PGL Wallachia Season 3 Grand Finals: Liquid Dispatch Tundra For Much Needed LAN Win

The members of Team Liquid’s Dota 2 squad can breathe a collective sigh of relief when it comes to the current competitive season as they are now the PGL Wallachia Season 3 champions. Despite looking awful for the most part coming into the tournament, after having finished way below their standards at other competitions like DreamLeague Season 25, the defending International champions dug deep and proved to everyone that they’re still a force to be reckoned with right now.

🥇 @teamliquiddota – THE 🇷🇴 PGL WALLACHIA SEASON 3 CHAMPIONS! 🏅

🎖️ @jonas_volek
🎖️ @mickeDOTA
🎖️ @nishadota
🎖️ @iNsan1a
🎖️ @boxi98

🎖️ @jabbz1301 #PGLWallachia pic.twitter.com/NvLs5H8ge5

— PGL (@pglesports) March 16, 2025

They did this by beating what is perhaps the current best team in the world: Tundra Esports. Liquid defeated the BLAST Slam 2 and FISSURE Playground Belgrade champions three games to one in the grand finals in convincing fashion, even after letting Anton “dyrachyo” Shkredov’s extremely successful Alchemist through the draft in the final game.

Game 1: Nisha Goes Ballistic as Tinker

The first game of the series was all about Michał “Nisha” Jankowski, whose play as Tinker through 53 and a half minutes was simply exquisite to say the least. A scoreline of 11 kills and only one death only tells half the story here — because his almost 70,000 points of damage against Tundra’s heroes are what really made him stand out here. His chained Laser (Q) output just prevented Tundra from playing effectively, especially after the ability was upgraded by Aghanim’s Scepter.

Not to be outdone by his fellow core, Michael “miCKe” Vu followed Nisha’s performance up with a 17-7 score as Sven, dishing out the physical damage while Nisha took care of the magical side. These two really brought the hurt onto Tundra throughout the entire game, allowing Liquid to take the win fairly comfortably despite the game’s long duration.

Game 2: SabeRLight- Brings the Darkness

Remember how I talked about Jonáš “SabeRLight-” Volek’s Night Stalker in the upper bracket final match of PGL Wallachia Season 3? Well, he got his hands on one of his favorite heroes once more, and it made all the difference in game 2 as you might imagine. Although he and Samuel “Boxi” Svahn (and actually, most of Liquid) lost the laning phase, the immense pressure that they were able to apply onto Tundra in the mid game as Night Stalker and Weaver respectively helped them make up for it big time.

Once SabeRLight- completed his 14 minute Armlet of Mordiggian, it was time to go hunting for prey. The item timing allowed Liquid to activate their gameplan and play at an absolutely blistering pace, taking fights on their terms whenever they could and overwhelming Tundra in the process. And although Bozhidar “bzm” Bogdanov played well as Templar Assassin, he wasn’t able to protect the rest of Tundra against the onslaught of Liquid’s draft. They tapped out in just under 37 minutes.

Game 3: Tundra’s Alchemist Makes It Interesting

Prior to the grand finals, Tundra won two games with dyrachyo playing Alchemist, making it one of their go-to picks for when they needed something other than Phantom Assassin for the Russian carry player. So, with their backs against the wall, they picked it again for dyrachyo, and it proved to be the right decision.

Coupled with bzm’s signature Invoker, the Alchemist pick allowed Tundra to dominate teamfights confidently. It was a simple but elegant gameplan: use Unstable Concoction (W) to set up Sunstrike combos for bzm, immediately removing key heroes from Liquid’s side in both ganks and large scale engagements.

SabeRLight-‘s offlane Dazzle kept Liquid in the game for a while, but even his insane damage output with Shadow Wave (E) wasn’t enough. They got run over by the Alchemist-Invoker pairing regardless, and for once in the series it looked like Tundra might have just figured Liquid out.

Game 4: Liquid Deals With the Alchemist

Liquid let Tundra pick Alchemist yet again in game 4. This time though, they had a plan and it once again revolved around SabeRLight-, who honestly is my MVP of PGL Wallachia Season 3. Playing as Tidehunter in what would prove to be the final game of the series, he crushed dyrachyo and Matthew “Whitemon” Filemon in the lane, thus delaying dyrachyo’s Radiance timing just enough for the rest of Liquid to keep things even in terms of net worth.

Once they saw an opportunity to seize map control, Liquid moved in with SabeRLight- and miCKe (playing Tiny) leading the charge. Both of them simply massacred Tundra throughout the almost 40 minutes of play, controlling teamfights with their stuns and damage output and just making it hard for Tundra to do anything at all in clashes.

Smelling blood in the water and holding a massive net worth advantage after the 30 minute mark, Liquid finally put the hammer down before the late game progressed even further — with miCKe ending the series once and for all with a nice little rampage to put the cherry on top.

This result should come as a huge confidence booster for Team Liquid, who haven’t been performing well as a team lately. SabeRLight- in particular can now call himself a Dota 2 LAN winner, something that has been a long time coming for the highly innovative offlaner. As for Tundra, this defeat does not suddenly make them a lot worse in terms of the pecking order in the competitive scene right now, but it is further proof that they do bleed when facing tough competition.

Either way, this is a win for Dota fans everywhere. There are now six teams that are capable of winning a LAN at any time: Team Spirit, Team Liquid, Team Falcons, BetBoom Team, Tundra Esports, and PARIVISION. This kind of parity is just really exciting to see, and should bode well for the health of the professional Dota 2 landscape in the present.