PGL Wallachia Season 4 Power Rankings

The absolute marathon that is the 2024-2025 Dota 2 season shows no signs of slowing down, for after ESL One Raleigh comes PGL Wallachia Season 4. The fourth and final iteration of PGL’s premier Dota tournament for the competitive season (the fifth for the year comes after The International 2025) will feature another $1 million in prize pool, and 16 world class teams descending upon Bucharest, Romania to do battle once again.

The list of participating squads includes the usual familiar faces, who are looking to solidify their places in the pecking order for the year. Finishing strong at PGL Wallachia Season 4 will definitely affect Valve’s decision making when it comes to the TI14 direct invites, so it’s important for everyone to show out here.

That said, not every team will be favored to win the tournament over the rest of the field. Let’s have a look at how each club stacks up against each other in our power rankings.

#1: PARIVISION

Not a surprise by any stretch of the imagination. The ESL One Raleigh champions fell to the lower bracket early in the playoffs, but rallied in spectacular fashion to take the whole tournament for themselves. There’s just something about ESL One that they really enjoy, and they chaneled that positive energy into a lower bracket run that captivated audiences in the United States.

Their momentum heading into PGL Wallachia Season 4 should therefore be immense. Alan “Satanic” Gallyamov even had the gumption to tell Tundra Esports “you can’t beat Satanic” through all chat during their lower bracket series. And although he received the karma that was coming his way thereafter, it just goes to show how well he’s integrated into the team since joining them in January.

#2: Team Spirit

Team Spirit got served a very bitter pill in the ESL One Raleigh grand finals, one that I’m sure they were reluctant to swallow considering they hadn’t won a premier LAN event in a year. With Illya “Raddan” Mulyarchuk and Magomed “Collapse” Khalilov back in the roster, they would have been very happy to get themselves to the top of the Dota 2 food chain once more, but PARIVISION just had none of it.

Still, they come into PGL Wallachia Season 4 as one of the favorites. Make no mistake: this team is still very dangerous despite the setback last week, and I would never bet against them knowing that.

#3: Tundra Esports

Although Tundra didn’t make it into the ESL One Raleigh grand finals, they’ve already figured out how to play with Remco “Crystallis” Arets in the carry position. They made it all the way to the lower bracket finals with him, after all. And though I personally am not a huge Crystallis believer, the way he played against PARIVISION in the upper bracket has softened my stance on him a little bit.

He doesn’t deserve all the blame for their loss to PARIVISION, and there’s no shame at all in losing to the eventual champions at Raleigh. If he and the rest of the team can bounce back from their missteps last week, they can certainly come out of Wallachia as winners.

#4: Team Liquid

Team Liquid won Wallachia Season 3 just over a month ago, so they’re obviously going to be invited to the next season — and here they are. With Jonáš “SabeRLight-” Volek hitting the next gear he always needed to in the offlane, and Michał “Nisha” Jankowski back in the fold after dealing with US visa issues, the roster is back up to full strength and ready to defend their Wallachia title.

Of course, the sting of their 6th place exit from ESL One Raleigh will still be there when they get to Bucharest, so they’re going to have to find a way to put that behind them if they want to win back-to-back here. But just as a reminder, these guys won TI13, and are as experienced as they come — so I’m not too worried about them bouncing back from a mediocre result.

#5: BetBoom Team

Ivan “Pure” Moskalenko and the rest of BetBoom Team probably hoped for a better result at ESL One Raleigh — and I say this even though they placed fourth overall. Winning FISSURE Universe Episode 4 was proof that they hadn’t missed a step, after also winning BLAST Slam 1 just before 2024 ended.

They’ve been consistently at the top of the competitive scene this season, and I’m expecting them to finish in the top half of the field here — provided they don’t choke away all their opportunities like they tend to in clutch situations.

#6: Team Falcons

Team Falcons had a disappointing end to their campaign at Raleigh, given that they topped Group B with seven wins and three losses, only to flounder in the playoffs with only a single map win. This was of course with the caveat that they were playing with Quinn “Quinn” Callahan as a stand-in, but honestly, Quinn looked right at home with them in the group stage — so their meltdown in the playoffs was a bit shocking to me.

Now that Stanislav “Malr1ne” Potorak is done sitting on the sidelines due to visa issues, Falcons might just redeem themselves at Wallachia.

#7: AVULUS

AVULUS have the talent and experience to make it further than they did at Raleigh — but unfortunately for them they just couldn’t put the pieces together coming out of the group stage. They ended up having to face Liquid in the first round of the lower bracket as a result, in a matchup that they just couldn’t find their groove in.

I’m still not that convinced they can place anywhere higher than the top eight spots at Wallachia, but in the grand scheme of things, they’re at least still better than a lot of the other teams in the field. They will probably still end up somewhere in the middle, but if they take this chance to level up their game, I will definitely give them their flowers for it.

#8: Nigma Galaxy

Let’s get one thing straight: the only reason I have Nigma Galaxy this high on the power rankings at all is because many of the teams below them aren’t really that great to begin with. But eighth place is probably going to be their ceiling at PGL Wallachia Season 4 — and even then I think I’m being a tad too generous.

This squad just tends to crumble when they finally run into actually good opponents in any tournament they play in, which is exactly what happened at ESL One Raleigh when they went 4-0 to start the competition and proceeded to lose every map thereafter. Thus, I just don’t believe they have what it takes to crack the top 6 at Wallachia — which is a shame given all the talent and experience present in this roster.

#9: Team Tidebound

Seeing Team Tidebound waste their opportunity to make another deep tournament run at ESL One Raleigh was disheartening, because the Chinese scene really needs every win it can get right now. They weren’t even able to make it into their group’s tiebreaker, as they just couldn’t get the 2-0 victory over Falcons that would have given them the chance.

Still, I have higher hopes for this team than most others probably would. It seemed like they were hitting their stride after placing third at FISSURE Universe, so if they can get themselves together here, they might just build some much needed confidence.

The Rest

The field kind of falls off after 9th place on my list, as there really isn’t much else to see here. Aurora Gaming is my pick for dark horse out of the bottom seven squads, thanks to the presence of International champions Alexander “TORONTOTOKYO” Khertek and Myroslav “Mira” Kolpakov in the roster.

But as for the others, I doubt they’re going to make any noise. Shopify Rebellion bombed out of ESL One Raleigh despite having the hometown fans rooting for them, so they’re probably going to get crushed at Wallachia all the same. I want Talon Esports to perform better in order to have a better shot at a TI14 invite, but it’s hard to put them anywhere above the top 12, unfortunately.