These are not the “golden Falcons” who created chaos - Zais about Team Falcons at The International 2026

Commentator Nikita 'Zais' Zakharov specifically shared his opinion about the form of Team Falcons, the future of the Chinese region, Aurora Gaming, and also named the reason for the high competition at The International 2026.

Do you think Team Falcons can defend their title at The International 2026?

I adore Team Falcons, but I will try to be objective: they have a difficult season, a difficult group stage, often strange picks, but most importantly, all teams are already accustomed to their style of play. These are not the “golden Falcons” who created chaos on the map and always came back. They should have reached the final, let alone won. But I would really like the ending to be cinematic: the reigning champion against an ambitious, hungry opponent.

Over the entire period, only four teams from the lower bracket at TI became winners. Do you think we should expect something like this now?

Without even seeing the first round, predicting the lower bracket is like pointing a finger at the sky. In general, it doesn’t matter whether it’s a lower or upper grid. The only thing that matters is the preparation and mentality of the teams.

The only objective weighting of the lower bracket is an additional best-of-3 before the grand final. A fair price for the right to make mistakes along the way.

What do you think awaits the Chinese region after no team made it to the playoffs of TI 2026?

He will continue his trend of surviving, to my regret. The hope for the success of the Chinese teams in their native walls was precisely that this would give an injection of adrenaline to the region, but it turned out to be an amputation of hopes. This makes me very sad. The once great region may never return, and there will be even less competition for European Dota.

Which teams will be most affected by Inta's poor results in the group stage?

Of those that flew out, it was, of course, China. I hope that at least someone will survive, there are bad rumors. Maybe there will be a rescue strategy around Team Resilience.

Aurora Gaming simply must be unhappy - it’s a good lineup, but now there may be surgical replacements. The others don't think they're more upset than necessary. This is a tournament of the best - someone has to lose.

And the last question: why do you think the current “Int” is called the most competitive? What major events and trends influenced this?

The busy schedule of important, I emphasize, tournaments is the reason. Teams cannot play in top prime all the time - it is physically impossible, and tournaments cannot be missed. If in previous seasons we were talking about “learning to play better,” now I would say the slogan is “learning to rest properly and return on time.”

Our team has been in a storm all season - either top 1, then relegated 0-3 in the Swiss. And this applies to almost everyone who made it to the playoffs.

The most important thing is to understand that this is super cool! I don’t remember such disputes at almost every meeting at any TI. This is much more interesting than when there are 1-2 favorites and everyone else gets there.

Earlier, representatives of the Russian-speaking Dota 2 community shared their predictions for the playoffs of The International 2026. Bogdan 'Iceberg' Vasilenko, Mark 'mangekyou' Kharlamov, Nikolai 'WoE' Ruban and others published their opinions.