StrangeR rated the organization of Esports World Cup 2026 for Dota 2

Sports Director of L1ga Team Alexander StrangeR Solomonov spoke about the organization of the Esports World Cup 2026 for Dota 2. He compared the new event of the series with the 2023 championship.

Quotes are published preserving the source's spelling and punctuation

About the organization of the tournament, I will say that I, as a manager, liked it more than in 2023 in Riyadh. Yes, there were mistakes on the part of the organizers, but overall they were great; it’s worth a lot to organize such a large-scale tournament in such a short time.

Solomonov also summed up the performance of L1ga Team at the tournament.

EWC 2026 - results for L1GA Team. Having qualified for the tournament, the minimum task was to get out of the group, and then look at the resulting bracket. When I found out we were going to have to do a stand-up show, I took my expectations away and worked with what I had. Despite the replacement factor, and the first lan factor for some players, we performed much worse than we could and we understand this. We don’t give ourselves discounts, it’s a shame, we fly home and continue to work. Leaving the tournament early gives us the opportunity to fully build the training process for the Games of the Future and TI, which is really important for our team. I apologize to the fans for this result, as they say, we will come back stronger and this is not sarcasm.

The esports festival Esports World Cup 2026 runs from July 6 to August 23. It features competitions in 24 disciplines, including Dota 2. In 2026, the event was moved from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to Paris, France. At the same time, both some professional players and spectators were dissatisfied with the level of organization of the Dota 2 championship at the new location.