Team Spirit Win Third Aegis at TI 2026, Beating TEAM VISION 3-2
Team Spirit defeated TEAM VISION in a five-game grand final in Shanghai to become the first organization to win The International three times. Yatoro and Collapse are now the only three-time TI champion players in Dota 2 history.
History Made in Shanghai
Team Spirit are Dota 2 world champions for the third time. On Sunday in Shanghai, the organization defeated TEAM VISION 3-2 in a five-game grand final at the Oriental Sports Center to claim The International 2026 and lift the Aegis of Champions once again. No team had ever done it three times before. Now one has.
According to Dot Esports, the victory cements a remarkable chapter for Spirit mainstays Illya “Yatoro” Mulyarchuk, Magomed “Collapse” Khalilov, and Yaroslav “Miposhka” Naidenov, alongside Denis “Larl” Sigitov, Alexandr “rue” Filin, and Alexey “not_me” Kosmynin. Yatoro and Collapse became the first players in Dota 2 history to win The International three times, a milestone achieved across six TI appearances. Miposhka, who won his previous two Aegis as a player, claimed his third this year in the role of coach.
Larl now holds two TI titles. Rue earned his first Aegis in just his second TI appearance, and not_me became a world champion on his very first trip to the tournament.
More than 500,000 viewers watched the grand final live across Twitch and YouTube, as reported by Dot Esports.
Five Games That Went the Distance
The series was anything but straightforward. Spirit drew first blood with a commanding Game 1 performance, Yatoro going absolutely nuclear on Shadow Fiend: 16 kills, seven assists, one death, capped off with a rampage in the 46-minute win. He ran it back on Shadow Fiend in Game 2, but TEAM VISION responded through Evgeniy “Noticed” Ignatenko, whose Underlord posted a 14-6-25 stat line in a marathon 64-minute victory that leveled the series.
Spirit took Game 3 in under 46 minutes, with Yatoro shifting to Terrorblade as the draft adjusted around him. TEAM VISION punched back to make it 2-2, forcing the decisive fifth game that the packed Shanghai arena had been hoping for.
In Game 5, TEAM VISION carry Alan “Satanic” Gallyamov reached for a surprise Juggernaut pick, an echo of Wang “Ame” Chunyu’s iconic Juggernaut run at last year’s TI. The parallel was hard to miss. But Spirit held their nerve, and Satanic ultimately fell short of rewriting that story. The ghost of Ame’s Juggernaut stayed right where it was.
What This Means for the Players
The individual legacies here are substantial. Yatoro and Collapse have now won TI at roughly the same rate most top players attend it. Three championships across six appearances is a conversion rate that invites genuine historical comparisons, not just within Dota 2 but across esports broadly.
For rue, the tournament represented a step forward in a career that has been building quietly. Two TI appearances, one Aegis. For not_me, a world title on a debut appearance is a story he will be telling for the rest of his life.
Miposhka’s path is its own kind of unusual. Two wins as a player, one as a coach. The transition from competitor to staff does not always go smoothly in esports, but for him, it went about as well as it possibly could.
Team Spirit arrived in Shanghai as a team with unfinished business and left with a third Aegis. The trophy looks good on them.
How many times has Team Spirit won The International?
Team Spirit have now won The International three times, making them the first organization to achieve that feat in Dota 2 history.
Who are the first three-time TI champion players?
Illya 'Yatoro' Mulyarchuk and Magomed 'Collapse' Khalilov became the first players ever to win The International three times, doing so across six TI appearances.
Where was TI 2026 held?
The International 2026 was held in Shanghai, China, at the Oriental Sports Center.
How many viewers watched the TI 2026 grand final?
According to Dot Esports, more than 500,000 viewers watched the grand final live across Twitch and YouTube.