Instamityay discussed his work on the team sets for The International 2026

I’m really looking forward to this year’s team bundles for The International.

For the second year in a row, we at Ultimate GG have been trying to pitch ideas to TI participants to help fill their bundles, contributing our creative input on behalf of the team to boost their sales success.

Last year, there were more pitches. This year, almost all the teams replied that they were already following their own plans. Well, that happens too.

It’s funny how you still end up seeing some of those ideas pop up in their releases later on. This is absolutely normal in any creative industry—let’s say, market “trends” and exposure to past case studies play a role in that.

Last year, we were closest to collaborating with Aurora Gaming. One of the many ideas in the presentation looked like this: a pit labeled “Low Priority.” We illustrated it with a PNG image from the internet—just as a reference to show the concept.

I still don’t know how it happened, but in the end, that very PNG ended up in the team bundle almost exactly as it was.

I’m not claiming this is related to our presentation. Maybe it’s just a funny coincidence. But it showed that the bundle can include creative ideas that might come as a surprise even to you, the creator.

This year, we approached the task differently. We drew the stickers right away, came up with a few voice lines, and sent the package of ideas to one of the teams that was already scheduled to submit their bundle to Valve.

Now the real gamble begins. We’ll find out very soon if even one idea makes it into the final version. I’m really curious myself.

Actually, looking back, we’ve already managed to do quite a few weird and cool things around The International. We even filmed a video about participating in a cosplay contest for Nix’s stream.

I really hope these creative ideas make the cut. We’ll see how it goes! Tag me when the bundles come out—we’ll check them out.