A player-by-player breakdown of every International from 2011 to 2026 confirms what the bracket results have been hinting at for years: the balance of power in Dota 2's biggest event has been shifting sharply in recent years from China to Eastern Europe, with Russia and Ukraine exerting their combined dominance.
Esports Insider published their analysis on Tuesday Sept. 8, tracking 1,282 individual player representations across 15 editions of The International and linking each to the player's home nation, region, and their team's final placement. The dataset focuses on where players were born and raised, as opposed to where their organizations are registered, thereby flipping the conversation.
China's grip on TI has been loosening for a decade
Despite the switch in power, China's all-time footprint still dwarfs all other nations. Chinese players account for 280 of the 1,282 total representations tracked across TI history. Russia limps behind with 138, while Malaysia comes next with 85. If we toss Macau into the ring, the regional share increases to 288 appearances (or 22.5 percent of every player to ever compete at the event).
The conversion rate is also still dominated by China, with Chinese players reaching the top eight 171 times, which is an incredible 61.1 percent hit rate. That figure is about 30 percent higher than China's share of total appearances, giving it the strongest performance index among large regions.
2016 was the last time China produced a champion
However, almost all of that was built before 2017. Between 2011 and 2016, China supplied 140 of 482 player representations and 98 of the period's 241 top-eight slots. Invictus Gaming's title in 2012, Newbee's in 2014, and Wings Gaming's in 2016 produced 14 champion representatives combined. (One spot on Invictus Gaming's winning roster was held by Malaysian player Wong "ChuaN" Hock Chuan, which is why three titles produce 14 rather than 15 Chinese champion representatives.)
Since Wings’s Aegis triumph, China's representation has steadily contracted. Its share of the field peaked at 35 percent in 2015. Seven years later, it had plummeted to 12 percent, and by 2023 it had dwindled to just nine percent. The nation partially recovered to 16 percent of the 2026 field, but none of its 13 representatives in that edition finished inside the top eight. The data, then, describes what some observers are terming a "China vs. Europe" era in clear numerical terms, and China is losing its stranglehold.
Eastern Europe's rise goes well beyond one team
Team Spirit is undoubtedly the headline act but the shift is regional, as per the roster data. Let’s get into it.
Across the five Internationals from 2022 to 2026, 131 players hailed from Eastern Europe, putting Western Europe (75), Southeast Asia (71), and China (57) in the shade over the same stretch. Its share of the field climbed in consecutive editions: 19 percent in 2022, 29 percent a year later, 31 percent in 2024, 34 percent by 2025, and 39 percent by the time TI 2026 swung around. This means the 31 Eastern European players who appeared at the latest event are more than three times the nine who appeared at TI 2019.
Russian Team Spirit has won Dota 2 World Championship again. For third time already. Well done. Competition took place in Shanghai. In final, Team Spirit beat Team Vision with a score of 3:2. Team Spirit became the first team in history of Dota 2 to win three International titles pic.twitter.com/NkzQiwR501
— Neznakomaya❤🇷🇺 (@TomatkaP) August 24, 2026
Eastern Europe secured 68 of the 200 top-eight places available from 2022 to 2026 and claimed 11 champion representations across that window. Its 29.8 percent share of players during the period translated into a 34 percent share of top-eight finishes, meaning the region is punching above its weight even when volume is accounted for.
Two countries are driving the numbers: Russia and Ukraine. Despite the tensions between the countries, Russian players have recorded 138 TI appearances in total, while Ukrainian players have contributed a further 70 appearances, 32 top-eight finishes, as well as eight title-winning runs. Together, the two countries account for 208 of Eastern Europe's 234 historical appearances, or close to 89 percent of the region's total output. They might be at war with each other but they’re clearly the two strongest countries at TI in the analysis.
Where Western Europe fits in
Western Europe might sit second all-time with 260 total appearances at the moment but it leads every other region with 26 TI champion representations. Its 129 top-eight placements across TI history translate to an almost 50 percent conversion rate over the full dataset.
Recent results show, though, that, while Western Europe is competitive, it isn’t dominating. The region recorded a 65.3 percent top-eight rate across the five most recent Internationals, a figure that keeps it relevant even as Eastern Europe's player share has expanded rapidly. The two regions increasingly share the late-bracket space that China once occupied on its own.
What this means for TI's future
The analysis puts a firm numerical foundation under what the results have suggested for several years: TI is no longer under China’s rule and may not be again for quite some time. Astonishingly, the Asian giant that once filled more than a third of the player field and converted at the highest rate of any large region hasn't produced a champion since 2016. Read that back.
Eastern Europe, by contrast, was once a fringe presence that is now the event's largest modern talent pool, and it achieved this in just half a decade. Its growth didn't require a single dominant organization; the data shows broad representation from across the region, not just the cities or academies that feed Team Spirit's roster.
With TI now settled under its 2026 format and Team Spirit's dynasty firmly established, the central competitive question heading into the next cycle is whether any region can build the depth to challenge Eastern Europe's volume advantage, or whether the trend lines keep moving in the same direction.
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