Team Yandex, the highest-ranked squad heading into The International 2026, backed up their billing with a 2-1 series win over Team Liquid during the group stage in Shanghai. The match, played on August 14, was the kind of back-and-forth affair that reminds you why TI remains the Super Bowl of Dota 2.
Yandex opened the series with a dominant first game, racking up 52 kills to Liquid’s 27. That kind of margin usually signals a quick 2-0 sweep. Liquid, apparently, did not get the memo.
A series that refused to be boring
Game two was a knife fight. Liquid edged out a 39-37 win, the narrowest kill margin of the entire series, forcing a decisive third game. For a squad that entered TI2026 with 44,133 ranking points accumulated over the prior 12 months, being pushed to a decider by Liquid was not exactly the coronation Yandex fans had scripted.
Yandex flipped a switch, dismantling Liquid 38-10 in game three. The 28-kill differential was the largest gap in the series, and it came at the moment when pressure was highest.
