PGL Wallachia Season 7 Power Rankings

We’ve had our week-long break from DreamLeague Season 28, but now it’s time for PGL Wallachia Season 7. As always, 16 teams will descend upon Bucharest, Romania to do battle for $1 million and the prestige of being a PGL Wallachia champion.

But there’s a bit of a twist this time around: more than a handful of top squads will have to play with stand-ins due to visa issues. So with that in mind, how will these teams stack up against the rest of the pack?

#1 — Tundra Esports

I know I just posed the question in the intro, but when it comes to Tundra Esports in this case, it really doesn’t matter. Ivan “Pure” Moskalenko might be out of commission for Wallachia, but replacing him is an insanely gifted player in the form of David “Parker” Nicho Flores. Granted, Parker is liable to self-implode at any time in a tournament, but if his teammates can rein him in, I think they’ll be just as dangerous as they are normally.

On paper, this team should be nigh unbeatable. Parker is easily the best carry out of South America by a country mile, and if the rest of Tundra can adjust to his playstyle accordingly, I can see them winning without too much trouble.

#2 — Team Liquid

Liquid are still riding the high from winning BLAST Slam 6 Malta, and it showed in the fact that they finished on the podium at DreamLeague Season 28. For once, I can confidently say that this team has figured out how the pieces fit with regards to Marcus “Ace” Christensen and Erik “tOfu” Engel, and they’re back as true contenders at pretty much every tier 1 LAN this season.

The problem is, they’ve kept their penchant for losing to themselves. It happened in their lower bracket series against Aurora Gaming at DreamLeague, which was very much a winnable matchup for them talent-wise. Not overthinking things and throwing away games as a result happens to the best Dota 2 teams, but with these guys it feels like it happens far too often given their talent level.

Still, I would not dare to suggest that they aren’t a title-winning threat at Bucharest.

#3 — Team Falcons

I am very well aware of Team Falcons’ poor form as of late. Not having Ammar “ATF” Al-Assaf with them at DreamLeague didn’t help, as they were unable to put things together with the best player in the world out of their roster. Now that we know Ammar will be in Bucharest, I can at least put that worry to rest.

It doesn’t stop there, though. Now, it’s Stanislav “Malr1ne” Potorak’s turn to get sidelined by visa issues, which has them taking on Artem “lorenof” Melnyk as his substitute. And while I would rather have ATF on board over Malr1ne if I were in Falcons’ shoes in this case, not having their full roster for yet another important tournament is likely to impact their performance here.

That said, at least we know that lorenof is running hot right now. He was perhaps the biggest reason Aurora had that miraculous run at DreamLeague, so Falcons will have that to go off of. Whether the others will be up to the task is another question entirely — but if their heads are in the right place in Bucharest, they might finally turn their mediocre 2025-2026 campaign around.

#4 — Xtreme Gaming

I’m pretty sure this is the first time I’m putting a Chinese team this high up on a power ranking of mine, at least in modern times. Xtreme Gaming impressed me with their run to the DreamLeague playoffs, and I’m starting to think that they might steadily be getting better as the season rolls along.

I didn’t put too much faith in them at the start of the year given that they lost Zhao “XinQ” Zixing — someone who I believe to be a non-negotiable when it comes to fielding a roster with Wang “Ame” Chunyu in it. But it seems that they’re starting to figure it out with Xu “fy” Linsen, which bodes well for their chances at actually winning a tournament this season.

That said, I’m still far away from being ready to consider them perennial contenders; I can’t see them getting anywhere higher than top 4 at Wallachia.

#5 — Team Yandex

An appearance at the BLAST Slam 5 Chengdu grand finals and their win at DreamLeague Season 27 were supposed to be what pushed Yandex into consistent relevance as a tier 1 squad. Bagging podium finishes at FISSURE Universe Episode 8 and BLAST Slam 6 Malta only convinced me further that they’d be here to stay.

And for the most part, that’s still true in my mind — but 12th place at DreamLeague Season 28 isn’t helping their case. They looked downright awful there, as if their 2-3 loss to Na’Vi in Malta significantly dented their confidence. The exit interview with Arman “Malady” Orazbayev in Malta suggests as much, as he looked totally defeated after such a long series.

There’s also the issue of Evgeniy “Noticed” Ignatenko being absent from this tournament. Dmitry “DM” Dorokhin will be standing in for him, and I’m sure he’ll be motivated knowing there’s a chance to play against PARIVISION. But Noticed will sorely be missed by Yandex, as he had visibly hit his stride over the last few months.

#6 — OG

Having to settle for 10th place at DreamLeague Season 28 was a pretty significant setback for OG, who up to that point had been gradually building momentum and confidence as a five-man roster. In fact, they clinched a podium finish at BLAST Slam 6 Malta, which should have been another sign that they were hitting their stride.

Sadly, their momentum has been halted for the time being. They came out of the first group stage at DreamLeague on the wrong side of the standings, as they were unable to fend off BetBoom Team in their tiebreaker match. I still think they’re very much capable of getting to the top 4 or even top 3 in Bucharest, but I wouldn’t call it a likely outcome given what happened at DreamLeague.

#7 — MOUZ

Here’s another team that’s been on a downward spiral as of late. MOUZ came away from PGL Wallachia Season 6 with the trophy, but since then, they’ve slipped rapidly as they are no longer one of the top teams at any tier 1 tournament. They look kind of disjointed from each other as a unit, and their execution as a whole has been lacking over the last few months.

Nevertheless, I’m putting them in sixth place because of the potential that they’ve already shown throughout this season. Winning Wallachia Season 6 wasn’t a fluke, and these guys absolutely have the talent to make a deep run at the highest level again. They do however need to find what works for them once more, or it’s just going to be more of Daniyal “yamich” Lazebnyy trying in vain to carry everyone else.

#8 — BetBoom Team

I have to hand it to Ilya “Kiritych” Ulyanov: he really showed out at DreamLeague as one of the best up-and-coming players from the carry position right now. He displayed a level of confidence and self-assuredness that is normally reserved for more established and accomplished veterans, so it’s kind of unfortunate that BetBoom Team had to settle for a seventh place finish.

If Kiritych can bring what he learned from DreamLeague into Wallachia, I can very well see him improving even more as a carry. The rest of his team is likely to follow suit as he galvanizes them moving forward — assuming they don’t pull the classic BetBoom throws in Bucharest.

The Rest

“Where the heck are Aurora Gaming and PARIVISION,” I hear you ask. Well, Aurora will be without lorenof’s services this time around, as Rafli “Mikoto” Fathur Rahman makes his way back into the lineup. Alik “V-Tune” Vorobey is nowhere near as good of a substitute as lorenof, so all of those factors combined will probably hamper their campaign greatly.

As for PARIVISION, have you seen how bad they’ve been lately? It was honestly a miracle that they managed to finish sixth in group stage 2 at DreamLeague, as they had not won a single series prior to the last two days. I cannot really see a world where they have what it takes to break through the top 8 right now. The same goes for Team Spirit, whose constant back and forth between having Denis “Larl” Sigitov and Marat “Mirele” Gazetdinov playing mid for them has not been good for their confidence recently.

Na’Vi fell back down to earth at DreamLeague after facing Liquid in the grand finals of BLAST Slam 6, where they got outclassed by the champions almost comprehensively. They were clearly not quite ready to win their first ever LAN, and neither were they ready at DreamLeague anyway. So, I’ve got them back below the usual cutoff point in my power rankings.