In this guide
Invitations and qualifiers build the starting fieldSixteen entrants compete for eight main-event placesGame score and series score have different meaningsThe International is Dota 2’s major championship tournament, contested by professional teams for the Aegis of Champions. The 2026 edition took place in Shanghai, with a sixteen-team field and a Swiss-style group stage before the eight-team main event.
The words “main event” identify a stage inside the tournament. They do not mean that the earlier group-stage matches were outside The International or lacked qualification consequences.
Invitations and qualifiers build the starting field
Valve’s 2026 announcement described a field containing directly invited rosters and teams emerging from open and regional qualifiers. Those are routes into the tournament, rather than points carried into one shared championship table.
A regional qualifying result should therefore stay attached to its qualifier. Once a team enters The International, its championship-stage record describes a different contest. A programme labelled “regional qualifier” is not a main-event replay.
Sixteen entrants compete for eight main-event places
The Swiss-style group stage narrows the field to eight main-event teams. The stage title matters when reading a result: a group-stage match affects the path towards that field, while a main-event match belongs to the later championship bracket.
The 2026 format should not be reconstructed from an older International’s round-robin groups. “Group stage” is a broad label, and the Swiss-style descriptor supplies an important edition-specific qualification context.
Game score and series score have different meanings
A Dota game is one played contest; a series groups games between opponents. An on-screen number showing games won in a series is consequently different from a team’s record across a tournament stage.
For example, a fictional 1–0 series lead means one game has been won in that matchup. Whether another game is required depends on the stated series format. It does not by itself mean qualification for the main event or victory in the entire tournament. Preserve edition, stage, opponents and series label when describing an archive.