TI 2026 group stage — 16 teams, Swiss bracket, Day 1 schedule, full draw

The TI 2026 group stage begins Aug 13 at 02:00 UTC at the Oriental Sports Center in Shanghai. The 16 teams play a Swiss-system bracket over 4 days (Aug 13-16), with the top 8 teams advancing to the playoffs (Aug 20-23).

How the Swiss bracket works

There are no pre-assigned groups. The bracket is reshuffled after each round so teams with the same W-L record play each other. Every match is a best-of-3 series. The Swiss system has 5 rounds total:

• Round 1 (Aug 13, 02:00 + 05:00 UTC): 8 matches, all 0-0

teams paired

• Round 2 (Aug 13, 08:00 UTC): 8 matches, 1-0 vs 1-0 and

0-1 vs 0-1

• Round 3 (Aug 14, 05:00 UTC): 8 matches, 2-0 vs 2-0,

1-1 vs 1-1, 0-2 vs 0-2

• Round 4 (Aug 15, 02:00 + 05:00 UTC): 8 matches, 3-0

advancement, 2-1, 1-2, 0-3 elimination

• Round 5 (Aug 15, 08:00 UTC): 7 matches, 3-1 advancement,

2-2, 1-3 elimination

• Aug 16: Elimination Round (5 Bo3 matches between the 3-2

and 2-3 teams) — winners advance to the playoffs

Qualification paths:

• 3 wins → upper bracket of the playoffs
• 3 losses → eliminated
• 2-2 after Round 4 → Aug 16 Elimination Round

The 16 teams

Direct invites (7):

• Team Falcons (EU) — TI 2024 + TI 2025 champion
• Team Liquid (EU) — TI 2025 runner-up
• Iron Wing (EU) — 1w Team / ex-Tundra Esports
• Xtreme Gaming (China)
• BoomBoys (CIS) — BetBoom Team's broadcast tag
• Aurora Gaming (CIS)
• Team Yandex (CIS)

Regional qualifiers (9):

• Team Spirit (EU) — TI 2021 + TI 2023 champion
• TEAM VISION (EU) — PARIVISION's broadcast tag, EWC 2026

champion

• Nigma Galaxy (EU)
• HULIGANI (EU) — L1GA TEAM's broadcast tag
• Vici Gaming (China)
• Team Resilience (China)
• OG (SEA) — first TI since 2022
• GamerLegion (NA)
• LGD Gaming (SA)

Rebranded teams (4) — Valve prohibits gambling sponsors on the TI broadcast. 4 teams play under rebranded tags:

• Iron Wing = 1w Team (ex-Tundra Esports)
• BoomBoys = BetBoom Team
• TEAM VISION = PARIVISION
• HULIGANI = L1GA TEAM

The rosters and form are unchanged — only the broadcast tag is different.

Round 1 schedule (Aug 13, 02:00 + 05:00 UTC)

Time (UTC)	Match 1	vs	Match 2	Format
02:00	Team Falcons	vs	LGD Gaming	Bo3
02:00	HULIGANI	vs	Iron Wing	Bo3
02:00	BoomBoys	vs	OG	Bo3
02:00	TEAM VISION	vs	Team Resilience	Bo3
05:00	Team Spirit	vs	Xtreme Gaming	Bo3
05:00	Team Liquid	vs	Vici Gaming	Bo3
05:00	Aurora Gaming	vs	GamerLegion	Bo3
05:00	Team Yandex	vs	Iron Wing	Bo3

Note: Iron Wing plays twice on Day 1 (vs HULIGANI at 02:00 and vs Yandex at 05:00). The 02:00 vs HULIGANI was originally a Round 1 matchup; the 05:00 vs Yandex was a Round 1 matchup on the other side of the bracket. Both are completed on Aug 13 as Round 1.

The 4 marquee Round 1 matchups

Team Spirit vs Xtreme Gaming (05:00) — the 2-time TI champion's roster against the only Chinese direct invite. Both teams went 1-0 on Day 1. Yatoro vs Xm is the marquee mid-lane matchup.

Team Falcons vs LGD Gaming (02:00) — the defending TI 2025 champion against the South American open-qualifier team. Falcons won 2-1 in a 3-game series.

TEAM VISION vs Team Resilience (02:00) — the EWC 2026 champion against the Chinese open-qualifier team. VISION won 2-1 in a 3-game series.

Iron Wing vs HULIGANI (02:00) — the ex-Tundra Esports roster against the EU qualifier team. Iron Wing won 2-0 in a clean sweep.

How to watch

• English stream: Twitch.tv/dota2ti and YouTube.com/dota2
• Chinese stream: Douyu (channel 999) and Bilibili

(channel 7738320)

• Russian stream: Twitch.tv/dota2ti_ru
• Spanish stream: Twitch.tv/dota2ti_es

All matches are on patch 7.41d. Regional streams in 8+ languages. Free, no paywall.

The group stage runs Aug 13-16, with 8 matches per day. The 8 advancing teams move to the double-elimination playoffs at the Oriental Sports Center, starting Aug 20.

Sources

• TI 2026 group stage draw, PGL official release, Aug 12
• OpenDota TI 2026 league page, accessed Aug 13

(league ID 19719)

• Esports World Cup 2026 results, July 2026