The International 2026 to run Aug. 13–23 in Shanghai

The International 2026 Dota 2 championship will be held in Shanghai from Aug. 13–23. Valve and production partner PGL will stage the offline event at the Oriental Sports Center, where 16 teams will compete for a total purse of $2,882,347.

The tournament’s base prize pool is $1,600,000. An additional $1,282,347 has been added from sales of club supporter bundles, representing a 30% revenue share of those sales. The overall winner will receive $1,224,968, or 42.5% of the total purse, and the runner-up will be awarded $374,748.

The event is split into two phases. The Group Stage runs Aug. 13–16 and uses a modified Swiss system. Every Group Stage match is best-of-three. The top three teams from the groups will advance directly to the Main Event playoffs. Teams finishing fourth through thirteenth will enter an elimination round, from which five teams will move on to the playoffs. Teams with the lowest Group Stage records will be eliminated.

The Main Event takes place Aug. 20–23 and follows a double-elimination bracket. Playoff matches leading up to the final will be best-of-three. The Grand Final will be a best-of-five series to determine the champion.

Valve has abandoned the traditional Battle Pass and Compendium model for this tournament. Instead, the company will distribute collections of in-game rewards during the event, and club supporter bundle sales will feed the prize pool through the stated 30% share.

Opening-day Group Stage matches are scheduled to begin at 05:00 EEST and 08:00 EEST. The first set of matches listed for the opening day includes Team Falcons vs LGD Gaming, Nigma Galaxy vs Iron Wing, BoomBoys vs OG, and TEAM VISION vs Team Resilience. The later slate includes Team Spirit vs Xtreme Gaming, Team Liquid vs Vici Gaming, Aurora Gaming vs GamerLegion, and Team Yandex vs HULIGANI.

Valve and PGL will handle live production and broadcast operations for the event. The tournament format places an emphasis on best-of-three series throughout most of the competition, with the extended best-of-five reserved for the championship match.