Dota 2 Fantasy picks for TI 2026: best players, Emblems, and more

Dota 2 Fantasy returns for The International 2026 (TI 2026), giving everybody one other strategy to comply with the motion and earn rewards all through the event. Accessible instantly contained in the Compendium, Fantasy enables you to construct a roster from competing gamers and rating factors based mostly on their in-game performances.

Right here’s methods to play Dota 2 Fantasy, together with the most effective picks, scoring system, Emblems, Traits, Titles, and rewards for TI 2026.

Editor’s Word: We are going to replace this web page with our really useful Primary Occasion Dota 2 Fantasy picks as soon as the Group Stage has concluded.

First issues first, the entire level of the Fantasy League is to draft a mixture of Dota 2 players. This yr, you’ll decide a pair of Core gamers from the identical workforce, one Mid participant, and a workforce’s Assist duo.

Nevertheless, there isn’t essentially a “excellent roster” for everyone.

Your finest picks can change relying on the stats and multipliers you roll in your Struggle Banners. I’ve supplied some sturdy all-round choices under based mostly on r/Maroomm’s Fantasy data from over 1,600 matches throughout 13 Tier 1 tournaments.

Now that we all know which Dota 2 gamers to decide on, let’s truly find out how the Fantasy League works. Right here’s methods to entry it:

Creating your Fantasy roster is a chunk of cake. When you’re within the Fantasy menu, issues are fairly easy.

As we touched on earlier, you’ll choose gamers from a workforce for 3 classes: Core, Mid, and Support. The Core and Assist selections will every offer you two gamers from the identical workforce, whereas Mid provides one participant. 

You’ll additionally see a timer on the prime, indicating when the rosters shall be locked. You may freely swap your chosen gamers earlier than the deadline with out spending Roll Tokens or altering the Emblems in your Struggle Banners.

TI 2026 Fantasy is cut up between the Group Stage and The Worldwide (Primary Occasion).

This implies you’ll lock in a roster for the Group Stage earlier than the occasion begins. As soon as that stage is over, the eight surviving groups will advance to the Primary Occasion, supplying you with one other alternative to regulate your picks earlier than the subsequent roster lock.

Your Struggle Banners additionally broaden between the 2 levels. Initially, you’ll have three Emblems on every banner through the Group Stage, which is able to carry over earlier than two extra Emblems are added for the Primary Occasion. The banner layouts are as follows:

Word: Purple Emblems focus primarily on kills and farming, Blue Emblems comprise support-oriented stats, whereas Inexperienced Emblems comprise stats helpful throughout a number of roles.

Sadly, you possibly can’t simply draft your gamers and name it a day. The Dota 2 Fantasy scoring system additionally takes Struggle Banners, Emblems, Titles, and their respective bonuses under consideration.

You’ll get three Struggle Banners, with one every to your Core, Mid, and Assist picks.

Every Emblem will monitor one in-game stat, resembling GPM, Creep Rating, Runes Grabbed, or Wards Positioned, and apply a multiplier to the Fantasy factors you earn from that stat.

Importantly, your gamers will solely obtain factors for the stats at present current on their Struggle Banner. Which means that an important participant paired with horrible Emblems can simply be worse than a barely weaker participant whose playstyle completely matches your rolls.

There are additionally totally different Qualities and Traits for every Emblem, which additional amplify the advantages you obtain from totally different stats.

To carry out nicely within the TI 2026 Dota 2 Fantasy League, you’ll want good Struggle Banners, Emblems, and Traits. The one means to enhance them is thru Roll Tokens. 

You obtain 40 Roll Tokens for the Group Stage, adopted by a separate 30 Roll Tokens for the Primary Occasion. Every reroll targets a selected a part of the chosen banner, permitting you to reroll stats, Qualities, or Traits relying on the choice offered.

You don’t want to avoid wasting your Roll Tokens, so be sure you use them earlier than the roster locks. Simply watch out as a result of rerolling doesn’t assure you’ll get higher stats on the subsequent roll.

