DOTA 2: The International 2026, announced its return to Shanghai, China.

The International, the highest-level DOTA 2 tournament, officially concluded this year at TI 14. Despite the lukewarm response from outside the community, the reaction from insiders was very enthusiastic. The tournament was held at the Barclays Arena in Hamburg, Germany. Just before the finals began, the organizers decided to go with the flow and quickly announced the venue for next year's competition, TI 2026, which will return to Shanghai. A new chapter is unfolding for the DOTA2 national server and the Chinese team.

The last time it landed in Shanghai was in August 2019. The venue was the Shanghai Mercedes-Benz Cultural Center. The prize pool was as high as 34 million US dollars, setting a record for the highest prize money in global e-sports events. Its landing promoted live streaming and various commercial cooperations, allowing the outside world to witness the beauty of Shanghai's e-sports. Since then, it has become one of the holy places for enthusiasts. Now that it returns, it will surely cause a great response.

TI 2025 in Germany also attracted a significant audience from the East. Although unable to travel to watch the tournament live, fans stayed on time to watch the event. On the day of the final, Aurora vs. Falcons achieved record-breaking viewership, with the fifth game exceeding 1.77 million viewers, the highest-rated TI event in the past four years. Related topics also became a hot topic. Landing in Shanghai in 2026, it is believed that this esports ecosystem will bring huge profits and reignite the enthusiasm of Chinese players for esports.