Team Yandex sweep NAVI to win PGL Wallachia Season 9

Team Yandex won the first tournament of the 2026-2027 season in their first outing with new offlaner ATF.

Eastern European Dota 2 powerhouse Team Yandex have won the first tournament of the 2026-2027 competitive season at PGL Wallachia Season 9, marking a successful debut with their new offlaner Ammar “ATF” Assaf. Yandex capped off a dominant run throughout the entire tournament, where they dropped only two games, with a 3-0 sweep over Natus Vincere (NAVI) in the grand finals on Monday (27 September).

With their victory, Yandex claimed the grand prize of US$300,000 out of the tournament's US$1 million prize pool. This also marks the team's second championship in PGL's Wallachia series after PGL Wallachia Season 7 back in March.

Meanwhile, NAVI settle for second place and US$175,000 in consolation. While this is still a commendable result for the young squad, a victory in a tournament marked Tier 2 or higher continues to elude the organisation.

Yandex dominate PGL Wallachia Season 9 in ATF's debut

PGL Wallachia Season 9 was only considered a Tier 2 tournament due to the absence of many of the scene's top teams, with Yandex one of the few in attendance. Yandex were far and away the biggest favourites to win, as they were coming off a Top 3 finish at The International (TI) 2026 and received a huge upgrade in the offlane position when they snagged ATF following Team Falcons' exit from the competitive Dota 2 scene.

Yandex hit the ground running in the Swiss-format Group Stage, winning all three of their matches there to quickly qualify for the Playoffs. Yandex dropped the first of their two game losses of the entire tournament in their opening match against MOUZ, but swept their next two series against Team Nemesis and NAVI.

NAVI finished as the third seed of the Group Stage with a 3-1 record. They swept Hokori and Aurora Gaming in the first two rounds then bounced back from their loss to Yandex in round three by defeating 1W Team in three games in round four.

In the Playoffs, Yandex continued rolling by sweeping 1W in the upper bracket quarterfinals and pulling off a 2-1 reverse sweep over Aurora in the upper bracket semifinals. That game one loss to Aurora would be the last time that Yandex dropped a game in this tournament, as they swept LGD Gaming in the upper bracket finals and became the first team to advance to the grand finals.

Meanwhile, NAVI had to survive a grueling run through the lower bracket to earn a rematch with Yandex in the championship round.

NAVI were dropped to the lower bracket after a 2-1 loss to LGD in the upper bracket quarterfinals. Despite being under the threat of elimination, NAVI made it to the final day of the tournament by scoring three straight victories over Nemesis, Aurora, and Xtreme Gaming. In the lower bracket finals, NAVI exacted their revenge over LGD in a three-game slugfest to advance to the grand finals against Yandex.

Yandex sweep NAVI to claim PGL Wallachia Season 9 championship

Yandex came out swinging to start the grand finals, stomping NAVI in 25 minutes to the tune of a 27-9 kill lead. Alimzhan “Watson” Islambekov led the way with 10 kills and four assists while ATF flexed on his signature offlane Razor pick with six kills and 11 assists, with both players notably having just one death apiece.

Game two then saw NAVI get into a winning position with build up a net worth lead of over 10,000 gold at the 20-minute mark. However, Yandex were able to methodically chip away at their opponents' lead, eventually securing a comeback win in just under 44 minutes to take a commanding 2-0 series lead.

Watson and ATF were once again the key players in Yandex's win, with Watson on Io notching 12 kills and 13 assists on four deaths while ATF on Centaur Warrunner put up 10 kills and 20 assists on just one death.

NAVI letting the game two win slip away from their fingers seemed to have deflated them, as they barely put up any resistance while Yandex routed them in 27 minutes to secure the 3-0 grand finals sweep. Watson on Sven paced his team's 25-7 kill lead with eight kills and two assists against just one death, Ilya “CHIRA_JUNIOR” Chirtsov on Invoker added seven kills and 10 assists on one death, while ATF on Huskar pitched in with a clean five kills and three assists.