1win Essence III has been postponed. The tournament was scheduled to run from 2 to 14 September, and its organisers pulled it on the morning of 2 September, the day it was due to begin, with the reason given plainly: too many tier-1 teams had not finished rebuilding their rosters. Two weeks behind it, PGL Wallachia Season 9 is reportedly hitting the same wall — and that event is a $1,000,000 LAN in Bucharest starting 17 September.
The postponement statement, published on the tournament's own social channels, reads: "1w Essence 3 is being postponed — many tier-1 teams did not complete their rosters before the start of the tournament. The third season will definitely take place very soon. New dates and detailed information will be announced later." No replacement dates have been given. Liquipedia, which carries full pages for the first two seasons, has no page for a third.
The shuffle is eating the calendar
This is the annual post-TI roster reset behaving worse than usual. The International 2026 finished on 23 August, and the fortnight that followed produced departures faster than signings.
The clearest case is LGD Gaming. The organisation's entire Dota 2 roster — Yuma, Topson, Wisper, Thiolicor, KJ and TaiLung — came off contract on 24 August, a date confirmed publicly by the team's manager, Babi. Liquipedia now lists LGD with no active Dota 2 roster at all, three months after the core of that lineup was assembled on 25 May. Head coach kaffs, assistant coach fcr and Babi herself left on the same day.
Liquipedia's transfer portal tells the same story across the scene: of the roughly 42 moves logged between 13 August and 3 September, about 26 are players leaving for no destination rather than joining one. Whole rosters went at once — LGD released six players on 24 August, Virtus.pro five on the same day, REKONIX five on 19 August. Rebuilds are happening, but slowly and mostly outside the established orgs. The most notable is Xipto Esports, which announced its first Dota 2 roster on 31 August around 23savage, inYourdreaM and Fbz — a new organisation entering the space while older ones step back from it.
That is the pool tournament organisers are trying to draw sixteen teams from in the middle of September.
What is reported about PGL Wallachia 9
PGL cannot assemble the participant list for Wallachia Season 9, according to the Telegram outlet Gabe News, whose report has been picked up by cybersport.ru and cyber.sports.ru. The reported causes are the same unfinished rosters plus visa problems for travel to Romania. Also reported: PGL, which handed out direct invitations in previous seasons, has switched to accepting applications by email from any organisation willing to attend.
Treat that as reported rather than confirmed — it traces back to a single outlet's sources, and PGL has not published a statement. What is verifiable is the absence: with under two weeks to go, Liquipedia's Season 9 entry is still flagged as under construction, carrying sixteen empty slots all marked as invites.
The event itself is fully specified. It runs 17–27 September at PGL Studio in Bucharest, offline, sixteen teams, a $1,000,000 prize pool split $300,000 / $175,000 / $120,000 / $80,000 down to $10,000 for 15th–16th. The format is a modified Swiss group stage of Bo3 matches with the top eight advancing to a double-elimination playoff, Bo5 grand final.
What 1win Essence III was supposed to be
The Essence series is run by BASED Esports and sponsored by 1win, and it has been a genuine tier-1 draw. Season II ran online from 30 July to 5 August with ten teams and a $200,000 prize pool. Team Liquid won it, beating Team Falcons in the grand final and taking $100,000; 1w Team finished third and BetBoom Team fourth.
Season II was a pure invitational — all ten slots were direct invites, announced on 25 July. That is the format most exposed to a shuffle: an invitational has no qualifier to fall back on, so if the invited teams cannot field five contracted players there is nothing to run. An event fed by open qualifiers can simply take whoever shows up.
What is still standing in September and October
The next confirmed tier-1 event on the calendar is BLAST SLAM VIII, which runs 29 September to 11 October — a GSL group stage online, then playoffs offline at BLAST Arena Studios in Malta, sixteen teams, $750,000. Its closed qualifiers concluded on 30 August with Natus Vincere, Level UP, Yakult Brothers and Team Nemesis taking the first four slots, so a meaningful part of that field is locked regardless of how the shuffle resolves.
BLAST SLAM IX follows on 20–29 November, online, also sixteen teams and $750,000. Its qualifiers are scheduled through September, which gives teams that miss Wallachia a second route back into competition before the year ends.
The read for the next two weeks is simple: whether Wallachia Season 9 opens on 17 September with a recognisable field, a diluted one, or a revised date is now the story to watch. Valve, for its part, has shipped no gameplay patch since 7.41e on 30 July, so nothing on the game side is forcing teams to hurry.
Is 1win Essence III cancelled? No. The organisers said it is postponed, not cancelled, and that the third season "will definitely take place very soon". New dates have not been announced.
Why was 1win Essence III postponed? The organisers stated that many tier-1 teams had not completed their rosters before the tournament's start date of 2 September, following the post-International 2026 shuffle.
When is PGL Wallachia Season 9? 17–27 September 2026, offline at PGL Studio in Bucharest, sixteen teams, $1,000,000 prize pool. The participant list had not been published as of 4 September.
Has PGL confirmed it is short on teams? No. That claim comes from the Telegram outlet Gabe News via Russian-language esports media. PGL has not issued a statement, and no participant list has appeared.
What is the next confirmed Dota 2 tournament? BLAST SLAM VIII, 29 September to 11 October, with online groups and offline playoffs in Malta for a $750,000 prize pool.
Sources: Liquipedia (PGL Wallachia Season 9, 1win Essence II, LGD Gaming, Portal:Transfers, BLAST SLAM VIII and IX), Valve's Dota 2 patch feed, and cyber.sports.ru, cybersport.ru and dota2.ru reporting on the 1win Essence III postponement and the Gabe News report. Retrieved 4 September 2026.
