Valve locks in the first TI 2026 teams and maps out the qualifier road
Seven squads earned direct invitations to Shanghai, while the regional qualifiers will fill the remaining nine spots for The International 2026.
Valve has started the road to The International 2026 by handing out seven direct invitations for Shanghai and laying out the regional qualifier schedule that will decide the rest of the field.
Direct invites
The first group of teams can skip the extra pressure and focus on final preparations for the event in China. The seven invited squads are:
- Aurora Gaming — Egor “Nightfall” Grigorenko, Rafli “Mikoto” Fathur Rahman, Wei Shen “Ws`” Chung, Myroslav “Mira” Kolpakov, and Oleh “kaori” Medvedok.
- BoomBoys — Ilia “Kiritych~” Ulianov, Danil “gpk~” Skutin, Matvei “MieRo`” Vasiunin, Vitalie “Save-” Melnic, and Vladislav “Kataomi`” Semenov.
- Team Falcons — Oliver “Skiter” Lepko, Stanislav “Malr1ne” Potorak, Ammar “ATF” Alassaf, Andreas “Cr1t-” Nielsen, and Jingjun “Sneyking” Wu.
- Team Liquid — Michael “m1CKe” Vu, MichaÅ‚ “Nisha” Jankowski, Marcus “Ace” Christensen, Samuel “Boxi” Svahn, and Erik “tOfu” Engel.
- Tundra Esports — Ivan “Pure” Moskalenko, Bozhidar “bzm” Bogdanov, Neta “33” Shapira, Matthew “Ari” Walker, and Matthew “Whitemon” Filemon.
- Xtreme Gaming — Chunyu “Ame” Wang, Jin Xiang “NothingToSay” Cheng, Jing “Xxs” Lin, Linsen “fy” Xu, and Jian Wei “xNova” Yap.
- Team Yandex — Alimzhan “医者watson” Islambekov, Ilya “CHIRA_JUNIOR” Chirtsov, Dmitrii “DM” Dorokhin, Martin “Saksa” Sazdov, and Arman “Malady” Orazbayev.
That still leaves nine places open, and the qualifier path will sort out who joins them.
Regional qualifiers
Valve merged the Eastern and Western Europe events into one European qualifier this year, and that bracket carries four advancement spots. The rest of the regions will also send their best through a mix of direct qualifier spots and teams coming in from Open Qualifiers.
- China — June 15-18, 2026. Two slots. Vici Gaming, Roar Gaming, Yakutou Brothers, Team Resilience, plus four Open Qualifiers teams.
- South America — June 15-19, 2026. One slot. LGD Gaming, PlayTime, Estar Backs, Red Hot Chili Pibble, Amaru Gaming, Hokori, plus four Open Qualifiers teams.
- Southeast Asia — June 19-23, 2026. One slot. REKONIX, OG, Execration, Team Nemesis, GLYPH, plus five Open Qualifiers teams.
- Europe — June 21-28, 2026. Four slots. TEAM VISION, Team Spirit, MOUZ, Natus Vincere, Nigma Galaxy, Virtus.pro, enjoy, and Power Rangers, plus eight Open Qualifiers teams.
- North America — June 24-26, 2026. One slot. GamerLegion, plus three Open Qualifiers teams.
Once the qualifiers end on June 28, 2026, the full tournament field will be locked in. The International 2026 then moves to Shanghai for the Group Stage from August 13-16, 2026, with a three-day, five-round Swiss bracket followed by five elimination matches on Sunday. The final eight teams will head into the arena from August 20-23, 2026, where the Aegis of Champions will be waiting.
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