The International 2026 Day 1 Recap: Europe Dominates All Other Regions

The International 2026 is finally here! The 16 best Dota 2 teams in the world will compete for their chance to lift the coveted Aegis of Champions. The first day of the event has concluded and unsurprisingly, the strongest region in Dota 2 remains the one to beat.

While not an unexpected results, fan hopes for other regions have been dashed on the opening day, as other regions struggle to secure one victory in the competition.

Round one of The International goes to Europe

Due to the abundance of teams from Europe, it was a bit of a shock to see the opening round of the tournament feature a european team facing off against a team from another region. 

The results were surprising in how one-sided they were. Out of the seven matches to feature a european squad, six of them went 2-0. Only Parivision dropped a map against Team Resilence. The only match excluding Europe was between Falcons and LGD, which was a 2-1 in favor of Falcons. 

The only squad from Europe to lose a series was Huligani and that's only because they faced a team from the same region, in Team Yandex. 

Stars align for South America in round two 

Since The International uses a swiss system that pits teams with the same amount of wins and losses against each other, the european squads and Falcons all ended up facing each other, while the rest of the regions battled it out to secure their first victory.

Nigma Galaxy took a great comeback in game one against OG, and then defeated them again in a marathon 74 minute game two. This puts OG in a precarious position, with very little chance to recover.

The match between LGD and Team Resilence is the longest series of the tournament so far. Game 1 was 65 minutes long, game 2 was 76! and game 3 was an astonishing 71 minutes long, with Topson's Zeus coming in clutch to secure the final game of the series. 

On the winner's side, the match between Boom Boys and Iron Wings went the distance, with the first two games averaging nearly 49 minutes each, and the last one going for over an hour. But in the end Boom Boys came out on top, and only needs one more win to secure a spot in the playoffs.

Falcons and Parivision also went to three games. Falcons allowed the Lone Druid through two times, with the second time being a mistake that cost them the game. However, XParivision team rallied in game 3 and won the series after an astounding 94 minutes game, where literally every player had a Divine Rapier at some point.

And that's the recap of day one for The International 2026. Frankly we didn't expect such one-sided results per region but Dota 2 has been Europe centric for half a decade now. Here's hoping the other regions shape up and we get a more International....uhh, International by the time the playoffs hit.

READ MORE: How Will Topson Fit In With LGD Gaming?

Featured Image Source: Valve