CrystalMay shared his predictions for the first day of The International 2026 playoffs
Commentator Dmitry “CrystalMay” Korchevinin shared his predictions for the first day of The International 2026 playoffs on his personal Telegram channel.
The quote is reproduced with the source’s spelling and punctuation intact
The playoff matchups have been announced; here are my predictions:
Team Liquid > Team Yandex Yandex drew the toughest opponent in the first round; Liquid is very strong on the lanes and plays aggressively like crazy = a zero-win disaster awaits Team Yandex because their best lanes (LD + Jakiro) already lost to Ace+Boxi during the group stage.
1win Team > Team Spirit Pure won’t be easy (especially if they try to jump under the towers—Spirit can punish them there)
PARIVISION > BetBoom Team—No comment here; BetBoom Team is incredibly unlucky to face this opponent in their very first playoff match. I hope Boolk comes up with something, because Noone is already rubbing his hands together
Team Falcons vs. Nigma Galaxy—these are shaping up to be the longest maps of this round. I haven’t watched the Falcons much at all, so I have absolutely no idea what they’ll bring to the table; Nigma is on a roll, but will that be enough?
Earlier, mid laner PARIVISION (TEAM VISION) Vladimir “No[o]ne-” Minenko commented on the team’s advancement to the playoffs of The International 2026, assessed the level of competition at the tournament, and called it the toughest in history.
Photo by Dmitry “CrystalMay” Korchevinin.
