Eastern Europe owns the modern TI era, and the numbers prove it

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.