Between a massive 7.36 update and Act II of Crownfall, there were a lot of big announcements vying for your attention last week, so we decided to give everybody a few days to process everything before we posted any more big Dota news. But now a new week is upon us, and we're happy to turn our focus from the in-game experience to pro Dota, with the the announcement of the six direct invites to this year's The International! Read on for that unveiling, as well as details on the qualifying road for those still fighting to earn the last ten spots in Copenhagen. From Dubai to Birmingham to Bucharest and beyond, the year has been packed with top-tier Dota tournaments. Befitting their dominant performances across the year so far, we're happy to invite the following teams directly to The International 2024:

• Team Spirit [expand type=details] Illya "Yatoro" Mulyarchuk Denis "Larl" Sigitov Magomed "Collapse" Khalilov Myroslav "Mira" Kolpakov Yaroslav "Miposhka" Naidenov [/expand]
• Xtreme Gaming [expand type=details] Wang "Ame" Chunyu Guo "Xm" Hongcheng Lin "Xxs" Jing Zhao "XinQ" Zixing Ding "Dy" Cong [/expand]
• Team Falcons [expand type=details] Oliver "skiter" Lepko Stanislav "Malr1ne" Potorak Ammar "ATF" Al-Assaf Andreas "Cr1t-" Nielsen Wu "Sneyking" Jingjun [/expand]
• Team Liquid [expand type=details] Michael "miCKe" Vu Micha "Nisha" Jankowski Neta "33" Shapira Samuel "Boxi" Svahn Aydin "Insania" Sarkohi [/expand]
• Gaimin Gladiators [expand type=details] Anton "dyrachyo" Shkredov Quinn "Quinn" Callahan Marcus "Ace" Hoelgaard Erik "tOfu" Engel Melchior "Seleri" Hillenkamp [/expand]
• BetBoom Team [expand type=details] Egor "Nightfall" Grigorenko Danil "gpk" Skutin Matvey "MieRo`" Vasyunin Vitalie "Save-" Melnic Alexander "TORONTOTOKYO" Khertek[/expand]

The remaining ten slots will be awarded to those worthy teams able to battle through the daunting Regional Qualifiers, with the final slot breakdown and dates for each region set as follows:

• China and North America - June 9th to 13th [expand type=details] China (2 slots) Azure Ray G2.iG LGD Gaming Team Bright Team Zero Dark Horse (+6 teams from Open Qualifiers) North America (1 slot) Shopify Rebellion Nouns La Correntada (+5 teams from Open Qualifiers) [/expand]
• Eastern Europe + South America - June 14th to 18th [expand type=details] Eastern Europe (1 slot) Natus Vincere Virtus.pro 1win L1GA TEAM Night Pulse Nemiga Gaming One Move Yellow Submarine 9Pandas (+3 teams from Open Qualifiers) South America (2 slots) HEROIC beastcoast BOOM Esports Midas Club Infinity Leviatn (+6 teams from Open Qualifiers) [/expand]
• Southeast Asia + Western Europe - June 19th to 23rd [expand type=details] Southeast Asia (2 slots) Aurora Blacklist International Talon Esports Neon Esports Execration Bleed Esports MANTA Esports Salvation Gaming (+4 teams from Open Qualifiers) Western Europe (2 slots) Tundra Esports PSG Quest OG Team Secret Entity MOUZ NAVI Junior Nigma Galaxy Rest Farmers JustBetter (+2 teams from Open Qualifiers)[/expand]

For those of you now making plans to spectate or compete in said qualifiers, we've also got some important dates to keep in mind. The Road to The International will officially kick off with Open Qualifiers for all six regions June 3rd to 8th, followed by the Regional Qualifiers as described above. Once all the initial dust has settled and the tournament field has been filled out, the Road to the International will continue when all sixteen teams meet in Copenhagen. The two-day Group Stage will commence Wednesday, September 4th, immediately followed by the five-day Playoffs, a studio production that will run through Tuesday, September 10th, The International itself will be held in Copenhagen's Royal Arena, with the top eight teams slated to take the main stage from Friday, September 13th through Sunday, September 15th. Fans hoping to attend in person will be able to purchase tickets starting Monday, June 10th. Set your reminders now, and we'll see you when qualifiers start next Monday, June 3rd.