TI2026 Team Resilience: The Chase Horse

2026 is the Year of the Horse in the Chinese zodiac, a symbol of strength, freedom, and endurance. And with The International returning to Shanghai, it feels only fitting that we look at the 16 teams through the lens of their equine spirit.

Some are racehorses built for speed and glory. Others are war horses, battle-tested and relentless. And then there are the dark horses, the ones no one saw coming, ready to gallop past expectations on The International 2026 stage.

Team Resilience are neither. Or maybe, if you wish, they are China’s dark horse. But if we look at the bigger picture, they are the steeplechaser, trained for fast jumping races. They formed only in April and head into the biggest tournament of the year with just 12 series played as a team, totaling 30 games.

It’s the fewest of all teams at TI2026, and most of those games come from TI and Esports World Cup regional qualifiers. They are also the only team to have qualified for TI but not for EWC. All their competitors in Shanghai have had the chance to play against each other earlier this month in Paris, if not in official EWC matches, at least in scrims. Team Resilience fell short in EWC qualifiers by losing to Vici Gaming, who would make a deep run and place top 4 in Paris.

What recommends Team Resilience at TI is the pedigree of their players and coach. They might be only a four-month-old roster, but they have seasoned veterans with TI experience in their hands.

Team Resilience roster

• Yang "Erika/YSR-04E" Shaohan
• Xu "Echo" Ziliang
• Li "niu" Kongbo
• Lin "planet" Hao
• Zhang "zzq" Ziqiang
• coach: Xie "Super" Junhao

Veterans with TI pedigree

The only player on the team set to make his TI debut this year is the midlaner, Echo. However, at 25 years old, he has plenty of LAN experience gathered through his nearly 10 years career. He played for some of the biggest Chinese organisations in the past, such as LGD Gaming, Team Aster, CDEC and even EHOME. He reached top 4 placements back in the day when the competitive seasons included the DPC and the Majors, but fell short in TI qualifiers multiple times.

Niu, the team’s offlane player, has a top 3 finish at TI 2023 with LGD Gaming and has made multiple top 6 finishes under the Xtreme Gaming and LGD banners. Erika also has a professional career with multiple LANs and deep runs. So, in theory, they should all be well prepared for what’s to come at The International 2026.

On top of that, the team coach, Super, has been in the scene since the very beginning, reaching top 4 back in the day at The International 2012 with Team DK, top 6 in 2013 with the same Team DK, or the grand finals with Vici Gaming in 2014.

Super has seen it all, and his vast experience with all sorts of different rosters and player personalities should give Team Resilience the edge at least over the less experienced teams at TI2026.

In the rather small sample of games they have played together this season, Team Resilience has shown that their supports are willing to keep with the meta trends, but their cores might lag behind, opting for comfort picks over patch flavours. They might not enjoy playing Necrophos or Lone Druid line-ups, but Planet, for instance, boasts a 75% win rate on Earth Spirit with 7 games played, while zzq, besides being a Winter Wyvern specialist, has played Witch Doctor this season before you saw it at Esports World Cup.

In all fairness, the fact that they don’t seem to have fully embraced the 7.41d meta, could be in their favour. They are already the biggest unknown of TI2026, and if a new patch drops in the couple of days before everyone gathers in Shanghai, they can prove dangerous enough to do some damage through the Swiss group stage or even on the elimination round.

The International 2026 is set to kick off on August 13 with 16 teams fighting for a shot at this year’s Aegis of Champions. Team Resilience is one of the three Chinese teams hoping to keep the trophy in Shanghai.

It’s been 10 years since Wings Gaming claimed the last Aegis for China at The International 2016 and seven years since Dota’s flagship tournament was hosted in Shanghai. The pressure has never been bigger for the home crowd teams, and Team Resilience need to live up to their name.