TEAM VISION and Team Spirit will next face off in Day 3, with the winners becoming the first team to advance directly to the Playoffs.
The second day of The International (TI) 2026 Group Stage saw Eastern European Dota 2 powerhouses 
TEAM VISION (aka PARIVISION) and 
Team Spirit stake their claims as the early favourites to claim the Aegis of Champions by remaining unbeaten through the first three rounds.
VISION were pegged as the biggest favourites ahead of the tournament, and have lived up to expectations so far by sweeping 
BoomBoys (aka BetBoom Team) in Round 3. Meanwhile, two-time TI champions Spirit have once again risen to the occasion by defeating 
Team Liquid in three games to improve their match record to 3-0.
The action in the mid pack has also been fierce, with 
Iron Wing (aka 1w Team), 
Nigma Galaxy, 
Aurora Gaming, and 
Vici Gaming improving their records to 2-1 at the expense of 
Team Falcons, 
LGD Gaming, 
Team Yandex, and 
GamerLegion.
And after a poor start to their home campaign, the Chinese teams have finally started showing some bite. With Vici already prevailing in the 1-1 bracket, 
Xtreme Gaming and Team Resilience scored much-needed wins over
HULIGANI and 
OG, respectively, in the 0-2 matches.
Read on as we break down all of the action in Day 2 of the TI 2026 Group Stage.
Spirit and Liquid close out Round 2 with huge wins
Day 2 of the TI 2026 Group Stage kicked off with the second half of matches for Round 2, featuring two matches each for the 1-0 and 0-1 brackets.
Spirit kicked off the action in the 1-0 matches by soundly sweeping regional rivals Aurora, giving the two-time TI champions valuable momentum heading into their Round 3 match later in the day. The other 1-0 match then saw the first real upset of the tournament, as Liquid pulled off a 2-1 reverse sweep over Yandex, the team many saw as the second biggest favourite of the tournament after VISION. Those results then set up a Round 3 showdown between Spirit and Liquid later in the day.
The final set of 0-1 matches for Round 2 was a rollercoaster of emotions for Chinese fans. Xtreme, the sole Chinese team to receive a direct invite to TI 2026, were soundly swept by North American underdogs GamerLegion. While Xtreme were the stronger team on paper, the team have not played to the caliber of a direct invite team for months now, though a 0-2 loss to GamerLegion should still be seen as a huge upset.
Vici looked like they would also fall to an upset from HULIGANI, who won the opening game of the series and had their Chinese opponents on the ropes in the decider. However, Vici were able to pull off a 54-minute comeback in game three to avoid falling to a 0-2 hole like Xtreme.
VISION, Spirit remain unbeaten through Round 3 while OG, HULIGANI stay winless
Round 3 of the Group Stage then opened with a clash between two of the biggest title favourites in VISION and BoomBoys. VISION outclassed BoomBoys in a 2-0 sweep to advance to the 4-0 match in Round 4, just one win away from a direct berth to the Playoffs.
The other 2-0 match of Round 3 then saw Spirit defeat Liquid in a three-game bloodbath to also improve their Group Stage record to a clean 3-0. Not many expected Spirit to be in this position given the team's lack of notable results and multiple roster changes throughout the season. But there's just something about TI that always lights a fire in Spirit, and their sudden rise to a real contender for the Aegis this year has been led by superstar carry 
Illya “Yatoro” Mulyarchuk.
Yatoro notably racked up a whopping 50 kills throughout the entire series, including an insane 31-kill performance on Kez in game one that tied the all-time record for kills in a single game at TI first set by 
Syed Sumail “SumaiL” Hassan back in TI 2018.
The 1-1 matches in Round 3 also featured its fair share of high-profile matches. By far the most anticipated match of this bracket was the showdown between defending champions Falcons and Iron Wing, the most successful team of the season. Iron Wing prevailed in three games to improve their record to 2-1 and give themselves a better chance at qualifying directly for the Playoffs.
The other heavyweight matchup of the 1-1 bracket saw two Eastern European contenders in Yandex and Aurora face off. Following their loss to Liquid, Yandex suffered another upset as they fell victim to a 2-1 reverse sweep at the hands of Aurora. While Yandex remain one of the strongest teams in TI 2026 despite those back-to-back losses, they are looking far from the big favourites many saw them as before the tournament.
