The International 2026 Playoffs: Bracket, Storylines and Every Quarterfinal

Sixteen teams went into the Swiss stage. Eight came out. The International 2026 playoffs open on Thursday 20 August at the SPD Bank Oriental Sports Center in Shanghai, and the bracket has already produced one quarterfinal nobody wanted to draw.

Nigma Galaxy face Team Falcons. That is the defending champions against a side that had to grind through the elimination round to get here, and it is the last match of the opening day.

The Full Quarterfinal Bracket

Four matches, all on Thursday 20 August. Times in CEST:

Time (CEST)	Match
04:00	Iron Wing vs Team Spirit
07:00	TEAM VISION vs BoomBoys
10:00	Team Liquid vs Team Yandex
13:00	Nigma Galaxy vs Team Falcons

Results and the updated bracket land on our The International 2026 playoffs page as each series finishes.

Shanghai runs on UTC+8, so the day starts at 10:00 local. European viewers get a 4:00 AM alarm for the first series or a lie-in and the Liquid game.

The playoffs run double elimination, so a single loss on Thursday is survivable. A second one is not. Every series is a best-of-three until the grand final on Sunday 23 August, which goes to five.

Why TEAM VISION Are the Team to Beat

TEAM VISION, the roster formerly competing as PARIVISION, finished the Swiss stage as top seed. They were also the first team to lock a playoff spot, and they did it by taking Team Spirit apart 2-0 in round four.

Beating Spirit convincingly at a TI is not a small thing. It puts VISION into the bracket as the form pick rather than the sentimental one, and their quarterfinal against BoomBoys reads as the softest draw of the four.

Falcons Are Chasing History, Not Just the Aegis

Team Falcons arrive as reigning champions after beating Xtreme Gaming for the Aegis last year. Win again and they join OG, Team Spirit and Team Liquid as two-time International winners.

The individual records are the better story. Captain Wu “Sneyking” Jingjun and carry Oliver “skiter” Lepko would become the first players ever to lift the Aegis three times. Coach Kurtis “Aui_2000” Ling is going for a fourth title of his own, his third from the coaching seat.

All of that runs through Nigma Galaxy first.

Iron Wing Are the Tundra Roster in Disguise

Iron Wing will be unfamiliar to a lot of viewers, and the name is doing the confusing. The organisation, also known as 1win Team, picked up the Tundra Esports roster, so the players in that jersey have TI pedigree even if the badge does not.

They swept GamerLegion to reach the playoffs. Now they draw Team Spirit in the opening match of the day, which is about as unforgiving a start as the bracket could hand them.

Team Yandex Squeezed In Last

Team Yandex were the final side to qualify, beating LGD Gaming to claim the eighth and last playoff slot.

Scraping through does not say much about their ceiling, though. Yandex came into Shanghai off a BLAST SLAM VII title, where they beat that same LGD roster in the final for $400,000. Their quarterfinal against Team Liquid is the closest thing to a coin flip on Thursday.

How Did the Format Get Here?

TI 2026 split into two phases. The Swiss-format group stage ran 13 to 16 August with all sixteen teams and every series played as a best-of-three.

From there, the top three advanced straight to the playoffs. Teams placed fourth through thirteenth dropped into an elimination round for the remaining five slots, and the bottom three went home without another match.

The base prize pool sits at $1.6 million, with the final figure rising through Compendium sales.

Where to Watch

Every series is listed on our Dota 2 livestream hub, which pulls the active broadcasts together in one place.

Valve is broadcasting on Twitch, YouTube and Steam in English, Chinese, Russian and Spanish, with a Facebook stream added for Spanish.

Watching on Steam has one practical benefit. Linking your account is how Crimson Witness drops reach you, since Valve hands those out on first blood in every match of the event.

The pre-show starts at 9:30 local each day. Thursday opens with the ceremony at 10:00, and the following days go straight into matches at the same time.

Scores, the live bracket and the full schedule stay updated on our The International 2026 playoffs hub throughout the week.