PGL Wallachia Season 5 Viewer’s Guide — Everything You Need to Know

We’re just under 24 hours away from the start of PGL Wallachia Season 5 — one of two premier Dota 2 tournaments (the other one being the Esports World Cup) that will serve as a sort of preview for The International 2025 (TI14). Another $1 million is up for grabs in Bucharest, Romania, where 16 teams will fly in to play for a chance at that sweet, sweet prize money.

Unlike DreamLeague Season 26 and the TI14 regional qualifiers, PGL Wallachia Season 5 will be played in a LAN setting, which ups the ante quite a bit. There won’t be a crowd at the event, but there’s still nothing like zero latency and face to face gameplay to get the blood boiling. Teams will also be using this tournament to get themselves ready for The International, so personally, I’d expect to see a few quirky strategies tried here.

Need to know how to catch all the action? I’ve got you covered with this viewer’s guide.

When is PGL Wallachia Season 5 taking place?

PGL Wallachia Season 5 will run from Saturday, June 21st, until Sunday, June 29th. The group stage takes up the first five days, while the final four days are for the playoffs. As mentioned, the tournament will be played in a LAN setting, specifically in PGL’s Bucharest studio in Romania.

🔥 The wait is over!

🇷🇴 PGL Wallachia Season 5 🐺 kicks off this Saturday!

🎮 Day 1 features 4 Bo3s across two streams, as always!

📅 Stay tuned for the full schedule 👇#PGLWallachia pic.twitter.com/GKclrp9kUT

— PGL (@pglesports) June 19, 2025

Each group stage day will start at 3am EST/12am PST, with two matches running concurrently every three hours. The playoffs will also start at the same time, except for the last day which is scheduled for 4am EST/1am PST.

What is the format of the event?

The group stage will take on the usual Swiss format that organizer PGL has been using for PGL Wallachia since the first edition back in 2024, while the playoffs will be a double elimination bracket. All group stage and playoff matches will be best-of-three, with the exception of the best-of-five grand finals.

Only the eight best teams coming out of the group stage will see the playoffs, so it’s crucial for squads to find their groove early in order to stave off early elimination. The good news for the surviving teams is that they will all start from the upper bracket, so even those that don’t get off to a super hot start will have plenty to play for.

What’s at stake here?

As I said, there will be $1 million in prize money on offer at PGL Wallachia Season 5. The prize pool will be distributed as follows:

• 1st place — $350,000
• 2nd place — $145,000
• 3rd place — $100,000
• 4th place — $80,000
• 5th/6th place — $60,000
• 7th/8th place — $40,000
• 9th/11th place — $20,000
• 12th-14th place — $15,000
• 15th-16th place — $10,000

Which teams will be playing at PGL Wallachia Season 5?

There will be 16 squads at play here, all of which were invited to the event directly by PGL:

If you want to know how each team stacks up against the competition, check out my power rankings for the pecking order.

Which teams won the previous tournaments?

Although PGL Wallachia as a tournament series is very new, there have already been four previous winners starting from the very first edition in May 2024. All the previous winners of the event are as follows:

• Season 1 — Team Spirit
• Season 2 — HEROIC
• Season 3 — Team Liquid
• Season 4 — Team Liquid

Where can I watch the games?

All the games will be broadcast on PGL’s official Twitch and YouTube livestreams.