Team Yandex won PGL Wallachia Season 9, sweeping Natus Vincere (NAVI) 3-0 in the Grand Final in Bucharest on 27 September. The win was worth $300,000 out of the $1,000,000 prize pool; Natus Vincere took $175,000 for second. Team Yandex finished the tournament without losing a single series.
The event ran 19-27 September at the PGL Studio in Bucharest: sixteen teams, a five-round Swiss group stage feeding a double-elimination playoff bracket, all on patch 7.41f.
PGL Wallachia Season 9 Grand Final result
The Grand Final was a best-of-five, but it lasted only three games.
- Game 1 — Team Yandex won in 25 minutes (from the Dire side)
- Game 2 — Team Yandex won in 44 minutes (Dire again)
- Game 3 — Team Yandex won in 27 minutes (Radiant)
Two of the three were over inside half an hour. Game 2 was the exception, and it was the one Natus Vincere should have taken: they led by more than 11,000 gold at the 20-minute mark and were still around 4,000 ahead at minute 41, then lost the whole lead inside the next minute and the game two minutes later.
Team Yandex played the series with watson (1), CHIRA_JUNIOR (2), ATF (3), Saksa (4) and Malady (5), coached by Accell.
Team Yandex finished unbeaten
Team Yandex went 7-0 in series and 15-2 in maps across the whole event. They topped the Swiss group at 3-0 — beating MOUZ 2-1, Team Nemesis 2-0 and Natus Vincere 2-0 — then went through 1w Team 2-0, Aurora Gaming 2-1 and LGD Gaming 2-0 in the upper bracket before the Grand Final.
This exact five had been playing together for ten days when they won the title. Ammar "ATF" Al-Assaf joined Team Yandex on 17 September, two days before the tournament began, after his exit from the TI 2025-winning Team Falcons roster that was dismantled on 6 September. DM, the offlaner he replaced, was moved to the inactive list that same day, 17 September, and played this event with Conventus Stellarum, who went out in the group stage.
Natus Vincere's run through the lower bracket
Natus Vincere reached the Grand Final the hard way. They were knocked into the lower bracket by LGD Gaming, who beat them 2-1 in the upper bracket quarterfinals on 24 September. From there they won four consecutive elimination series: 2-1 over Team Nemesis on 25 September, 2-0 over Aurora Gaming and 2-0 over Xtreme Gaming on 26 September, and 2-1 over LGD Gaming in the lower bracket final on 27 September.
That last series finished at 11:28 UTC; the Grand Final's first game began at 12:52 UTC, an hour and twenty-four minutes later. Natus Vincere played gotthejuice, Niku, pma, daze and Riddys under coach Cy-, and had already lost to Team Yandex 0-2 once, in the Swiss stage.
PGL Wallachia Season 9 final standings and prize money
The full $1,000,000 distribution:
- 1st — $300,000 — Team Yandex
- 2nd — $175,000 — Natus Vincere
- 3rd — $120,000 — LGD Gaming
- 4th — $80,000 — Xtreme Gaming
- 5th-6th — $60,000 each — Aurora Gaming, GamerLegion
- 7th-8th — $40,000 each — Team Nemesis, 1w Team
- 9th-11th — $20,000 each — Pipsqueak+4, Conventus Stellarum, MOUZ
- 12th-14th — $15,000 each — Team Cobra, Hokori, Yakult Brothers
- 15th-16th — $10,000 each — Pibbles Corp, PlayTime
Xtreme Gaming's fourth place came with four of their five players signed on 11 September, eight days before the event, as part of the wider post-TI15 Dota 2 roster shuffle. They were not the only ones improvising. Aurora Gaming used Stojkov as a stand-in for Mikoto, who was out for personal reasons; 1w Team played Shad in place of Pure because of a visa issue; and Team Nemesis fielded Mo13ei and SaberLight for Ken and Jabz, also over visas.
What this result means
Wallachia Season 9 was the first tier-1 or tier-2 main event since The International 2026 ended on 23 August, and the two teams that finished first and fourth both went into it with line-ups assembled inside the previous fortnight.
There is no gap before the next one. BLAST SLAM VIII begins on 29 September, two days after Wallachia's final, and carries a $750,000 total pool for sixteen teams — the next stop on the Dota 2 calendar after TI15. Patch 7.41f, which shipped on 15 September and carried this entire tournament, is still the current build.
FAQ
Who won PGL Wallachia Season 9? Team Yandex. They beat Natus Vincere 3-0 in the Grand Final on 27 September 2026 and took the $300,000 first prize.
What was the PGL Wallachia Season 9 Grand Final score? 3-0 to Team Yandex in a best-of-five. Team Yandex won in 25 minutes, 44 minutes and 27 minutes.
Who finished second and third at PGL Wallachia Season 9? Natus Vincere finished second for $175,000. LGD Gaming finished third for $120,000, after Natus Vincere beat them 2-1 in the lower bracket final.
Did Team Yandex lose any series at PGL Wallachia Season 9? No. They went 7-0 in series and 15-2 in maps, dropping single maps only to MOUZ in the group stage and Aurora Gaming in the playoffs.
How much was PGL Wallachia Season 9 worth? $1,000,000. The champion took $300,000, second $175,000, third $120,000 and fourth $80,000, down to $10,000 each for the bottom two teams.
What is the Team Yandex Dota 2 roster? watson, CHIRA_JUNIOR, ATF, Saksa and Malady, with Accell as coach. ATF joined on 17 September, two days before the tournament started.
Sources: Valve's official Dota 2 league data feed for league 20279 and PGL's own published Wallachia Season 9 playoff bracket, cross-checked against the Liquipedia PGL Wallachia Season 9 and Team Yandex pages. Game durations, sides and the Game 2 gold graph come from the Dota 2 match records for the Grand Final (match IDs 9018736585, 9018837779 and 9018969340). Retrieved 28 September 2026.
