Team Yandex sweep NAVI 3-0 to win PGL Wallachia Season 9, dropping two games all event

Team Yandex swept Natus Vincere 3-0 in the PGL Wallachia Season 9 grand final on Sunday, September 27. The series at the PGL Studio in Bucharest took just over 96 minutes of game time, and it was worth $300,000 of the $1,000,000 prize pool.

Wallachia Season 9 ran from September 19 to 27 as the first event after The International 2026. Sixteen invited teams played a Swiss group stage, then a double-elimination playoff with a best-of-five final. Team Spirit, PARIVISION, Team Liquid and BetBoom Team were not in the field, and Liquipedia lists it as a Tier 2 event.

How did Team Yandex beat NAVI in the PGL Wallachia Season 9 final?

Team Yandex won all three games of the best-of-five final: two fast stomps in 25:10 and 27:04 around a 43:59 comeback in game two, where NAVI had led by more than 11,000 gold.

Game one was over before NAVI found their footing. Yandex were about 7,000 gold ahead at ten minutes and won in 25:10 with a 27-9 kill score. Carry Watson went 10/1/4 on Phantom Lancer, and ATF's Razor finished 6/1/11, per OpenDota.

Game two was NAVI's best chance. With Niku on Lina and gotthejuice on Lone Druid, they built a lead of more than 11,000 gold around the 20-minute mark. Yandex won the later fights and ended it after 43:59, more than 9,000 gold ahead. Watson's Io finished with the highest net worth in the game and a 12/4/13 line, while ATF's Centaur Warrunner went 10/1/20 (OpenDota).

Game three was one-way traffic. Yandex led by more than 7,500 gold at 20 minutes and closed it in 27:04, 25-7 on kills. Watson switched to Sven (8/1/2), CHIRA_JUNIOR's Invoker went 7/1/10, and ATF's Huskar never died (5/0/3), per OpenDota.

How dominant was Team Yandex at PGL Wallachia Season 9?

Very: Yandex finished the event with 15 game wins and only two losses, won every Swiss series and reached the grand final through the upper bracket.

Yandex never really wobbled. They won all three of their Swiss series, including a 2-0 against NAVI, then swept 1w Team in the upper-bracket quarterfinal.

Aurora Gaming took the first game of the upper semifinal, but Yandex answered with two quick wins, the last one in 18:53. A 2-0 over LGD Gaming in the upper final sent them straight to the grand final. OpenDota's league data has them at 15 game wins and two losses for the event.

The stat sheets agree. Using spectral.gg numbers, Cybersport.ru reported that Yandex players held the top three spots for average KDA: Watson (10.63), ATF (7.18) and CHIRA_JUNIOR (6.14).

That is quite a debut for ATF. Yandex announced him on September 17, two days before the event, as the replacement for DM, after Team Falcons had left competitive Dota 2 earlier in the month. The title is Yandex's second in the Wallachia series after Season 7 in March, and it follows a top-three finish at TI 2026, per GosuGamers.

How did NAVI reach the PGL Wallachia Season 9 grand final?

NAVI lost 2-1 to LGD Gaming in the upper-bracket quarterfinal, then won four lower-bracket series in a row, the last one a rematch against LGD on grand final day.

NAVI took the scenic route. Their lower-bracket run went Team Nemesis 2-1, Aurora 2-0, Xtreme Gaming 2-0 and LGD 2-1, per NAVI.

That lower-bracket final went the distance. The decider lasted 56 minutes, and gotthejuice's Terrorblade carried it with a 12/1/8 line and more than 76,000 hero damage. Counting the final, NAVI played six games that Sunday.

Second place pays $175,000 for a team that missed TI 2026. LGD Gaming finished third ($120,000) and Xtreme Gaming fourth ($80,000).

What comes next for Team Yandex and NAVI?

Both finalists are at BLAST Slam VIII, which runs from September 29 to October 11 with a $750,000 prize pool, and NAVI already opened with a 2-1 loss to 1w Team.

There is no break. Yandex and NAVI are among the 16 teams at BLAST Slam VIII. LGD, Xtreme Gaming, Aurora and GamerLegion are there too, and this time so are Team Spirit, PARIVISION, Team Liquid and BetBoom Team, per the GosuGamers preview.

NAVI's start was rough: 1w Team beat them 2-1 in their Group B opener on Tuesday. For Yandex, BLAST is the first test of the ATF lineup against the teams that skipped Wallachia.

Wallachia itself drew a crowd. Esports Charts counted a peak of 237,300 viewers and 9.7 million hours watched across the event.