Ahead of the nail-biting Grand Final at The International 2025, Valve announced that The International 2026 will return to Shanghai, China. And it’s perfect timing.
At TI14, fans witnessed the resurgence of Chinese Dota, with Xtreme Gaming topping the highly unpredictable Swiss Stage in a flawless run, and making it all the way to the Grand Final before losing to Team Falcons in a nail-biting 3-2 slugfest. Are the glory days of Chinese Dota upon us?
GabeN announces The International 2026 location
Up until now, The International 2019 (which ran from Aug. 15-25, 2019) was the only time the crowning event took place in China, where Dota 2 esports fans witnessed OG’s historic back-to-back wins at the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai.
The President of Valve Corporation, Gabe Logan Newell (also known simply as GabeN by his adoring fans) started a short-but-sweet video by thanking Germany for making The International such a success, before announcing that: “We all share our love of the game with an international community, and I’m excited to announce that next year’s International will also be returning to a previous location.”
At that point, the text “Shanghai” appeared, alongside August 2026 as the date. GabeN finished off the announcement by telling fans, “I hope to see you there,” as the screen faded to black.
Image Credit: Valve
It’s as if Valve is revisiting Dota 2 esports’ greatest hits with familiar locations. After all, this year the event returned to Germany for the first time since the inaugural tournament in 2011.
The International 2026 will be the first time the crowning event takes place in August since The International 2019.
In case you’ve been trapped under some kind of rock, possibly thanks to Tiny’s Avalanche skill and completely missed it, you can catch up with the highlights of the nail-biting Grand Final at The International 2025, where Team Falcons clashed with Xtreme Gaming.
Could a home crowd advantage be enough for a Chinese team to lift the Aegis of Champions? While it wasn’t enough to get PSG.LGD fell short at The International 2019, where the final Chinese hope was eliminated in third place. The International 2026 could prove to be a different story.