The Dota 2 Europe Regional Qualifier for The International 2026 hit Day 4 on June 24, and the lower bracket is already claiming victims. VP.Prodigy and Rune Eaters have been sent home, while Team Spirit and Nigma Galaxy continue to cruise through the upper bracket without dropping a series.
Four slots to the main event in Shanghai are up for grabs. Sixteen teams entered. The math is not kind to most of them.
A unified Europe, finally
This year’s qualifier marks a genuine structural shift for competitive Dota 2. For the first time, the previously separate Eastern and Western European qualifiers have been merged into a single competition. That means teams from across the entire continent are fighting in one bracket, which makes the road to TI considerably more brutal.
The format is double elimination with best-of-three matches throughout. In practical terms, every team gets at least two chances, but once you’re in the lower bracket, every series is do-or-die. The qualifier runs from June 21 through June 28, organized by PGL, with Valve overseeing the broader TI ecosystem as developer and publisher.
