Staff Liquid spherical out the Prime 6 of TI 2026, with the staff successful the organisation’s third Aegis of Champions nonetheless a chance.
The International (TI) 2026 is now all the way down to its final six groups as the 2 most up-to-date TI champions clashed within the first spherical of the decrease braket on Friday (21 August). TI 2024 champions 
Team Liquid defeated defending champions 
Team Falcons, 2-1, to spherical out the Prime 6 of this yr’s Dota 2 world championship event and preserve their hopes for a second Aegis of Champions alive.
With their victory, Liquid have assured themselves an estimated US$161,657 in winnings to go along with their spot within the Prime 6. They now advance to the decrease bracket quarterfinals on Saturday (22 August), the place they may face the loser of the higher bracket semifinal match between 
Team Yandex and 
Nigma Galaxy.
In the meantime, Falcons have been eradicated from TI 2026 in Seventh-Eighth place and can go residence with an estimated US$129,299 in comfort. With final yr’s champions now knocked out, TI 2018 and TI 2019 champions 
OG stay the one back-to-back TI champions.
How Staff Liquid and Staff Falcons ended up within the TI 2026 decrease bracket
As the 2 most up-to-date champions, each Liquid and Falcons entered TI 2026 as stable contenders. And only a week earlier than the event kicked off, each squads notably clashed within the grand finals of 1win Essence II, where Liquid swept Falcons in the grand finals and gained helpful momentum forward of this yr’s world championship event.
Liquid regarded like one of many strongest groups within the event through the Group Stage, the place they completed with a 4-1 file and superior on to the Playoffs. Liquid swept China’s 
Vici Gaming in Spherical 1 then took down Yandex, one of many largest pre-tournament favourites, in three video games in Spherical 2. Nevertheless, they then suffered their first loss of the tournament at the hands of 
Team Spirit in Spherical 3.
Liquid bounced again in Spherical 4 by defeating regional rivals 
Iron Wing (aka 1w Staff) to get in place for a direct berth to the Playoffs within the ultimate spherical of the Group Stage. There, they pulled off a reverse sweep against Eastern European powerhouse 
Aurora Gaming to safe their spot in the primary occasion and skip the Elimination Stage.
In the meantime, Falcons had a tougher path to the Playoffs. Whereas they won their first match of the Group Stage against 
LGD Gaming, they misplaced within the subsequent two rounds in opposition to event favourites 
TEAM VISION (aka PARIVISION) and Iron Wing. Falcons then secured a spot within the Elimination Stage by defeating North America’s 
GamerLegion in Spherical 4 and secured an advantageous place there by taking down Japanese Europe’s 
BoomBoys (aka BetBoom Staff) in Spherical 5.
As the upper seed, Falcons earned the suitable to pick out their opponents in a do-or-die match for a spot within the Playoffs. Their alternative to pick out Vici proved to be a clever one, as they soundly swept the Chinese team to advance to the main event.
Each Liquid and Falcons had beneficial matchups of their respective opening matches of the Playoffs, solely to undergo crushing defeats and get knocked all the way down to the decrease bracket. Liquid were swept by Yandex whereas Falcons fell victim to a reverse sweep at the hands of Nigma Galaxy. With that, a dramatic conflict between the final two TI champions was set within the first spherical of the decrease bracket.
Staff Liquid reverse sweep Staff Falcons out of TI 2026
Falcons opened the collection with one in every of their signature tri-core drafts with 
Oliver “Skiter” Lepko on Sven, 
Stanislav “Malr1ne” Potorak on Earthshaker, and ATF on 
Ammar “ATF” Assaf. 
Andreas “Cr1t-” Nielsen on Bounty Hunter supplied imaginative and prescient to facilitate the staff’s aggression whereas 
Jing “Sneyking” Wu on Mirana introduced further magic harm in addition to a mobility software in his hero’s ‘Moonlight Shadow’ final.
In the meantime, Liquid opted for a teamfight-focused lineup that includes Lina for 
Micke “miCKe” Vu, Invoker for 
Michał “Nisha” Jankowski, Underlord for Marcus “Ace” Hoelgaard, Spirit Breaker for Samuel “Boxi” Svahn, and Rubick for 
Erik “tOfu” Engel.
Falcons completely dominated the laning stage and easily snowballed uncontrolled from there, with Liquid’s heroes relentlessly being hounded throughout the map as they tried to seek out sufficient farm for a possible late sport comeback. Whereas Falcons had been too sturdy within the head-on clashes out within the map, Liquid’s high-ground protection additionally proved formidable. Due to this, Falcons resorted to their tried-and-true technique of amassing as a lot internet value as doable earlier than cracking their opponents’ base open with the intention to minimise the probabilities of a turnaround.
