The International 2026 Starts Today: How to Watch, What the Format Actually Means, and Where to Find the Secret Shop

Sixteen teams landed in Shanghai this week. By Sunday night, three of them will be gone.

The International 2026 group stage opened on Thursday, August 13 at 02:00 UTC, and it runs a Swiss format that punishes a bad week harder than any group draw ever did. Valve published its rundown of streams, merch and city activities on August 12. Below is that information, plus the parts the blog post left you to work out yourself.

When does The International 2026 play out?

Stage	Dates	Format
Group stage	August 13 to 16	16-team Swiss, all series Bo3
Elimination round	August 16	10-team single elimination, Bo3
Main event	August 20 to 23	8-team double elimination
Grand final	August 23	Best of five

Note that the group stage runs online. Everything from August 20 onward happens in front of an audience at the SPD Bank Oriental Sports Center, and those tickets sold out.

Shanghai last hosted The International back in 2019, when OG beat Team Liquid for a second straight Aegis. This edition is TI15, organised by Valve and PGL, with a base prize pool of $1.6 million that has already grown past $2.8 million through in-game supporter content.

How does the Swiss group stage actually work?

Instead of a fixed schedule, teams face opponents with identical series records. Every match is a best-of-three, and your bracket position depends entirely on results so far.

Four series wins gets you into the main event, while four losses sends you home.

By the end of Saturday’s play, three teams will have qualified outright and three will have been eliminated. Sunday then hands the remaining ten a single elimination round: five series, one survivor each, five teams gone. Those five winners join the three qualified sides to fill the eight main event slots.

Consequently, a team can lose its opening two series and still lift the Aegis. Losing four means nothing else that week mattered.

Where can you watch TI 2026?

Because group stage series run simultaneously, Valve puts four concurrent streams on air per language.

• English, Chinese, Russian and Spanish each have four Twitch channels, plus full coverage on Steam and YouTube.
• Spanish adds Facebook on top of that.
• Chinese platforms DouYu, Huya and Bilibili carry the event locally.

All official links live in Valve’s announcement post. The Dota 2 client itself is worth keeping open too, since DotaTV gives you the in-game viewer with full camera control.

Community streams are allowed, and Valve is explicit about it. You can broadcast and cast The International as you like, provided your stream builds on DotaTV and your own content rather than restreaming somebody else’s broadcast, Valve’s included.

Why do some team names look wrong?

Because Valve bans betting sponsor names at The International, and several organisations had to compete under alternatives.

Playing as	Normally known as
BoomBoys	BetBoom Team
Iron Wing	1win
Team Vision	Parivision

Nothing about the rosters changed, although the branding did, which catches out anyone scanning a bracket for familiar logos. Aurora Gaming, Team Falcons, Team Liquid, Xtreme Gaming, Team Yandex, Team Spirit and Nigma Galaxy all appear under their usual names.

Seven teams received direct invites, while the other nine fought through regional qualifiers.

What is happening around Shanghai?

Perfect World scattered Dota heroes across the city from August 13 to 18, alongside a full-size Aegis of Champions.

Where to find them:

• Wujiaochang Square has the Aegis itself.
• Bailian ZX Fun Mall hosts Queen of Pain, Axe and Pudge.
• Wanda Plaza Wujiaochang has Juggernaut.
• Lujiazui Super Brand Mall has Windranger, August 12 to 18.
• Shanghai EXPO Culture Park has Mars and Shadow Fiend, August 13 to 18.
• Taikoo Li Qiantan runs later, August 18 to 24, with the Aegis plus Drow Ranger, Crystal Maiden and Juggernaut.

Meanwhile, souvenir pickup points sit at Lujiazui 96 Plaza, New Bund 31, Shanghai No. 1 Department Store and Expo Place. Perfect World’s Shanghai Dota Tour page has a map if you want to plan a route.

Note the Taikoo Li dates: that installation opens on the day the main event begins and stays up past the grand final, which makes it the one to hit if you are in the city for the arena days rather than the group stage.

Where is the Secret Shop?

The physical Secret Shop opens inside the SPD Bank Oriental Sports Center from August 20 to 23. Doors open at 9am each day, and it closes after the first break of the last series on the schedule.

You can buy from the counter directly, or else place a pickup order through the Perfect World app to skip the queue.

Buying from outside Shanghai works through two partner stores that are already live: a Tmall storefront for customers in China, and an AliExpress store for everyone else.

What Valve has not announced yet

The blog post ends by promising more, and three things specifically remain outstanding: on-site event details, in-game badges, and Crimson Witness drops.

Crimson Witness is worth watching for. Historically it rewards viewers watching official streams when a rampage happens live, and the drops have carried real value in past years. Valve has not confirmed how it works for 2026.

What to do before Sunday

Since predictions close as the group stage progresses, lock your first round in now rather than after the results start landing.

If you can only follow part of this, the Sunday elimination round is the day to clear. Five series, each one sending a team home, with main event slots on the line in every single one. In short, the group stage rarely produces a better day than that.

Then the tournament goes quiet for three days before Shanghai fills up on August 20.

Full stream links and city details come from Valve’s official post. Bracket and prize pool figures verified against Liquipedia. For more, see our Dota 2 coverage.