The International 2026 Invitations and Qualifiers

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.

02Direct 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:

Egor "Nightfall" Grigorenko

Rafli "Mikoto" Fathur Rahman

Wei Shen "Ws`" Chung

Myroslav "Mira" Kolpakov

Oleh "kaori" Medvedok

Ilia "Kiritych~" Ulianov

Danil "gpk~" Skutin

Matvei "MieRo`" Vasiunin

Vitalie "Save-" Melnic

Vladislav "Kataomi`" Semenov

Oliver "Skiter" Lepko

Stanislav "Malr1ne" Potorak

Ammar "ATF" Alassaf

Andreas "Cr1t-" Nielsen

Jingjun "Sneyking" Wu

Michael "m1CKe" Vu

Michał "Nisha" Jankowski

Marcus "Ace" Christensen

Samuel "Boxi" Svahn

Erik "tOfu" Engel

Ivan "Pure" Moskalenko

Bozhidar "bzm" Bogdanov

Neta "33" Shapira

Matthew "Ari" Walker

Matthew "Whitemon" Filemon

Chunyu "Ame" Wang

Jin Xiang "NothingToSay" Cheng

Jing "Xxs" Lin

Linsen "fy" Xu

Jian Wei "xNova" Yap

Alimzhan "医者watson" Islambekov

Ilya "CHIRA_JUNIOR" Chirtsov

Dmitrii "DM" Dorokhin

Martin "Saksa" Sazdov

Arman "Malady" Orazbayev

• Aurora Gaming
• BoomBoys
• Team Falcons
• Team Liquid
• Tundra Esports
• Xtreme Gaming
• Team Yandex

03Regional 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.

Vici Gaming

Roar Gaming

Yakutou Brothers

Team Resilience

(+4 teams from Open Qualifiers)

LGD Gaming

PlayTime

Estar Backs

Red Hot Chili Pibble

Amaru Gaming

Hokori

(+4 teams from Open Qualifiers)

REKONIX

OG

Execration

Team Nemesis

GLYPH

(+5 teams from Open Qualifiers)

TEAM VISION

Team Spirit

MOUZ

Natus Vincere

Nigma Galaxy

Virtus.pro

enjoy

Power Rangers

(+8 teams from Open Qualifiers)

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.

• China, June 15-18 (2 slots)
• South America, June 15-19 (1 slot)
• Southeast Asia, June 19-23 (1 slot)
• Europe, June 21-28 (4 slots)
• North America, June 24-26 (1 slot)