Ari and Tundra defeat Yandex at the ESL One Birmingham 2026 grand finals

This one was for King and Country, I would imagine — as Tundra Esports and their resident British player Matthew “Ari” Walker have taken the title at ESL One Birmingham 2026.

In order to do so, they had to go through PGL Wallachia Season 7 champions Team Yandex, whom they defeated in just four games.

Game 1 — Sand King cometh

Yandex went into game 1 with a purpose, especially Ilya “CHIRA_JUNIOR” Chirtsov whose Sand King was the linchpin in their strategy. He had the game of his life on the hero from the solo mid position, although he didn’t get there on his own. The jungle stacking by his supports ensured that he hit that really fast Blink Dagger timing, and from there he was more than happy to get to work.

He had his sights set on Ivan “Pure” Moskalenko’s Gyrocopter, shutting him down hard alongside Evgeniy “Noticed” Ignatenko’s Slardar and Martin “Saksa” Sazdov’s Hoodwink. What resulted out of CHIRA_JUNIOR’s frequent rotations was Pure’s worst game in quite some time, as he ended up with eight deaths and only one kill through the 40 minute contest.

Speaking of Noticed and Saksa, they also had a huge hand in preventing Pure from actually playing this game. Their movement in the laning phase allowed them to really put the hurt onto the Gyrocopter, keeping him down in net worth early in the game. Following up on their excellent laning phase, they would link up with the rest of their teammates through the mid game, especially with Arman “Malady” Orazbayev’s Treant Protector.

The number of crucial Overgrowth (R) uses that Malady got out of his hero pick this game was honestly quite insane. He pulled off a four-man Overgrowth in the lower right corner of the map, which was enough to comfortably secure Yandex the teamfight. He would go on to lay down some more huge ults throughout the game, which of course was appreciated by Alimzhan “watson” Islambekov and his Muerta.

Tundra did fight back here and there in game 1, but they never found a big enough window to really turn things around. They were just too far behind heading into the late game, and Yandex simply outscaled them as a result.

Game 2 — Just heal through everything

The Sand King came out for CHIRA_JUNIOR once more in the second game, which kind of worried me as perhaps some sort of drafting issue building on Tundra’s side in this series. But this time around, they had a couple of answers: Largo for Neta “33” Shapira, and Keeper of the Light for Matthew “Ari” Walker. Because what makes Sand King sad whenever he initiates with Epicenter (R)? That’s right, constant healing.

I say all that, but Tundra were actually on the back foot for most of this game. Their laning phase looked a lot better than in the first game, but they bit off more than they could chew in a teamfight at the 18 minute mark — presumably thinking that they were ahead by a lot by this point. Yandex were quick to punish them, allowing watson to build tons of Desolator charges on Weaver real quick.

Tundra looked like they were about to crumble just 25 minutes in. Saksa going insane on Shadow Shaman will do that to you, as the best soft support player of the tournament found pickoff after pickoff. Ari got targeted especially hard, and quite frankly he was bullied in the mid game by Yandex in front of his hometown fans.

But then, it happened. A teamfight broke out at the 38 minute mark where I assumed Tundra would just capitulate — but the Largo and Keeper of the Light combo finally came into play at this juncture. Pure’s Monkey King survived by the skin of his teeth thanks to the incredible healing output from the two heroes, and suddenly Yandex found themselves with not enough damage to punch through.

The game completely flipped on its head as a result. Just a few minutes later, Matthew “Whitemon” Filemon did his thing as Jakiro, nailing a clutch Ice Path (W) to catch watson trying to go up their triangle’s high ground all by his lonesome. It did take Tundra another 20 or so minutes to close the deal on this one, but again, Yandex just didn’t have the damage they needed to fight through the immense healing.

Game 3 — Counterbullying

Well, I guess Ari took the misery that he went through in game 2, doubled it, and gave it to the next guy — that guy being CHIRA_JUNIOR. He showed up an illegal number of times to the mid lane matchup as Tusk, grabbing three incredibly quick kills on CHIRA_JUNIOR’s Ember Spirit in the laning phase with help from Bozhidar “bzm” Bogdanov’s Beastmaster.

It was honestly kind of painful to watch, especially for Yandex fans. CHIRA_JUNIOR practically got admin banned out of the lobby thanks to Ari’s shenanigans. He somehow got a solo kill on bzm a few minutes later regardless of the massive setback, but even that wasn’t enough for him to fully recover. Ari, meanwhile, just kept terrorizing the rest of Yandex throughout the game, giving the rest of his teammates tons of space to operate.

There was one hope for Yandex, still: watson was farming up a storm as Luna. Unfortunately, it would have taken a 1v9 effort from watson to salvage this game, because Noticed’s Bristleback hardly had a window to help out, either. With Tundra’s much higher teamfight potential as a result of their draft, all they really had to do was run at Yandex with Black King Bars in tow. After all, Eclipse (R) was Yandex’s only real source of damage in this game, whereas Tundra had so many spells that were basically automatic teamfight win conditions.

Game 4 — Speed kills, speed wins championships

It’s clear that the champion’s instinct kicked in for Tundra in game 4, especially for bzm whose Beastmaster was the biggest reason why they crushed Yandex in this one. His incredibly fast start in the laning phase spelled early trouble for Yandex, especially for CHIRA_JUNIOR — whose Slardar fell further and further behind as a result.

Having Lifestealer there for Pure was also a huge boon for Tundra, as they were able to just turn up the heat from the start while still having a good late game insurance policy. Not that they even needed it, because the pressure they were able to apply with bzm leading the way was just far too much for Yandex to ever deal with.

The carry Tiny pick for watson didn’t work out at all this game, either. Lifestealer doesn’t care about a single thing Tiny can do thanks to Rage (Q), and Feast (innate) chews right through Tiny’s large health pool. Unfortunately for Team Yandex, they go out of ESL One Birmingham 2026 not with a bang, but with a whimper — folding under Tundra’s blistering pace.

Tundra are now firmly back in their usual spot as the best team in the world, and are looking even more dangerous as we cross the halfway point in the current competitive season. Ari will undoubtedly be happy to have won a tier 1 LAN in his home country, becoming the first British Dota 2 player to ever bag a title in the United Kingdom.

As for Yandex, they can still be very proud of their performance overall at this tournament. They might not have won the entire thing, but second place after winning PGL Wallachia Season 7 is further proof that they are a force to be reckoned with this year. They’ll be back and stronger than this, of that I can be certain.