TaiLung removed from LGD Gaming days before The International 2026

Only a few days remain before The International 2026 is set to kick off from Shanghai, China. Every team will be doing their final preparations, with the biggest tournament on the Dota 2 calendar on their minds. However, for LGD Gaming, a huge shock has been confirmed, as Santiago Olivos “TaiLung” Agüero Gustavo is not permitted to play at the event, and has subsequently been banned from all PGL events.

LGD Gaming stunned days before The International 2026

With a whirlwind year, anyone would think that nothing more could go wrong for LGD Gaming. For the players involved, they were hoping to finally have some breathing room to focus on TI – but that is not the case.

With an announcement made on August 9th, 2026, LGD confirmed that their star mid-lane player, TaiLung, has been removed from the team, unable to participate at TI, and banned from all PGL events.

The punishment comes as the result of an investigation by certain tournament organisers, and deals with competitive integrity. On the back of the recent suspensions of two other Peruvian players during the Esports World Cup 2026, this just adds to the regions fall from Dota 2 grace.

In the statement made by LGD, they highlight the investigation and review, following the decisions made by the tournament organisers, and removing TaiLung from the active roster.

Upon learning of this information, the club immediately initiated an internal investigation and proactively reported the relevant situation and information at the time to the relevant tournament organizers. Subsequently, LGD continued to cooperate with the tournament organizers in subsequent investigations and communications, providing relevant information as required. During the subsequent investigation and communication process, the tournament organizers have made the following decisions: TaiLung will be banned from participating in The International 2026; simultaneously, PGL has decided to permanently ban TaiLung from participating in any PGL-affiliated tournaments."

The full post from LGD can be seen below via the organisation's X account.

As stated in the post, the remaining players of the LGD roster are still in their final preparations for TI, but the team are currently missing a player. With only a few short days remaining until the tournament kicks off, the roster will not have much time to get accustomed to a new member but will have to do what they can.

At the current time of writing, no news has been given as to who the replacement will be. But, for LGD Gaming, this puts a big red mark over their TI 2026 endeavours, and could see them no longer be the dark horse that we expected.