PGL Wallachia Season 7 Playoffs Day 1: Powerhouses move on in upper bracket

The first day of the PGL Wallachia Season 7 playoffs were practically devoid of any huge upsets, as the top-billed teams all defeated their opponents pretty soundly in the upper bracket quarterfinals.

BetBoom Team, Team Spirit, Team Yandex, and Team Liquid advanced to the next round today, proving that they do belong in this second half of the tournament.

Marci’s hands: rated “E” for “Everyone”

Today was not the day that HEROIC had envisioned for themselves, as they dropped the ball against BetBoom Team in their upper bracket quarterfinal series. The first game was a sign of things to come for this team, as it ended in less than 40 minutes after Matvey “MieRo`” Vasyunin took it to HEROIC as Marci. The combination between himself and Ilya “Kiritych” Ulyanov’s Shadow Fiend was as potent as one might expect, thanks to Marci’s ability to just deliver targets directly to Shadow Fiend.

HEROIC didn’t help themselves with the Pudge pick in this one, even though Adrián “Wisper” Dobles has rightfully earned praise for his Pudge play from the offlane in tournaments past. He just didn’t contribute enough to justify the pick at all, and he proved to pretty much be dead weight throughout the first game.

Speaking of Marci, though, she was easily the crux of BetBoom’s gameplan in this entire series. They picked her up for Kiritych instead of MieRo` in the second game, with MieRo` going on Centaur Warrunner instead. I honestly thought that picking Io for Vladislav “Kataomi`” Semenov was BetBoom overcooking the draft a little, but Kataomi` made it work extremely well paired with the carry Marci.

Although it took BetBoom more than 10 minutes longer to close the second game out, it was actually a bigger stomp than the first. HEROIC lost every lane, and were practically dead to rights by around the 15 minute mark. Santiago “TaiLung” Agüero Gustavo struggling mightily as Ember Spirit only made things worse, and his Crimson Guard couldn’t save his team in the end from Marci. The physical shield seemed like it was made of paper against Marci’s fists, and so they couldn’t really do anything against Kiritych’s damage.

Birthday buff activated

Everyone watching PGL Wallachia Season 7 knows by this point that Shadow Fiend is the most busted carry of the current metagame — something that Team Spirit abused to great effect in their match versus Vici Gaming. Illya “Yatoro” Mulyarchuk made the Chinese team regret giving him the flavor of the patch in the carry position. As if simply being Yatoro wasn’t already enough to carry in the first place.

Ironically, the first game showed that Vici Gaming might have actually had a chance in this series. Guo “Xm” Hongcheng getting his hands on his signature Sniper allowed VG to stake their claim on the mid game, where they had a net worth lead of nearly 10,000 gold at around 30 minutes in. Zhang “Bach” Ruida’s insanely clutch Spear of Mars (Q) and Arena of Blood (R) usage this game likewise gave them a significant amount of room to win teamfights.

Unfortunately, Yatoro was celebrating his birthday today. He was locked in during the late game, and made sure to let everyone know why he is considered one of the greatest Dota 2 players of all time. There was a moment where he landed a point blank Requiem of Souls (R) on Guo “shiro” Xuanang’s Sven, and shiro simply disintegrated in an instant as a result. Yatoro was flexing his skill and swagger this entire game, and I do believe that he shattered VG’s confidence for the rest of the match.

It boggles the mind, therefore, that they didn’t ban Shadow Fiend in the second and final game — especially considering that Spirit had first pick. True enough, they spent that first pick privilege on Shadow Fiend like they did in game 1.

And much like game 1, there was a window for VG to win game 2 yet again, but this time they decided against their better judgment to close that window themselves. For some reason, they thought that pushing Spirit’s high ground at the 52 minute mark, while being behind 37,000 gold, and having no buybacks to speak of was a good idea.

I guess they were feeling themselves a little too much after Bach got a massive double Arena when Spirit stepped up to defend their mid tier 3 tower. They might have had a chance to turn such a dire situation around had they not fallen into the classic high ground trap, but alas, cooler heads did not prevail this game. Spirit were more than happy to capitalize on VG’s hastiness, and secured themselves a 2-0 win thereafter.

Drafting masterclass

Aurora Gaming and Team Yandex saved us all from a day full of 2-0 results with a nice three-game series to whet the appetite. Both squads brought out more or less the best in each other in terms of execution and gameplay, but Yandex showed a pretty clear advantage in terms of drafts. Game 1 was a classic example of this, as Yandex answered the carry Abaddon from Aurora’s side with a Slardar counterpick.

