Saksa sends his former team to the FISSURE Playground 2 lower bracket

So as it turns out, Tundra Esports was left, Martin “Saksa” Sazdov was right — as the former International champion position 4 player just helped Team Yandex send his former team to the lower bracket at FISSURE Playground 2.

Despite being heavy underdogs in this particular matchup, Saksa’s presence as a former member of Tundra definitely made the difference, with his intimate knowledge of their playstyle coming in handy in getting Yandex over such a huge hurdle.

Game 1 — Tundra plant the flag

As pretty much everyone would have expected coming into this best-of-three series, Tundra were the first to strike out of the gates. Ivan “Pure” Moskalenko absolutely destroyed Yandex in this game as Kez, going 16-1 on what is perhaps the hardest hero in the game to play as aside from Invoker.

This is our Tormentor 💪 pic.twitter.com/uEt8DsTGG3

— TUNDRA (@TundraEsports) October 28, 2025

Kez is not a pick that I expected to do this well in just about any circumstance, even after his latest set of buffs/nerfs/reworks/everything in between in Patch 7.39e when he was added to Captain’s Mode. It’s just one game, but I guess when you have someone as amazing at the carry position as Pure is, anything is possible. He got a Desolator at 14 minutes, which then led to a 19 minute Aghanim’s Scepter timing.

If you don’t know what Kez’ Scepter upgrade does, I don’t blame you — because neither did I until this game if I’m being honest. Basically, it refreshes the cooldown of Switch Discipline (D) whenever Kez casts a weapon ability, which in turn allows him to go back and forth between his two ability sets at will. Definitely one of the most important items for Kez to get, and Pure happened to get it at a ridiculously fast rate.

Yandex just had zero answers for him after that point. Pure simply sliced and diced his way through Yandex’s entire lineup, securing victory for Tundra in just over 30 minutes.

Game 2 — Yandex fight back

With such a crushing defeat at the hands of Pure now in the back of their minds, I thought that Yandex would simply roll over and die given the large talent disparity between themselves and Tundra in this matchup. But what happened was the exact opposite; instead, it was Yandex’s turn to stomp the living daylights out of Tundra.

Although it isn’t immediately obvious looking at the scoreboard, this was when Saksa decided to show no mercy towards his former team. Sure, Alimzhan “watson” Islambekov, Ilya “CHIRA_JUNIOR” Chirtsov, and Evgeniy “Noticed” Ignatenko had the game of their lives in this one, but Saksa going for position 4 Slark was what really did Tundra in.

After all, it’s what helped keep Pure’s Dragon Knight in check during the laning phase, and Yandex would not have won the laning phase itself had it not been for the Slark pick. The ability for Saksa to scout for wards using the passive component of Shadow Dance (R) also gave watson tons of space as the carry Beastmaster, all while also helping CHIRA_JUNIOR and Noticed make moves around the map.

The result: 38 kills for Yandex against just nine from Tundra. Talk about annihilation.

Game 3 — It gets worse

And just when you think it couldn’t get any bloodier for Tundra, the third game turns out to be a total embarrassment for them. Saksa was clearly on a mission in game 3, and I can only describe his performance as Bounty Hunter to be utterly abusive.

The way he just kept tabs on all of Tundra’s heroes for what felt like the entire game honestly looked like cheating, or something close to it, at least. Tundra just couldn’t find any space for themselves as a result, and I did not envy the way they had to play this game whatsoever. It must have felt like suffocating for real — and the worst part is that it was entirely because of the guy they (might have) kicked from the team.

Saksa’s play in this game also woke up something fierce within watson. Where watson was once a rather mediocre carry player at the professional level, here he looked like someone that could very well develop into one of the five best players in the world in that position. It’s just further proof that Saksa is a floor and ceiling raiser, and should not be underestimated no matter the circumstances.

So yeah, Tundra looked completely helpless in this game. Neta “33” Shapira ended the game 0-11 on Beastmaster, for one, and Matthew “Whitemon” Filemon looked almost useless the whole way through. That last bit is not something you see every day, mind you. This Yandex roster could turn out to be something special under Saksa’s guidance, and you can now consider me excited about what else they might have in store at FISSURE Playground 2.