1w Team Retains Roster After TI 2026

Published September 23, 2026

1w Team has decided against changing its Dota 2 roster after its disappointing result at The International 2026. Ari said the team reviewed why it lost, considered whether changes were necessary and ultimately chose to stay together. The decision was discussed during an interview at PGL Wallachia Season 9, where Ari made clear that the group still believes in its existing lineup and intends to put in more work rather than reset the team after TI 2026.

The retention decision is central because it defines 1w Team’s response to a difficult finish, not only to The International but to the second half of the season as a whole. Ari said that period had not gone well for the team and had renewed the players’ desire to win again. His explanation presented the choice as the outcome of a direct post-elimination discussion: identify the reasons for defeat, decide whether change is required, then commit to the answer. In this case, the answer was continuity. Ari did not identify an individual player as the cause of the result or announce any separate personnel move. Instead, he described a collective intention to try again with greater effort. The team is therefore treating its setback as a reason to reassess and work harder, while maintaining confidence in the players already in the lineup.

A roster built before the 1w Team name

The current group did not begin under the 1w Team banner. It was formed in autumn 2025 while playing under the Tundra Esports tag, then later changed organisations. That sequence matters when assessing Ari’s comments: the team is preserving a group that had already competed together through an organisational change, rather than assembling a fresh lineup after The International 2026. The decision therefore keeps the existing competitive unit intact at a point when the team is attempting to move on from its recent international results.

That history also gives the retention call a clear chronology. The lineup existed before the later switch to 1w Team, and its members had already built competitive experience together before their difficult results at Esports World Cup 2026 and The International 2026. Ari’s remarks frame the post-TI discussion as an internal evaluation of whether that shared foundation remained worth keeping. The players’ answer was that it did. Rather than present continuity as a passive choice, he described it as a decision to continue, make another attempt and apply more effort.

That same unit had already produced notable tournament wins before its difficult showings at Esports World Cup 2026 and The International 2026. The team won several events in the BLAST Slam series, as well as DreamLeague Season 28 and ESL One Birmingham 2026. Those confirmed results give context to Ari’s confidence in the roster: 1w Team is not treating the TI 2026 outcome as an automatic reason to abandon a lineup that has won together. At the same time, the team has not claimed that keeping the roster will guarantee a turnaround. Ari’s position was simpler: the players remain convinced by the group and want another attempt, backed by harder work.

The wider competitive environment is also changing. Ari said many teams had become stronger after Team Falcons split up and its players moved to different tier-one teams. He expected a highly competitive year and said he was surprised that ATF and Malr1ne had gone to separate teams. His interest was in seeing how both of those teams perform, while 1w Team’s own approach is notably different: it is entering the next stage with its existing group rather than following the reshuffle elsewhere.

Wallachia provides the immediate test

PGL Wallachia Season 9 is the tournament in which Ari discussed the decision and the next setting in which 1w Team will play with the unchanged roster. Ari said the team had done little practice before the event and had not held a boot camp. After returning from a break and travelling to Europe from their respective countries, the players spent only a couple of days playing practice matches. He described the approach as arriving to see how it goes, with the possibility of playing more freely and with less weight on their shoulders. That is a measured outlook rather than a declaration of readiness or a forecast for the event.

Ari linked that freer approach to the intensity of the decisive part of the previous season, when teams try to get the most out of everything they do. Beginning a new season without extensive preparation, he said, allows the players to play more naturally. He expected that approach to be enjoyable, but did not present it as a substitute for the extra work the team intends to put in after TI 2026.

• Ari said he still likes competing on the current patch, although he feels it has been in place for a long time and would welcome changes to refresh the game.
• He said Keeper of the Light had been noticeably weakened and described the hero as perhaps the strongest position-four option, while adding that the broader balance shift could make his role stronger relative to others.

PGL Wallachia Season 9 opponent	Recorded result for 1w Team
Team Nemesis	Loss
Hokori	Win
Conventus Stellarum	Win

Wallachia is the first practical measure of that continuity decision. 1w Team entered with little preparation instead of a rebuilt lineup, so the later rounds will show whether the group’s accumulated experience can offset the short runway.