-bracket path the only route that allows a single-series defeat without elimination.
The Oriental Sports Centre hosted the elimination rounds for TI 2025 and drew strong attendance through the finals weekend. The TI 2025 grand final drew 1.78 million peak viewers, the highest figure for a Dota 2 grand final since 2022 and an indicator that the competitive audience has stabilised after the dips that followed the move away from the original Battle Pass model.
What Comes Next For The Invited Seven
The invited seven now have just under three months to settle roster moves and preparation schedules ahead of the Group Stage opener on 13 August. Bootcamps in Europe are the standard lead-in for the Western European sides, while Xtreme Gaming and the Chinese qualifier representatives will compete on home ground across the full duration of the event.
Roster lock for the event traditionally falls in the window between the close of qualifiers and the start of the Group Stage, with substitutions and stand-ins permitted only under the conditions Valve has set in previous editions. The invited seven sit clear of the qualifier crunch and can use the full June window for scrimmages and patch-adjustment work, while the nine qualifier survivors will roll into Shanghai with their preparation compressed into the six-week gap between the end of the regional brackets and the opening of the Group Stage.
The next confirmed checkpoint on the calendar arrives on 15 June, when the Chinese and South American qualifiers begin and the field for Shanghai starts taking its final shape.