Season 7 Recap: Team Yandex Conquer Bucharest With a Stand-In

Team Yandex are the champions of PGL Wallachia Season 7, defeating Team Liquid 3-0 in the grand final on March 15, 2026, in Bucharest. With their victory, Yandex claimed the grand prize of $300,000 from the $1 million prize pool — their second Tier 1 title, following their triumph at DreamLeague Season 27 last December.

What made the victory remarkable was the circumstances. Yandex claimed the title without their full roster, as Evgeniy "Noticed" Ignatenko was forced to sit out due to visa issues, and Dmitry "DM" Dorokhin was called up as stand-in.

The stand-in didn't just fill a seat — he delivered a performance that will be talked about for years.

The Grand Final: A Masterclass in Clutch Performance

In the clinching game of the grand final, DM closed out his stand-in stint with 10 kills and 26 assists against just four deaths on Bristleback. He was flanked by CHIRA_JUNIOR's dominant Invoker display of 13 kills and 22 assists against five deaths, and Watson's near-flawless Luna performance of 8 kills and 25 assists against just one death.

Yandex's 42-21 kill total in the 56-minute decider told the full story of a Liquid side running on fumes from their lower bracket marathon.

Liquid's Heartbreak: Eight Games, Nearly Eight Hours, Then a Sweep

Team Liquid's story at Season 7 is one of the most compelling narratives of any recent Dota 2 tournament — and it ended in heartbreak.

Liquid entered the playoffs as the safest pick in the field after finishing the Swiss group stage with a perfect 3-0 record. However, after their loss to Yandex in the upper bracket, they were forced to fight through the lower bracket.

They played eight games across two matches on the final day for a total game time of seven hours and 55 minutes. After outlasting BetBoom in a 225-minute lower bracket final, they walked into the Grand Final against Yandex — and had almost nothing left.

While Liquid fell short of claiming their second title of the 2025-2026 season, they still maintain their solid form by logging their seventh Top 4 finish in tournaments so far.

The Road Through Playoffs

Yandex's playoff path was anything but smooth. A round one sweep at the hands of HEROIC put them immediately under pressure, but three consecutive victories over Team Falcons and PARIVISION restored momentum and confirmed their place in the bracket's upper end.

While many pegged Liquid as the clear favourites in the upper bracket semifinals, Yandex upended all expectations with a 2-0 sweep. They then swept BetBoom in the upper bracket final to become the first team in the grand final — and waited patiently while Liquid battled through the chaos of the lower bracket.

Visa Chaos: A Tournament-Wide Problem

One of the stories that defined Season 7 was the epidemic of visa issues affecting rosters. Tundra's Pure, Falcons' Malr1ne, Aurora's Nightfall, and Yandex's Noticed all missed the tournament due to visa issues.

The fact that Yandex won the entire tournament under these circumstances makes their achievement all the more remarkable — and raises serious questions about Valve and tournament organizers needing to do more to support international player travel.

Season 8: Romania Hosts Again — April 16-26

PGL Wallachia Season 8 takes place at the PGL Studio in Bucharest, Romania, hosting 16 of the world's best teams between April 16 and 26, 2026, with another $1,000,000 prize pool.

The roster news coming in has already created intrigue. Team Spirit confirmed that Magomed "Collapse" Khalilov will miss Season 8 due to personal reasons. OG withdrew from the tournament entirely, with Virtus.pro receiving an invitation as replacement.

With two weeks still to go before the first match, the storylines are already writing themselves. Will Yandex defend? Can Team Liquid finally convert their dominant form into a title? And can any of the restructured rosters fill the gaps left by absent stars?

Romania: The Undisputed Capital of Dota 2

Between PGL Wallachia Season 7 in March, the ongoing PGL Bucharest CS2 event right now, and Season 8 starting in just eight days, Bucharest is arguably the busiest city in global esports right now.

Romania's PGL Studio has become one of the most recognized competitive venues on the planet — hosting million-dollar events month after month, cementing the country as an elite destination for the world's best players and a source of enormous national pride for the local esports scene.

What to Watch Next

Season 8 kicks off April 16. The Esports World Cup in Riyadh runs July to August with Dota 2 as one of its headline titles. And The International 2026 — the biggest prize pool in the history of esports — is scheduled for August 13-23 in Shanghai.

The road to TI starts right here, right now, in Bucharest.

$1 million on the line. 16 teams. One throne. Romania delivers again.