Iron Wing are looking to show what they're truly made of in The International 2026 Playoffs.
Western European Dota 2 powerhouse 
Iron Wing (aka 1w Team) finished The International (TI) 2026 Group Stage with a so-so 3-2 record, which might surprise those that only took a glance at their list of achievements in the 2025-2026 competitive season.
Iron Wing's roster, who played under the banner of 
Tundra Esports at the time, won four Tier 1 tournaments, namely BLAST Slam IV, BLAST Slam V, DreamLeague Season 28, and ESL One Birmingham 2026–all in the span of four months from November 2025 to March 2026.
One would expect that the most successful team of the season would be the biggest favourites to claim this year's Aegis of Champions. But ahead of TI 2026, Iron Wing were only seen as a solid contender at most, and their performance in the Group Stage was not the most promising either.
But if you ask Iron Wing support duo 
Matthew “Ari” Walker and 
Matthew “Whitemon” Filemon, their record in the TI 2026 Group Stage does not tell the whole story.
"It just took some time for us to grow throughout. I mean, it's like an average across the start and the end, but I think by the end, we're stronger than that,” Ari said in an exclusive interview with GosuGamers.
“I think we could've easily gotten a 4-1 record. That's what I thought, you know, because we're very confident in each other, and we just maybe had some draft issues or some discipline issues, or maybe we're just not playing good enough, that's it,” added Whitemon.
Iron Wing's turbulent path to the TI 2026 Playoffs
Iron Wing's journey to the TI 2026 Playoffs was a bit of a rollercoaster. In Round 1 of the Group Stage, they soundly swept 
Nigma Galaxy, an unremarkable result at the time. But one that would only become more impressive as the tournament wound on and Nigma Galaxy won eight straight games to secure a direct berth to the Playoffs.
However, the same cannot be said of Iron Wing's performance in Round 2 against Eastern Europe's 
BoomBoys (aka BetBoom Team). After both sides traded the first two games, Iron Wing looked to be in position to secure the series victory in game three as they had a decisive net worth advantage 35,000 gold by the 50-minute mark. But Iron Wing would end up throwing the game away after 69 minutes of action and suffered their first match loss of the tournament.
Iron Wing did bounce back in Round 3 though, defeating defending champions 
Team Falcons in three games, which included a 68-minute late game comeback win in game one to atone for that last loss against BoomBoys.
The rollercoaster for Iron Wing continued in Round 4 against regional rivals 
Team Liquid, where the team's tendency to throw away leads in TI 2026 showed up once again–this time manifesting over the course of the series. In game one, Iron Wing fended off a strong start by Liquid to take a 46-minute comeback win. But Iron Wing were unable to survive their opponents' early aggression in the next two games, resulting in Liquid taking the series in a 2-1 reverse sweep.
Having only managed a 2-2 record after the first four rounds of the Group Stage, Iron Wing were pit against another struggling powerhouse in 
Team Yandex in the fifth and final round. While they would still advance to the Elimination Stage regardless of the series' outcome, Iron Wing needed to win in order to have the luxury of selecting their opponent in the next phase and give themselves the best shot at making the Playoffs.
Iron Wing and Yandex took turns stomping each other in the first two games, forcing the pivotal match to a game three. The series decider turned out to be a 54-minute grinder, with Iron Wing emerging victorious and being seeded second among the Elimination Stage teams.
The team proceeded to select North American underdogs 
GamerLegion as their opponent in a do-or-die match for a spot in the Playoffs. In stark contrast to how they looked during their losses in the Group Stage, Iron Wing were sharp and decisive as they swept GamerLegion. Both games were stomps, with Iron Wing taking the lead from the get-go and never looking back in consecutive routs.
For Ari and Whitemon, it was exactly the confidence boost the team needed before they kicked off their Playoff campaign.
“I feel like throughout the Group Stage, we improved and learned a lot. Maybe at the start we might have been like a 2-3 level team, but by the end I feel like we're a 4-1 level team," Ari said of Iron Wing's Group Stage run.
The grind back to the top
In a way, Iron Wing's run in TI 2026 so far has been a mirror of their season as a whole. Despite winning four tournaments under the Tundra banner, they had more than their fair share of poor results. After reaching their peak with their victory in ESL One Birmingham 2026 in March, everything came crashing down.
After carry player 
Ivan “Pure” Moskalenko was sidelined due to visa issues, the team finished dead last in PGL Wallachia Season 8 in April. While Pure was able to play again in their next three events in May, the results were still poor; 7th-8th in 1win Essence I, 5th-6th in DreamLeague Season 29, then 9th-10th in BLAST Slam VII. Despite a flying start to the season, the team looked like they were crumbling before it even reached its climax.
Whitemon attributed the team's decline to fatigue. From October 2025 to May 2026, they played in almost every top tier tournament that was being hosted for a total of 13 events, eight of which were LANs held in different parts of the world. In some months, like March and May of this year, the team had to play in three events, with only a few days separating the end of one tournament and the start of another.
“We never took a break from all the tournaments, and also some of them we played with a stand-in. So, yeah, we didn't really have the time to practice with the full roster or something like that,” said Whitemon.
It's an unfortunate consequence of the modern Dota 2 competitive landscape following the death of the Dota Pro Circuit in 2023. If a team wanted to be the ones on top, they had to grind through as many tournament as possible all throughout the season. Accrue good results consistently enough and you'll earn a direct invite to TI, which the then-Tundra roster did. But Ari admits their success early in the season might have dulled their edge.
“Winning came very easily at the start of the year for some reason, and maybe we got a bit complacent and we felt like it could be easy for the whole year,” added Ari.
When the Tundra organisation decided to leave the Dota 2 scene in June, they transferred the roster to 1w Team. It was still the same squad, of course, just playing under a different banner. But, in a way, it was also a sort of reset for the players. They had plenty of achievements with Tundra, but now that they're 1w–and then Iron Wing for TI 2026–it was time to win trophies again to put on this new shelf. The grind back to the top began anew.
In their debut tournament with 1w at the Dota 2 Esports World Cup 2026, the team had a disappointing 9th-12th place finish–notably falling in an upset at the hands of Chinese underdogs Vici Gaming in the Survival Stage. Far from what a team with title ambitions in TI should be doing. The grind continues.
Then in 1win Essence II, the last Tier 1 tournament before TI 2026 kicked off, the team finished third–their first podium placement since March. Not the best outcome, but a good enough foundation for improvement. Still, the grind continues.
Looking back on their turbulent season with the TI 2026 Playoffs looming, Ari thinks all those ups-and-downs could only have better prepared them for their attempt at this year's Aegis of Champions. Iron sharpens iron, after all.
“At some point, whatever you're doing stops working out for whatever reason, and you have to actually grind to get back to the highest point again. I think it just took us some time to, first of all, realize it, and second of all, do it,” said Ari.
And now Iron Wing's latest test in their grind back to the top will see them take on Eastern European powerhouse 
Team Spirit in the upper bracket quarterfinals.
Ari and Whitemon showcase confidence you wouldn't typically see out of a team that had to really grind for their spot in the Playoffs. If you ask them, their 3-2 Group Stage record would not tell the story of their TI run this year.
“Yeah, we're pretty confident, why wouldn't we be?,” Whitemon said. “You never know what happens in the Playoff games, you know? You could be strong in the Group Stage and after that, you might fall off in the Playoffs, or the opposite of that.”
“They're a strong team, but we're a very strong team too, and we can definitely win if we play our game,” added Ari.
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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