“Is this why Tianming escaped from the hospital?” — the community reacts to China’s closed qualifiers for The International 2026
Timur Kadyrov
Members of the Russian-speaking Dota 2 community reacted on their personal social media accounts to the conclusion of China’s closed qualifiers for The International 2026.
Quotes are reproduced with the original spelling and punctuation from the sources
Commentator Rustam “Adekvat” Mavlyutov summed up the Chinese qualifiers and assessed the region’s prospects for the upcoming world championship:
They didn’t let us down! So, the Chinese qualifiers are over. The following teams advanced:
Team Resilience
1. poyoyo (Erica)
2. Echo
3. niu
4. planet
5. zzq
(c) Super
VG
1. shiro
2. Xm
3. Faith_bian
4. XinQ
5. y’
(c) Yao
And with a direct invite, Xtreme will represent China at the home TI.
That’s fine. We have teams to root for, and we can hope for a decent showing from the region. But, of course, there won’t be a great revival of the Chinese Dota scene after The International.
Natus Vincere manager Zhanna “Ryzhaya” Batkovna commented on Vici Gaming’s victory in the decisive qualifier match and reflected on the significance of The International 2026 on home soil for veterans of the scene:
VG secured the second slot in the TI qualifiers by staging a comeback from a 60k deficit in the decisive game. That’s the true desire of the veterans to compete on their home stage at The International
Just imagine how legendary this TI will be and how many veteran Chinese players will retire from the scene after it.
Analyst Yernar “Mantis” Urazbaev reacted with irony to the rumor that Yakult Brothers support Jiang “天命” An had escaped from the hospital after surgery to participate in the decisive qualifier matches, though his team failed to qualify for the tournament:
And Tianming ran away from the hospital just for that? I hope his medical bills get covered)))
- Read also: Valve has removed the ability to watch matches of players with a rating above 8,500 MMR via friends
The closed qualifiers for China for The International 2026 took place from June 15 to 18, 2026. A total of eight teams participated in the qualifiers. The region received two slots for the main tournament, which went to Team Resilience and Vici Gaming following the qualifiers.
Photo: Valve.
Timur Kadyrov
