The reigning Dota 2 world champions will get to defend their title this year in the main stage.
Reigning Dota 2 world champions 
Team Falcons will get a chance to defend their title this year as they qualified for The International (TI) 2026 Playoffs by knocking out China's 
Vici Gaming with a 2-0 sweep in the tournament's Elimination Stage on Sunday (16 August).
With their victory, Falcons have also guaranteed themselves a Top 8 finish and an estimated US$121,885 in winnings. They now join Group Stage top seeds 
TEAM VISION (aka PARIVISION), 
Nigma Galaxy, and 
Team Liquid in the Playoffs.
Meanwhile, Vici have been eliminated in 9th-13th place with an estimated US$54,805 in consolation. With 
Xtreme Gaming already being eliminated, only 
Team Resilience remains standing among the three Chinese representatives in TI 2026. But with Resilience facing 
Team Spirit in their own Elimination Stage match later in the day, there is a real chance that no Chinese teams will make it to the Playoffs. Such an outcome would be a shame when considering TI 2026 is being held in Shanghai, China, which is only the second time that the country has hosted Dota 2's annual world championship tournament since 2019.
Team Falcons' journey through the TI 2026 Group Stage
By virtue of being the defending champions, Falcons earned a direct invite to TI 2026 and entered the tournament as a top contender. With that said, they were far from being heavy favourites to claim this year's Aegis of Champions after a quiet season where they were unable to win any tournaments. Notably, Falcons finished second in the last Tier 1 event before TI 2026 at 1win Essence II, where they got swept by Liquid in the grand finals.
With Falcons' position 4 support 
Andreas “Cr1t-” Nielsen also saying TI 2026 could be the current roster's last tournament together, there were plenty of question marks surrounding the team's chances of repeating as champions. Those doubts would follow Falcons throughout the Group Stage, as they finished with a 3-2 record with all their matches going to three games.
Falcons kicked off their TI 2026 campaign by defeating 
LGD Gaming and their last-minute superstar stand-in 
Topias Miikka “Topson” Taavitsainen in Round 1 of the Group Stage. However, the defending champions then suffered back-to-back losses in the next two rounds, first to eventual Group Stage top seed VISION and then to regional rivals 
Iron Wing (aka 1w Team).
Falcons then bounced back by defeating North American underdogs 
GamerLegion in Round 4. They then secured a higher seed for the Elimination Stage by taking down Eastern European powerhouse 
BoomBoys (aka BetBoom Team) in the final round of the Group Stage.
Meanwhile, Vici finished the Group Stage with a measly 2-3 record. Their losses came at the hands of clearly stronger teams in Liquid, Nigma Galaxy, and LGD, though they did manage to secure much-needed wins over underdog squads 
HULIGANI and GamerLegion.
Team Falcons knock out Vici Gaming en route to TI 2026 Playoffs
While Falcons were clearly the better team on paper, their not-so-stellar run through the Group Stage elicited some hope that Vici could pull off an upset in their Elimination Stage match. But unfortunately for fans of Chinese Dota, Falcons looked every bit the reigning world champions that they are as they soundly swept Vici out of TI 2026 to secure a spot in the Playoffs.
Falcons kicked off the series with one of their signature tri-core drafts featuring Clinkz for 
Oliver “Skiter” Lepko, a mid Snapfire for 
Stanislav “Malr1ne” Potorak, and Pangolier for 
Ammar “ATF” Assaf. Meanwhile, Cr1t on Enchantress and 
Jing “Sneyking” Wu on Treant Protector were tasked with winning the laning stage to help their cores scale as fast as possible.
On the other side of the field, Vici went for a mobile lineup with plenty of single-target burst damage, featuring Windranger for 
Xuanang “Shiro” Guo, Storm Spirit for Hongcheng “Xm” Guo, Slardar for Zhang “Bach” Ruida, Grimstroke for Zixing “XinQ” Zhao, and Undying for Yiping “y`” Zhang.
Cr1t's Enchantress almost single-handedly won the early game for Falcons. Starting at the 3-minute mark, he narrowly avoided giving up First Blood in the bottom lane then moved to the mid lane to set up back-to-back ganks on Xm's Storm Spirit that effectively hamstrung him for the rest of the game. With Vici's primary playmaker shut down, Falcons comfortably hit their own timings then cruised to an easy 40-minute win.
Malr1ne paced his team's 31-6 kill lead in game one with nine kills and 12 assists on two deaths. Skiter added a clean seven kills and eight assists, while ATF and Cr1t each put up six kills and combined for 20 assists against three deaths between the two of them.
Falcons ran a tri-core once again in game two, this time with Skiter on Sven, Malr1ne on Sand King, and ATF on Necrophos. Cr1t on Clockwerk and Sneyking on Crystal Maiden brought some much-needed crowd control abilities to round out the lineup.
Meanwhile, Vici looked to force the series to a third game behind shiro's Shadow Fiend. Tasked with supporting their carry were Xm's Pangolier, Bach's Beastmaster, XinQ's Shadow Demon, and y's Jakiro.
Falcons dominated the laning stage once again, with Bach's Beastmaster notably being singled out as he suffered three deaths in the first 12 minutes. Xm's Pangolier was also handed two deaths in quick succession just before the 20-minute mark, effectively shutting down the two tempo-setters in Vici's lineup. With that said, Vici put up a better showing and were able to match Falcons in the early teamfights.
But the defending champions made good use of their net worth advantage by repeatedly isolating the enemy Shadow Fiend in the pivotal mid game clashes, which eventually gave them the opening they needed to secure the 2-0 series sweep after 42 minutes of action.
Malr1ne had another excellent showing, fueling Falcons' 31-11 kill lead in the closeout game with 10 kills and 14 assists on three deaths. Sneyking also showed out with eight kills and 17 assists on three deaths, while Skiter pitched in with five kills and 14 assists on one death.
With their spot in the main event secured, Falcons earn a brief respite before the battle for the Aegis of Champions resumes in the TI 2026 Playoffs on 20 August. Meanwhile, Vici will have to watch from the sidelines as another region claims the Dota 2 world championship on Chinese soil.
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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