And so, Falcons slowly however certainly floor Liquid down over the course of 55 minutes till their opponents lastly known as ‘GG’. Falcons notably ended sport one with a internet value lead of over 89,000 gold, by far the most important gold distinction in any sport in TI 2026 thus far. Skiter paced his staff’s 43-18 kill lead with 16 kills and 10 assists on 5 deaths, ATF added 12 kills and 15 assists on one demise, Sneyking completed with eight kills and 26 assists on 5 deaths, whereas Malr1ne pitched in with a clear seven kills and 25 assists.
Liquid regarded to drive the collection to a 3rd sport with a hard-hitting and highly-mobile lineup in sport two. MiCKe had Windranger, Nisha was on Earth Spirit, Ace was given Underlord, Boxi took Tusk, whereas tOfu picked Hoodwink. Falcons regarded to match their opponents’ aggression with Skiter on Sven, Malr1ne on Lina, ATF on Centaur Warrunner, Cr1t on Enchantress, and Sneyking on Bane.
Sport two was the inverse of the earlier one, as Liquid had been those to dominate the laning stage and get in good place for his or her mid sport energy spike. As soon as they hit their timing, Liquid demolished Falcons in teamfights and did not have to amass a large internet value lead earlier than they ended the sport in 34 minutes.
MiCKe notched 10 kills and 17 assists on two deaths to tempo Liquid’s 40-11 kill lead. Nisha put up 9 kills and 23 assists in opposition to three deaths, whereas Ace and tOfu every had eight kills and mixed for 37 assists.
Sport three appeared prefer it was determined from the draft alone. Falcons first-picked Lifestealer for skiter as a part of their signature tri-core that additionally featured Malr1ne on Sand King and ATF on Razor, with Cr1t on Clockwerk and Sneyking on Crystal Maiden rounding out the lineup.
Liquid countered their opponents’ first choose Lifestealer by initially choosing Centaur Warrunner then pivoting it to a place 4 assist for Boxi, with Ace as an alternative being given a final choose Viper to close down the enemy carry. The staff then rounded out their draft with a basic Faceless Void choose for miCKe, Lina for Nisha, and Hoodwink once more for tOfu.
Liquid properly centered their efforts on dominating the laning stage, with Skiter and ATF being the first targets of their ire. As soon as the mid sport teamfights commenced, Liquid’s draft benefit turned clear as Falcons’ underpowered cores could not get up in opposition to a Faceless Void backed by two different sturdy ranged cores. Regardless of their finest efforts to mount a comeback, Falcons had been finally overwhelmed by Liquid after a 42-minute rout.
Nisha completed the closeout sport with 10 kills and 17 assists on 5 deaths, each Ace and tOfu had 9 kills and 5 deaths apiece to go along with a mixed 38 assists, whereas miCKe notched eight kills and 17 assists on two deaths.
What’s The Worldwide 2026?
TI 2026 will probably be this yr’s iteration of Dota 2’s annual world championship event, happening in August in Shanghai, China. As with earlier iterations of the event, TI 2026 will function a complete of 16 groups that earn their spots within the event by receiving direct invitations or incomes slots by way of regional qualifiers.
The listing of directly-invited groups to TI 2026 embrace 
Aurora Gaming, BoomBoys (aka BetBoom Staff), 
Team Falcons, 
Team Liquid, Iron Wing (aka 1w Staff), 
Xtreme Gaming, and 
Team Yandex. In the meantime, the groups that earned their spots by way of the regional qualifiers embrace European qualifier winners 
Team Spirit, TEAM VISION (aka PARIVISION), 
HULIGANI, and 
Nigma Galaxy, North American qualifier winner 
GamerLegion, Southeast Asian qualifier winner 
OG, South American qualifier winner 
LGD Gaming, in addition to Chinese qualifier winners 
Vici Gaming and 
Team Resilience.
TI 2026’s principal occasion will probably be hosted within the Oriental Sports activities Middle in Shanghai. Valve first announced that Shanghai will host TI 2026 throughout final yr’s world championship event, the place Team Falcons claimed the Aegis of Champions after defeating China’s Xtreme Gaming within the five-game grand finals.
This can mark the second time that Shanghai will host TI after TI 2019, the place Western Europe’s OG turned the first-ever two-time TI champions after defeating Staff Liquid in 4 video games to say the grand prize of US$15.6 million, out of the US$34.3 million prize pool.
TI 2026 will probably be break up into two phases: the ‘Highway to The Worldwide’ and ‘The Worldwide’ principal occasion. The Highway to The Worldwide will probably be a Swiss-style Group Stage from 13 to 16 August, the place the 16 groups will probably be reduce all the way down to the ultimate eight that may play within the sport’s largest stage from 20 to 23 August in Shanghai’s Oriental Sports activities Middle.
TI 2026’s prize pool follows that of earlier editions, with a US$1.6 million base prize pool that may then be boosted by way of gross sales of the TI 2026 Compendium.
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