Owen thrives on the thrill of competition, particularly in Valve titles. He reached a peak of 8,500 MMR in Dota 2 and remains a regular contender on the Southeast Asian leaderboards. Beyond his main forte, he has extensive experience in the Counter-Strike 2 esports scene and a deep understanding of esports betting.
Chadley Kemp (preferably just "Chad") has nearly a decade of editorial experience spanning esports, gaming, crypto, and betting content, covering everything from Counter-Strike and VALORANT to League of Legends and Dota 2. Outside of esports, Chadley holds a Ph.D. in Physiology and has published research in several peer-reviewed scientific journals.
Image credit: Dota 2 / Valve The International 2026 (TI 2026) is currently underway in Shanghai — and if you’re a true Dota 2 fan, this is definitely an event you don’t want to miss.
After 109 games in the group stage, we’ve already witnessed plenty of upsets, pocket strats, and unorthodox picks. More importantly, many clear trends have emerged around patch 7.41e, from the rise of ultra-durable cores to a pair of relatively new items having a tremendous influence on how fights play out.
If you’re trying to follow the action with a better understanding of what’s going on, we’ve broken down some of the biggest trends shaping the TI 2026 meta.
If you’re a support player, make sure to take note of Essence Distiller . It has rapidly become one of the most defining support items at TI 2026, with 138 purchases and a 55.07% win rate to date. You’ll see Dota 2 pros pick it in nearly every game, usually one on both teams!
And it’s a no-brainer – the value is simply too good to pass up! Essence Distiller is basically an upgraded Urn of Shadows that’ll cost you just 1,775 gold , making it relatively inexpensive compared to most fully upgraded support items. To put it into perspective, it’s only a few hundred gold away from upgraded Boots of Speed.
The main selling point is Essence Distiller’s active ability, Soul Release . It can be cast directly on a hero or placed in a circle on the ground, where it waits for an enemy to enter its 450-radius area. Once triggered, it follows the affected hero, dealing damage over time while also providing True Sight and vision.
Essence Distiller in the Dota 2 item inventory. Image credit: Chadley Kemp for Esports Insider A cheap and effective solution for most situations That makes it especially good at preventing Blink initiators from disrupting fights, as the damage over time will prevent them from blinking in or out of fights. Besides that, Essence Distiller also helps track pesky support heroes like Hoodwink, Winter Wyvern, and Treant Protector, who all love hiding behind trees.
For reference, Hoodwink was the most-picked hero of the TI 2026 group stage , with 55 appearances . Meanwhile, Treant Protector was contested in 100% of drafts , attracting 101 bans and only making it through to being picked eight times . Essence Distiller provides a relatively cheap way to exactly counter the sort of vision games these heroes want to play.
Many support players have consequently been rushing the item extremely early. The mean pick-up times are roughly 18 ± 5 minutes , sometimes even before fully upgrading their Boots.
Saksa’s hero and itemization history at TI 2026. Image credit: Dotabuff Tanks, tanks, tanks, and tanks If you’ve tuned in to TI 2026 recently, you’ve probably noticed that drafts have been plagued with chonky heroes.
Centaur Warrun…