Lastly, you may as well add a Title consisting of a prefix and a suffix to your Fantasy roster. Not like Emblems, one Title applies throughout your whole roster, and you may freely change it with out spending any Roll Tokens.

Titles present a conditional proportion bonus to your Fantasy rating based mostly on issues just like the totally different Dota 2 heroes your chosen gamers decide or particular occasions that happen throughout a collection.

You’ll earn Fantasy factors in each recreation your chosen gamers take part in, however the system doesn’t merely add collectively each recreation they play.

For every role in Dota 2 Fantasy, the scores of its gamers are averaged to create a rating for every recreation. The 2 highest-scoring video games inside a collection are then used to calculate that function’s ultimate rating. If the function participates in a number of collection throughout the identical interval, solely its highest-scoring collection counts.

So, we’re not taking a look at complete video games performed – solely the 2 highest-scoring video games from every function’s finest collection. That’s usually why groups that prefer to go late-game are sometimes extra priceless Dota 2 Fantasy picks

Now that we’ve gone over what Emblems, Traits, and Titles are, let’s check out the most effective ones to pick. 

The necessary factor to recollect right here is you can’t freely place any stat into any slot as a result of your banner’s Purple, Blue, and Inexperienced colours are fastened. Your objective ought to subsequently be to roll the strongest obtainable stat for every shade.

To maintain issues easy, Emblems have Qualities starting from Tier I to Tier V. These amplify the stat bonus by +10%, +30%, +60%, +100%, and +150%, respectively – naturally, the upper the tier, the higher.

There are additionally 5 potential Traits: Fractal, Benevolent, Vampiric, Distinctive, and Pleasant, which give additional bonuses. The worth of every Trait will depend on the place it seems and what else you’ve rolled.

Pleasant usually provides higher upside when you possibly can activate a number of collectively, whereas Vampiric works notably nicely on the surface of a banner. Benevolent is mostly extra helpful within the center.

While you construct your Struggle Banner, the order of significance is as follows: (i) get a very good Emblem stat, (ii) enhance its High quality, and (iii) fear about getting the right Trait final. A Tier V Emblem monitoring a horrible stat nonetheless isn’t going to avoid wasting your lineup.

The very last thing to fret about is your Fantasy Title, which acts as a conditional bonus.

There isn’t one universally “finest prefix” as a result of its worth relies upon closely on the gamers you select and the heroes they really play. For instance, the obtainable information exhibits very totally different most well-liked prefixes between Satanic, Seen, Malr1ne, Thiolicor, and KJ, so be certain that your choice truly fits your roster.

For suffixes, go for the Clutch and the Underdog – these are the steadiest choices in the event you don’t wish to suppose a lot about it.

So, what are we doing all this brainstorming and learning for? Nicely, there are some fairly tempting rewards up for grabs by The Worldwide 2026 Compendium.

To be clear, your Fantasy percentile doesn’t instantly decide the headline rewards under. Fantasy efficiency awards factors that contribute towards your Compendium rating, whereas Predictions additionally contribute to that total consequence.

For Fantasy itself, your roster shall be in contrast with everybody else. For instance, ending within the ninety fifth percentile earns 10,000 efficiency factors, whereas the ninetieth percentile earns 8,400, and the eightieth percentile earns 5,800.

These factors then assist decide your total Compendium rating and the rewards you possibly can earn. The highest prizes embrace Dota Plus subscriptions, a Terrain Token, and reductions on the bodily Aegis. There’s additionally the returning Tyrian Regalia treasure, which incorporates 5 purple-themed, refashioned Immortal objects.

And that’s a wrap! Earlier than TI 2026 will get underway, be certain that your Group Stage Fantasy roster is locked earlier than play begins on Aug. 13. You’ll then get one other probability to regulate your picks forward of the Primary Occasion roster lock on Aug. 20, so keep watch over which groups advance and the way your Struggle Banners are shaping up.

We’ll additionally replace this information with our really useful Primary Occasion Fantasy picks as soon as the Group Stage is full.

We prolong a particular due to r/Maroomm and the Dota 2 community on Reddit for compiling and sharing the Fantasy information that helped inform the picks and proposals on this information.