International Event for 12 Teams Eliminated From Worlds: DCGI 2026 Opens Tomorrow With a 1.5 Million Yuan Prize Pool

DCGI 2026, which brings together 12 teams from 6 regions that did not qualify for the World Championship, opens on the 3rd. The total prize pool is 1.5 million yuan, and the final is on the 17th.

Translated from Korean with AI assistance. Read the original. Sources and original publication dates are retained.

Summary in Three Lines

DCGI 2026 runs for 15 days, starting with an online Swiss stage on October 3 and ending with the final on October 17.
The total prize pool is 1.5 million yuan, of which 40%, or 600,000 yuan, goes to the champion alone.
The participants are 12 teams from 6 regions that did not qualify for Worlds, and broadcasts of every match on CHZZK have not been officially confirmed.

On August 27, a tournament notice was posted on Huya's official Weibo. The notice included this line: "赛事总奖金 150 万元 (total tournament prize pool of 1.5 million yuan)". It announced the Demacia Cup Global Invitational (DCGI) 2026, an international invitational for teams that did not make the World Championship. The opening is now one day away. Twelve teams that missed Worlds will compete over 1.5 million yuan across 15 days.

DCGI 2026 Schedule: Opens October 3, Final on the 17th

A Sina notice relaying Huya's announcement says the tournament runs from October 3 through the 17th. The first 6 days are an online Swiss stage. Only 8 of the 12 teams advance to the offline tournament, so 4 teams are eliminated in the first week. The Swiss format keeps pairing teams with similar records against each other to determine who advances and who is eliminated.

Stage	Dates	Format	Teams
Online Swiss Stage	October 3–8	Swiss format	12 teams → 8 teams
Offline Tournament	October 12–15	Best-of-5, single elimination	8 teams
Final	October 17	—	Champion decided

The offline tournament is best-of-5, single elimination. Lose a single series and a team is packing its bags. The tournament is co-hosted by TJ Sports and Huya. A rule was also announced in advance that, in offline matches, coaches receive 3 voice communication cards of 45 seconds each per set. Added together, the coach's speaking time per set comes to at most 135 seconds.

12 Teams Entered, From 6 Regions That Missed Worlds

The Beijing Municipal Government and the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area Management Committee said that 12 teams will take part from 6 regions. The Korean teams are KT Rolster, BNK FEARX, and HANJIN BRION. The other 9 teams are JD Gaming, Team WE, LGD Gaming, Natus Vincere, Team Vitality, Shopify Rebellion, FlyQuest, GAM Esports, and RED Canids Kalunga.

Sources differ in how they describe the nature of the tournament. Inven Global introduced it as an expanded version of last year's ASI. On the other hand, Jiemian News and the Beijing municipal government explain that the Demacia Cup, formerly a domestic Chinese tournament, has been turned into an international event. There is not yet any basis to assert that it is the official successor to ASI.

DCGI Prize Pool of 1.5 Million Yuan, With 600,000 Yuan for the Champion

The total prize pool is 1.5 million yuan, and the prize for the champion (1st place) is 600,000 yuan. Dividing 60 by 150 shows that the single champion team takes 40% of the total. The breakdown of the remaining 900,000 yuan among runners-up and lower placings has not been confirmed in publicly available materials. All announced amounts are team prizes, not individual player earnings.

CHZZK Broadcast: Whether It Will Be a 'Live Broadcast of Every Match' Remains Unconfirmed

There is one point of contention in this tournament: whether CHZZK will broadcast every match of the event live. Naver's official press release shows that Naver signed a five-year agreement with Riot Games in December 2025, covering 2026 to 2030. The agreement included broadcast rights for the LCK, LPL, and LEC, as well as Worlds, MSI, and First Stand. In April, it introduced a win probability graph feature, and it was also reported that there are plans to extend it to international tournaments.

However, the name DCGI does not appear in the list of tournaments enumerated in Naver's announcement. Whether DCGI will be broadcast, as well as the broadcast times, channels, and casters, has not been confirmed by any official announcement. It is too early to judge that this tournament is included based solely on the existing broadcast rights agreement. The 0-0 shown on Riot's official bracket is not a match result.

Related Official Sites

Riot Games DCGI 2026 Official Bracket — Check Swiss stage pairings and match results
Riot Games LoL Esports Official Schedule — Check international tournament and league schedules
CHZZK Official Website — Go directly to Naver's streaming platform

Featured image · Archive photo · Not a photo from a current match in this article · Photo: Wikimedia Commons (Kkeujeokkkeujeok), CC BY 4.0