Team Liquid round out the Top 6 of TI 2026, with the team winning the organisation's third Aegis of Champions still a possibility.
The International (TI) 2026 is now down to its last six teams as the two most recent TI champions clashed in the first round of the lower braket on Friday (21 August). TI 2024 champions 
Team Liquid defeated defending champions 
Team Falcons, 2-1, to round out the Top 6 of this year's Dota 2 world championship tournament and keep their hopes for a second Aegis of Champions alive.
With their victory, Liquid have guaranteed themselves an estimated US$161,657 in winnings to go with their spot in the Top 6. They now advance to the lower bracket quarterfinals on Saturday (22 August), where they will face the loser of the upper bracket semifinal match between 
Team Yandex and 
Nigma Galaxy.
Meanwhile, Falcons have been eliminated from TI 2026 in 7th-8th place and will go home with an estimated US$129,299 in consolation. With last year's champions now knocked out, TI 2018 and TI 2019 champions 
OG remain the only back-to-back TI champions.
How Team Liquid and Team Falcons ended up in the TI 2026 lower bracket
As the two most recent champions, both Liquid and Falcons entered TI 2026 as solid contenders. And just a week before the tournament kicked off, both squads notably clashed in the grand finals of 1win Essence II, where Liquid swept Falcons in the grand finals and gained valuable momentum ahead of this year's world championship tournament.
Liquid looked like one of the strongest teams in the tournament during the Group Stage, where they finished with a 4-1 record and advanced directly to the Playoffs. Liquid swept China's 
Vici Gaming in Round 1 then took down Yandex, one of the biggest pre-tournament favourites, in three games in Round 2. However, they then suffered their first loss of the tournament at the hands of 
Team Spirit in Round 3.
Liquid bounced back in Round 4 by defeating regional rivals 
Iron Wing (aka 1w Team) to get in position for a direct berth to the Playoffs in the final round of the Group Stage. There, they pulled off a reverse sweep against Eastern European powerhouse 
Aurora Gaming to secure their spot in the main event and skip the Elimination Stage.
Meanwhile, Falcons had a more difficult path to the Playoffs. While they won their first match of the Group Stage against 
LGD Gaming, they lost in the next two rounds against tournament favourites 
TEAM VISION (aka PARIVISION) and Iron Wing. Falcons then secured a spot in the Elimination Stage by defeating North America's 
GamerLegion in Round 4 and secured an advantageous position there by taking down Eastern Europe's 
BoomBoys (aka BetBoom Team) in Round 5.
As the higher seed, Falcons earned the right to select their opponents in a do-or-die match for a spot in the Playoffs. Their choice to select Vici proved to be a wise one, as they soundly swept the Chinese team to advance to the main event.
Both Liquid and Falcons had favourable matchups in their respective opening matches of the Playoffs, only to suffer crushing defeats and get knocked down to the lower bracket. Liquid were swept by Yandex while Falcons fell victim to a reverse sweep at the hands of Nigma Galaxy. With that, a dramatic clash between the last two TI champions was set in the first round of the lower bracket.
Team Liquid reverse sweep Team Falcons out of TI 2026
Falcons opened the series with one of their signature tri-core drafts with 
Oliver “Skiter” Lepko on Sven, 
Stanislav “Malr1ne” Potorak on Earthshaker, and ATF on 
Ammar “ATF” Assaf. 
Andreas “Cr1t-” Nielsen on Bounty Hunter provided vision to facilitate the team's aggression while 
Jing “Sneyking” Wu on Mirana brought additional magic damage as well as a mobility tool in his hero's ‘Moonlight Shadow’ ultimate.
Meanwhile, Liquid opted for a teamfight-focused lineup featuring Lina for 
Micke “miCKe” Vu, Invoker for 
Michał “Nisha” Jankowski, Underlord for Marcus “Ace” Hoelgaard, Spirit Breaker for Samuel “Boxi” Svahn, and Rubick for 
Erik “tOfu” Engel.
Falcons utterly dominated the laning stage and simply snowballed out of control from there, with Liquid's heroes relentlessly being hounded across the map as they tried to find enough farm for a potential late game comeback. While Falcons were too strong in the head-on clashes out in the map, Liquid's high-ground defense also proved formidable. Because of this, Falcons resorted to their tried-and-true strategy of amassing as much net worth as possible before cracking their opponents' base open in order to minimise the chances of a turnaround.
And so, Falcons slowly but surely ground Liquid down over the course of 55 minutes until their opponents finally called ‘GG’. Falcons notably ended game one with a net worth lead of over 89,000 gold, by far the biggest gold difference in any game in TI 2026 so far. Skiter paced his team's 43-18 kill lead with 16 kills and 10 assists on five deaths, ATF added 12 kills and 15 assists on one death, Sneyking finished with eight kills and 26 assists on five deaths, while Malr1ne pitched in with a clean seven kills and 25 assists.
Liquid looked to force the series to a third game with a hard-hitting and highly-mobile lineup in game two. MiCKe had Windranger, Nisha was on Earth Spirit, Ace was given Underlord, Boxi took Tusk, while tOfu picked Hoodwink. Falcons looked to match their opponents' aggression with Skiter on Sven, Malr1ne on Lina, ATF on Centaur Warrunner, Cr1t on Enchantress, and Sneyking on Bane.
Game two was the inverse of the previous one, as Liquid were the ones to dominate the laning stage and get in good position for their mid game power spike. Once they hit their timing, Liquid demolished Falcons in teamfights and didn't need to amass a massive net worth lead before they ended the game in 34 minutes.
MiCKe notched 10 kills and 17 assists on two deaths to pace Liquid's 40-11 kill lead. Nisha put up nine kills and 23 assists against three deaths, while Ace and tOfu each had eight kills and combined for 37 assists.
Game three seemed like it was decided from the draft alone. Falcons first-picked Lifestealer for skiter as part of their signature tri-core that also featured Malr1ne on Sand King and ATF on Razor, with Cr1t on Clockwerk and Sneyking on Crystal Maiden rounding out the lineup.
Liquid countered their opponents' first pick Lifestealer by initially picking Centaur Warrunner then pivoting it to a position 4 support for Boxi, with Ace instead being given a last pick Viper to shut down the enemy carry. The team then rounded out their draft with a classic Faceless Void pick for miCKe, Lina for Nisha, and Hoodwink again for tOfu.
Liquid wisely focused their efforts on dominating the laning stage, with Skiter and ATF being the primary targets of their ire. Once the mid game teamfights commenced, Liquid's draft advantage became clear as Falcons' underpowered cores couldn't stand up against a Faceless Void backed by two other strong ranged cores. Despite their best efforts to mount a comeback, Falcons were eventually overwhelmed by Liquid after a 42-minute rout.
Nisha finished the closeout game with 10 kills and 17 assists on five deaths, both Ace and tOfu had nine kills and five deaths apiece to go with a combined 38 assists, while miCKe notched eight kills and 17 assists on two deaths.
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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