Seven Teams Earn Invites To The International ‘Dota 2’ Tournament

InnovationGamingSeven Teams Earn Invites To The International ‘Dota 2’ TournamentByMike Stubbs,Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Mike Stubbs covers esports, competitive games and the creator economy.Follow AuthorMay 26, 2026, 06:24am EDT--:-- / --:--This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.The invited teams for TI 2026.Credit: Valve Valve has announced the seven teams that have been directly invited to The International 2026, the biggest Dota 2 tournament of the year.Team Liquid, Team Falcons, Aurora Gaming, Tundra Esports, Xtreme Gaming, Team Yandex and BoomBoys have all received direct invitations to The International 2026 after their performance across the season.If you are wondering who is on the BoomBoys roster, given it is a new name in the Dota world, it is simply the BetBoom roster that is seemingly being forced to play under a name not related to the gambling site that sponsors them.All seven of the directly invited teams will head to Shanghai this summer to compete in The International 2026, the annual Dota 2 world championship that is being played in China for the first time since 2019.Joining them will be nine other teams that make it through the regional qualifiers, which have seen some changes this year. For the first time in quite a while, the western and eastern Europe qualifiers have been merged into one super qualifier, featuring top teams from both regions. Four teams will qualify from the European qualifier, with big names such as Team Spirit, Nigma Galaxy and Parivision, who narrowly missed out on an invite after winning DreamLeague, all involved.Given the event is being played in China, the qualifier for the region will feature two slots, which given the performance of Chinese teams this year, seems quite generous. Then rounding out the qualifiers are the South American, North American and SEA qualifiers that all have one spot at TI...