Team Spirit Defeat TEAM VISION to Win The International 2026 and Claim a Historic Third Aegis of Champions

Team Spirit are the first-ever three-time world champions of Dota 2 after outlasting regional rivals TEAM VISION (also known as PARIVISION) 3-2 in a best-of-five grand finals at The International 2026 in Shanghai's Oriental Sports Center on Sunday, 23 August 2026.

Spirit took the deciding fifth game in a 64-minute thriller after dropping an early lead to TEAM VISION, sealing the result in front of a sold-out Shanghai crowd. The championship also carries historical weight: Spirit carry Illya "Yatoro" Mulyarchuk and offlaner Magomed "Collapse" Khalilov are now the first Dota 2 players to become three-time TI champions, having previously lifted the Aegis together at TI 2021 and TI 2023. Coach Yaroslav "Miposhka" Naidenov is also a three-time champion, his first coming as a coach after winning his first two as a player alongside Yatoro and Collapse. Mid laner Denis "Larl" Sigitov becomes the 13th player to win TI twice, with his maiden title coming at TI 2023 with the same roster. Support duo Alexey "not me" Kosmynin and Aleksandr "rue" Filin both win their first Aegis, with not me notably taking the title on his TI debut.

Spirit claim the US$1.4 million grand prize out of TI 2026's US$3.33 million prize pool, which was built from a US$1.6 million base boosted by sales of the TI 2026 Compendium.

TEAM VISION, who entered the tournament as the heavy favourites and went undefeated through the Group Stage, had to settle for second place and improve only on last year's third-place finish. Their coach Clement "Puppey" Ivanov, the 2011 TI1 champion, once again finished runner-up at a TI after previously taking second in 2012, 2013 and 2022.

The path to the final reflected how dominant VISION had been before the grand finals. They swept BoomBoys (BetBoom Team), Team Falcons and Spirit in the Group Stage to advance directly to the Playoffs, then dispatched BoomBoys again in the upper-bracket quarterfinals before getting past Spirit a second time in the upper-bracket semifinals. VISION secured the first grand-finals slot by beating Team Yandex in the upper-bracket final.

Spirit, by contrast, had to grind through the Elimination Stage after a 2-0 upset loss to Nigma Galaxy in the final Group-Stage round. They took out Resilience to reach the main event, then swept Iron Wing in the upper-bracket quarterfinals before falling to VISION again. From there, Spirit went on a lower-bracket run, sweeping Team Liquid and BoomBoys before routing Yandex in the lower-bracket final to set up the rematch.

In the grand finals, Spirit dominated game one and looked poised for a 2-0 lead before VISION forced a 1-1 split in game two. Game three was the swing of the series, with Spirit edging VISION to take a 2-1 lead. VISION hit back with a dominant game four to push the series to a decider, where Spirit overturned an early deficit to close out the championship.

TI 2026 was the second time Shanghai hosted The International, following TI 2019 in the same city. The 16-team field featured direct invites for Aurora Gaming, BoomBoys, Team Falcons, Team Liquid, Iron Wing, Xtreme Gaming and Team Yandex, with the remaining slots filled through regional qualifiers that sent Spirit, TEAM VISION, HULIGANI, Nigma Galaxy, GamerLegion, OG, LGD Gaming, Vici Gaming and Team Resilience to the event. The Group Stage ran from 13 to 16 August, with the main event played from 20 to 23 August.