The International 2016 (TI6) was the sixth iteration of The International, an annual Dota 2 eSports championship tournament. Hosted by Valve Corporation, the game's developer, the tournament began with the qualifier phase in June 2016, and ended after the main event at the KeyArena in Seattle in August.

The tournament awarded the biggest prize pool in eSports history at over US$20 million, surpassing the record set at the previous International in 2015. The best of five Grand Finals took place between the China-based Wings Gaming and U.S.-based Digital Chaos, with Wings Gaming taking the series 3–1, winning them over $9 million. The event, seen by millions of viewers globally, was considered to be one of the greatest eSports tournaments of all time, with multiple upsets and Cinderella stories throughout.

Just as in previous years of the tournament, a corresponding digital compendium for Dota 2 was released before the event, allowing the prize pool to be crowdfunded. Known as the "Battle Pass", 25% of revenue made by it was sent towards the tournament's prize pool, with the other 75% being used by Valve to cover production costs.

The tournament initially began with the Americas, China, Europe, and Southeast Asia open region qualifiers in June. The winners of each region then went on to the main qualifiers, which also took place in June. Winners of the regional qualifier earned an invite to the main event, while a secondary playoff bracket took place for teams in 2nd–5th place, with the winner of those also earning an invite. Six teams were directly invited without need for qualifying, which was based on consistently good results at previous Dota 2 events. However, The International 2015 champion team Evil Geniuses did not receive a direct invite due to breaking Valve's rules on roster swapping after the completion of the last premier Dota 2 tournament, the Manila Major, in June. They and Team Secret, who also broke the same rule, were forced to make their way through the open and main qualifiers, eventually finishing first in their respective regions, gaining an invite. Two teams from the Philippines, TnC Gaming and Execration, had issues securing travel visas to the United States, but were eventually able to get them one week before the event due to assistance from Filipino senator Bam Aquino.

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