The International 2026: Valve unveils tournament format and rules

Valve has published the official The International 2026 rulebook, revealing the group stage format, team seeding rules, and side selection procedure for matches.

The group stage will use a Swiss format, with teams ranked by their number of match wins and losses.

If teams are tied, the tiebreakers will include opponents' results, game win percentage, opponents' average game win percentage, average game duration, and, as a last resort, a coin toss.

When creating matchups, teams with the same record will face each other. Tournament organizers will also try to avoid repeat matchups while keeping the ranking gap between opponents as small as possible.

Additional rules will apply in each round:

• Round 1 will be played in two pre-assigned groups
• Rounds 2 and 3 will feature matches only against teams from the same initial group
• Round 4 will pit teams against opponents from the other group
• In Round 5, where the losing team is eliminated, organizers will maximize the ranking difference between opponents.

After the Swiss stage concludes, teams with a 3-2 record will choose their opponents from among the teams that finished 2-3. The highest-ranked 3-2 team will receive the first pick, followed by the remaining teams in order of their final Swiss standings.

Valve also clarified the rules for side selection and first-pick priority. In best-of-three series, the first and, if necessary, third games will begin with a coin toss, while the team that loses the toss will receive side selection priority in Game 2.

In best-of-five series, side selection will alternate between the upper and lower bracket teams. If a fifth game is required, another coin toss will determine which team receives side selection.

The The International 2026 group stage will take place online from 13.08.2026 to 16.08.2026. The main event will be held from 20.08.2026 to 23.08.2026 at the Oriental Sports Center in Shanghai, China. The tournament's initial prize pool is $1,600,000, with nine teams from regional qualifiers joining the seven directly invited participants.

Earlier, CyberScore shared the results of the closed qualifiers in Europe and other regions.