Blue on correctly predicting The International 2026 bracket: “I was making one prediction after another—I didn’t have time.”

It was pretty mind-blowing because I was making predictions on very short notice—I’d been working all day and all week, and I had, like, 30 minutes to spare, and the two of us were streaming together. And I was like, “Alright, I’ll just go with what I think is most likely,” but some of the predictions were based purely on my gut feeling about the matchups.

Sometimes certain teams get a boost depending on their opponent. For example, the match on August 22—Team Spirit vs. BetBoom Team. I think most people consider BetBoom the strongest team this year, but I felt that they know each other very well, and Spirit always steps up when playing against another team from their region. With the exception of a few matches that didn’t go their way. But I felt that this was TI, and if Spirit was playing against BetBoom, I wouldn’t be thinking about the stats. I’ll just say that Spirit will win because it’s TI. And that’s exactly how I made some of my decisions—not because the outcomes were likely, but based on my gut feeling about what should happen.

I remember saying on the stream that PARIVISION would win that match. I was 90% sure, but then I thought, no, I’ll pick the other side because Spirit is the kind of team that, I felt, would really heat things up once they reached the finals. I decided to ignore the stats and predict that Spirit would win. And there was a moment when I was genuinely afraid I’d get my prediction wrong. I thought, “No, 13 out of 14 is even worse than not guessing right at all.” Then Yatoro redeemed himself, the fight ended, and I thought he was going to die, he’d be gone for two minutes, and I wouldn’t be able to predict the outcome. But on the other hand, I thought, “They made it to the Grand Final—there’s no way they’ll lose.”

There are teams that are very likely to put on a good final. This applies, for example, to the Falcons and the Spirit. I don’t mean to say that PARIVISION isn’t on that list, but who has more experience: Satanic or Yatoro? And who’s more important in this series? I felt I was right. Satanic isn’t a bad player, but this is a final against Yatoro—a guy who’s already won there twice. I don’t know, to me it was just obvious that the one with more experience would win.

Of course. But on the other hand, I don’t know how many people guessed correctly this year. It just so happened that I work in Dota, so my friends reposted my old post. I don’t know if anyone else predicted the bracket correctly, or how many people did. I also don’t know if Valve is ready to invite so many people to TI for free next year.

Of course, I’d love to go, but I’ve been working at Intel since 2017, with a few exceptions. If I’m not invited as a host or commentator, I’d definitely like to go, but if they need me, I don’t know what my answer would be. Although sometimes I feel like I could take some time off and just enjoy TI if Valve invites me. I’d love that. Plus, I’d get to catch up with friends I really miss, since I don’t fly to TI anymore. I’d take the opportunity.

It’s so unlikely. I was making one prediction after another—I didn’t have time. “Okay, Spirit will win this match, but they’ll lose to PARIVISION, and the Falcons won’t win anything in the playoffs,” and so on. I was just enjoying making predictions without overthinking it, and that probably helped me. But yeah, it made my weekend more enjoyable than I expected, and I’m really happy about that.

I’ll wait for Valve to retweet my post. If they don’t give me the chance to go, at least let there be a retweet. It feels like a small victory, even if I didn’t do anything.

I just want everyone to keep enjoying Dota, and I hope everyone’s next predictions come true. I hope TI happens next year as well.