Team Yandex dominates PGL Wallachia Season 9
It has been a steady road for the teams involved in PGL Wallachia Season 9, but on September 27th, a champion was crowned. From sixteen teams at the start of the tournament, it came down to the final day, where only three remained – and after a thrilling lower bracket final, two teams would fight to become the champions.
LGD Gaming and Natus Vincere kicked off championship Sunday with an epic best-of-three to decide who would take on Team Yandex to lift the trophy. Having already taken down Team Nemesis, Aurora Gaming, and Xtreme Gaming, NAVI made an amazing lower bracket run, eventually taking down LGD to reach the grand finals at PGL Wallachia Season 9.
Unstoppable Yandex
Throughout PGL Wallachia Season 9, which began on September 19th, Yandex has looked almost entirely unstoppable. With Ammar “ATF” Al-Assaf joining the roster after Team Falcons parted ways with Dota 2, Yandex remained a force to be reckoned with. This was clear all through the now concluded tournament, where the team only dropped two games out of seven series.
With a single game lost during the Group Stage to MOUZ and a 2-1 win over Aurora during the Playoffs, Yandex ploughed through the Dota 2 field of PGL Wallachia Season 9 unchallenged. They made quick work of many teams, including a spectacular 19-minute win over Aurora. When it came to the Grand Finals, even when NAVI were on the front foot during Game 2, Yandex gathered themselves and made a decisive comeback, taking a clean 3-0 victory in the end.
The win leads the team into BLAST SLAM VIII, where they will be hoping to continue on their path, against even more strong rosters. For NAVI, the young roster has stuck together through a tough year, but have kicked things off with a strong showing. Although, similarly, they came second at BLAST SLAM VI, which was the pinnacle of their previous season, they will be looking to translate this result into a solid season.
With PGL Wallachia Season 9 over, the teams now have a day to get themselves ready for BLAST SLAM VIII, which kicks off on September 29th.
