Team Spirit are the champions of The International 2026, and they are now something no other team in Dota history has been. They beat TEAM VISION 3-2 in a five game grand final at the Oriental Sports Center in Shanghai to claim a third Aegis of Champions, the first organisation ever to do it.
The TI 2026 grand final closed an eleven day tournament that began on August 13. Team Spirit took roughly $1.4 million from a prize pool that finished above $3.33 million, having arrived at the final the hard way, through the entire lower bracket, and having already lost to the same opponent twice earlier in the event.
TI 2026 grand final result, game by game
Spirit took game one in convincing fashion. Yatoro was left with an uncontested Shadow Fiend and finished 16 kills and 7 assists to a single death, picking up a rampage along the way.
VISION levelled the series in a game that ran past the hour mark. No[o]ne on Earth Spirit and Noticed on Underlord kept turning fights that Spirit expected to win, and Satanic became effectively unkillable once his Lifestealer picked up a Divine Rapier.
Game three was the best of the series and went to Spirit, with Yatoro on Terrorblade at 10 and 12 to one death. It also produced the first Marci of the entire tournament, drafted by 9Class.
VISION forced a decider with a clean 44 minute game four, leading more or less from the front. Game five of the TI 2026 grand final then ran 64 minutes. The turn came when Collapse baited with a Lotus Orb and won the fight that followed, and Yatoro closed it out on Juggernaut. It was only the fifth grand final in TI history to go the full five games.
Full grand final day broadcast, from the official Dota 2 channel on YouTube.
How Team Spirit reached the TI 2026 grand final
Spirit swept Iron Wing to open the playoffs, then lost to TEAM VISION 2-1 in the upper bracket and dropped into the lower half of the draw. What followed was a four series run with no margin for error: a 2-0 sweep of Team Liquid, a win over BoomBoys, and then a rout of Team Yandex in the lower bracket final.
That set up a third meeting with VISION at this single tournament. VISION had won the first two, 2-0 in the group stage to take the top seed and 2-1 in the upper bracket. Spirit won the one that counted.
First team to win three Internationals
TEAM VISION arrived as the most convincing side in the tournament. Satanic on carry, No[o]ne in mid, Noticed on offlane, 9Class and Dukalis on support, coached by Puppey. They went undefeated through the Swiss group stage, became the first team to book a direct playoff place, and reached the grand final without ever being sent to the lower bracket.
For Puppey the loss carries its own weight. He won the very first International in 2011 as a player and has spent the fifteen years since getting close without adding a second.
Yatoro and Collapse are now the first players in Dota 2 history with three Aegis wins each, having also taken TI10 in 2021 and TI12 in 2023. Miposhka has three as well, two of them as the player calling those wins and this one from the coach chair.
The defending champions never made it close
Team Falcons came into TI 2026 as reigning champions and went out in the lower bracket, beaten 2-1 by Nigma Galaxy in the upper bracket and then knocked out entirely by Team Liquid. Support player Cr1t spent the week suggesting this was probably his last International.
SumaiL retires at the end of a decade
The story that will outlast the result belongs to a player who never reached the final. SumaiL confirmed his retirement after Nigma Galaxy were eliminated by BoomBoys, finishing in the top six. Asked whether the run gave him any reason to reconsider, he said he would sit with it, but that he did not see a path back.
SumaiL won The International in 2015 with Evil Geniuses at 16 years and 4 months old and remains the youngest champion the event has ever produced. He took finals MVP that year, and his team collected what was then the largest prize in esports history. Nigma also carried GH at position 4 with KuroKy coaching, which made that roster one of the last direct links to the era that built modern Dota.
We wrote about what that decade looked like from the other side of the screen in 10 years of Dota 2: the game I love, hate and keep reinstalling.
TI 2026 final standings and prize money
| Placement | Team | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Team Spirit | approx $1,400,000 |
| 2nd | TEAM VISION | $377,934 |
| 3rd | Team Yandex | $261,574 |
| 4th | BoomBoys | $196,771 |
| 5th to 6th | Nigma Galaxy, Team Liquid | approx $162,832 each |
Iron Wing and Team Falcons filled out the playoff bracket in seventh and eighth. Both were long gone by the time the TI 2026 grand final started. The pool started from a $1.6 million base and grew past $3.33 million on in game cosmetic sales, still far short of the crowdfunded Battle Pass peaks but up on the direction of the last few editions.
What the TI 2026 grand final changes
The obvious headline is the record, and it deserves to be. No team had won three Internationals before tonight, and the two players who have now done it are both still in their competitive prime rather than at the end of long careers.
The quieter story is the handover. This was the TI where the defending champions went out early, where SumaiL played his last professional series, where GH and KuroKy went home in the top six, and where Cr1t hinted he is close to finished. A generation is stepping back at the same moment another one collects its third title. The TI 2026 grand final happened to be the night both things were visible at once.
If TI 2026 was your first International, our guide to Dota 2 in 2026 covers whether the game is worth picking up, and our esports viewership breakdown puts the scale of the event in context.
Sources: GosuGamers, Hotspawn and Liquipedia. Prize figures are as reported on August 23, 2026 and may be revised.
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