The International 2026 will be held in Shanghai

Valve have announced the venue and dates for The International 2026. This year’s tournament, which marks its fifteenth anniversary, will take place in China: the world’s best teams will battle for the Aegis of Champions at the Shanghai Oriental Sports Center from August 20 to 23.

In their announcement, Valve write about teams that spend the entire year training hard for one goal — to fight through the strongest opponents and be the last ones standing on the battlefield. The developers compare the players’ talent, dreams, and sacrifice to threads that the teams weave into a single tapestry: every challenge, decision, and risk tightens it further, while every mistake threatens to tear it apart. According to Valve, the final threads of this competitive season will cross in Shanghai.

Format and schedule

Sixteen teams will compete for the Aegis. Some of them will receive direct invites, while the remaining spots will be decided through qualifiers: first open qualifiers will be held, then regional qualifiers. After that, the action will move to Shanghai, where the participants will face a Swiss-system group stage: it will determine the eight teams that advance to the tournament’s main stage. The schedule looks like this:

• June 9–12 — open qualifiers;
• June 15–28 — regional qualifiers;
• August 13–16 — Swiss-system group stage in Shanghai, where teams fight for one of eight spots in the main stage;
• August 20–23 — deciding matches for the Aegis of Champions at the Oriental Sports Center.

Tickets and the professional season

Valve say they will publish ticket sale information closer to the tournament, so it’s worth keeping an eye on the news. Until then, the calendar is packed with professional competitions, and the battle will only intensify as the year goes on: teams from every region will try to prove they deserve to reach Dota 2’s biggest stage and stand alongside the world’s best lineups.

Source: official Dota 2 blog.