Aurora picking Viper for Chung “Ws” Wei Shen made things worse for them — something that coach Damien “kpii” Chok joked about in the pre-game interview, noting that Ws had never played Viper at the highest level before. Well, he was right, and it showed this game for sure. Aurora lost every one of their lanes, making this game hardly close from the jump. Outdraft, gg go next.

Game 2 was a much better showing for Aurora, even though the net worth graph in this game would suggest otherwise. It turns out that Luna is a possible sleeper pick in the current metagame, because Alik “V-Tune” Vorobey carried the hell out of Aurora with one of his best heroes. He and Rafli “Mikoto” Fathur Rahman (playing Puck) paired up insanely well in this near-60 minute contest, holding the fort down even as Yandex held the net worth lead for most of the game.

I didn’t even have Luna on my radar heading into this tournament. But apparently the Moonshield facet is just that good. There were times in the late game where I thought that it was impossible for V-Tune to ever die whenever he popped Lunar Orbit (W), allowing him to just stand and deliver tons of mixed damage in deep late game teamfights.

Mikoto backing him up was all they needed to seal the deal. Alimzhan “watson” Islambekov (playing Beastmaster) just couldn’t contend with the better late game potential of Aurora’s draft, forcing him and his team to play a deciding game 3.

Fortunately for Yandex, their higher drafting prowess came in handy once more. Recognizing the first pick Templar Assassin on Aurora’s side, they countered with Medusa — one of the hardest carry-to-carry counters against TA herself. This matchup is honestly miserable and I wouldn’t wish it upon my worst enemy, but it’s what Aurora had to endure this game.

The Anti-Mage ban at the 12 position was honestly genius by Yandex, as there were no bans available for Aurora until the picks at 13-16 were over and done with. This meant that the only thing that Aurora could do to stop the Medusa pick was to pick it themselves, which would have caused them to have a terrible draft either way. It was a masterclass in drafting, and Yandex were rewarded for it with a very easy game 3 win.

The great stomp-off, or the Nisha Show

The first game of Tundra Esports versus Team Liquid looked more like one of my pub games than anything resembling an actual professional game of Dota 2. David “Parker” Nicho Flores went for the Meepo pick to open the series, something that Liquid were absolutely not prepared to face at all. As if they weren’t already on the back foot because of the pick, losing every single lane incredibly hard only served to put Liquid in a deeper hole.

I ain't gonna lie, we got cooked pic.twitter.com/cmGHmSv2sM

— Team Liquid Dota (@teamliquiddota) March 12, 2026

The panel said it best: this was a total beatdown. It honestly looked like Liquid were ready to call it quits on this game just five or so minutes in, and I couldn’t blame them one bit. The sheer momentum coming from Tundra’s side was just overwhelming from the get-go, and Liquid just weren’t allowed to play Dota at all this game. The final score? 40-4 in favor of Tundra. Yikes.

Amazingly, Liquid won the next game without banning Meepo at all — as if to say that the first game was just a fluke. And even more amazing is the fact that Michał “Nisha” Jankowski recovered so well as Tiny after facing Bozhidar “bzm” Bogdanov’s Huskar in the lane, which is a matchup that he had absolutely no business surviving.

Instead, the Huskar “counterpick” proved pretty much useless. Huskar just isn’t really a bzm hero, and when you’re resorting to cheese picks because you’re afraid of the best mid laner in the world, you’ve probably already lost the mental battle anyway. Nisha is just too damn good, and his recovery in this game allowed them to turn what was supposed to be a bad start into a runaway train that they rode into a 30 minute counterstomp.

Was there ever any doubt?

GG's to @TundraEsports as we take the series 2-1! pic.twitter.com/vwbSDoJouu

— Team Liquid Dota (@teamliquiddota) March 12, 2026

Then Tundra decided to throw the final game away by giving Bristleback to Parker in game 3. Picking a melee carry for Parker is already griefing, but to pick Bristleback of all heroes is even worse. I know he’s just standing in for them, but really, you gotta play to the strengths of the personnel you have on hand. Bristleback is a hero Parker barely even plays, and to trust him to do well on it was just baffling in my eyes.

As for Liquid, they just got whatever they wanted this game, especially Nisha and Michael “miCKe” Vu. When these two get rolling like they did in this game, you’re basically done. Oh well, Tundra will get another chance in the lower bracket tomorrow, where they’ll be going up against Aurora.