European Tier 2 teams and Chinese stars — interesting participants in the open qualifiers for The International 2026

Tomorrow, June 9, qualifiers will begin in all regions allocated slots for The International 2026. Check out our article for a list of players to watch.

This year, the organizers have combined Eastern and Western Europe into a single region. This region features the largest number of teams and players familiar to viewers:

This year, the Chinese qualifiers will feature participants from the first TI, among others. Among the registered teams are:

A total of 13 teams have applied to participate in the open qualifiers in this region, including:

At the time of publication, South America had only gathered 6 teams willing to try their hand at qualifying for the tournament of the year. Among them:

Unlike Europe, this region was kept separate and not merged with South America. Just one day before the start of the qualifiers, only four teams had registered here; the most notable among them are:

The open qualifiers for The International 2026 will conclude on June 12. The closed qualifiers will take place from the 15th to the 26th, and the tournament itself is scheduled for August 13–23. The 15th tournament in the TI series will be hosted by Shanghai.

Photo — Valve.