Nigma Galaxy have also quietly been putting on a strong showing. In the opening day of the tournament, they suffered a 0-2 loss to Iron Wing in Round 1 but quickly bounced back by sweeping OG in Round 2. Nigma Galaxy's opponent in Day 2 was South America's LGD, who famously received a last-minute reinforcement from two-time TI champion 
Topias Miikka “Topson” Taavitsainen. But while Topson certainly drew plenty of eyes towards this match, it was Artem “Lorenof” Melnick that was the true star of the show as Nigma Galaxy swept the series. Lorenof notably racked up a total of 30 kills and 25 assists against just three deaths in the series.
The three other matches in Round 3 then saw the Chinese teams roar back to life as they fight to make it to the Playoffs, where their home crowd eagerly awaits.
Vici rounded out the results for the 1-1 bracket by prevailing over GamerLegion in a 2-1 reverse sweep. Xtreme and Resilience also scored their first wins of the Group Stage as they swept HULIGANI and OG, respectively. As the only teams that have yet to win a single match so far, OG and HULIGANI will be fighting for their tournament lives to kick off Day 3.
TI 2026 Group Stage Day 2 results
Round 2
1-0 matches:
- Team Spirit 2-0 Aurora Gaming
- Team Yandex 2-1 Team Liquid
0-1 matches:
- Xtreme Gaming 0-2 GamerLegion
- Vici Gaming 1-2 HULIGANI
Round 3
2-0 matches:
- TEAM VISION 2-0 BoomBoys
- Team Liquid 1-2 Team Spirit
1-1 matches:
- Team Falcons 1-2 Iron Wing
- Nigma Galaxy 2-0 LGD Gaming
- Vici Gaming 2-1 GamerLegion
- Team Yandex 1-2 Aurora Gaming
0-2 matches:
- OG 0-2 Team Resilience
- Xtreme Gaming 2-0 HULIGANI
What's next in the TI 2026 Group Stage?
Day 3 of the TI 2026 Group Stage will see one team become the first to advance to the Playoffs and another become the first to be eliminated.
OG and HULIGANI will kick off the day in the Round 4 0-3 match, with the loser getting sent home dead last. Following that will be the 3-0 match between VISION and Spirit, with the winner becoming the first team to advance directly to the Playoffs.
Day 3 will also feature three matches each for the 2-1 and 1-2 brackets. The 2-1 bracket will include BoomBoys, Liquid, Iron Wing, Aurora, Nigma Galaxy, and Vici while the 1-2 bracket will have Falcons, Yandex, LGD, GamerLegion, Xtreme, and Resilience.
What is The International 2026?
TI 2026 will be this year's iteration of Dota 2's annual world championship tournament, taking place in August in Shanghai, China. As with previous iterations of the tournament, TI 2026 will feature a total of 16 teams that earn their spots in the tournament by receiving direct invites or earning slots through regional qualifiers.
The list of directly-invited teams to TI 2026 include Aurora Gaming, BoomBoys (aka BetBoom Team), Team Falcons, Team Liquid, Iron Wing (aka 1w Team), Xtreme Gaming, and Team Yandex. Meanwhile, the teams that earned their spots through the regional qualifiers include European qualifier winners Team Spirit, TEAM VISION (aka PARIVISION), HULIGANI, and Nigma Galaxy, North American qualifier winner GamerLegion, Southeast Asian qualifier winner OG, South American qualifier winner LGD Gaming, as well as Chinese qualifier winners Vici Gaming and Team Resilience.
TI 2026's main event will be hosted in the Oriental Sports Center in Shanghai. Valve first announced that Shanghai will host TI 2026 during last year's world championship tournament, where Team Falcons claimed the Aegis of Champions after defeating China's Xtreme Gaming in the five-game grand finals.
This will mark the second time that Shanghai will host TI after TI 2019, where Western Europe's OG became the first-ever two-time TI champions after defeating Team Liquid in four games to claim the grand prize of US$15.6 million, out of the US$34.3 million prize pool.
TI 2026 will be split into two phases: the ‘Road to The International’ and ‘The International’ main event. The Road to The International will be a Swiss-style Group Stage from 13 to 16 August, where the 16 teams will be cut down to the final eight that will play in the game's biggest stage from 20 to 23 August in Shanghai's Oriental Sports Center.
TI 2026's prize pool follows that of previous editions, with a US$1.6 million base prize pool that will then be boosted through sales of the TI 2026 Compendium.
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