PGL Wallachia Season 7 qualifiers — All qualifier results

January is wrapping up, and so is the new year’s qualifier mania for Dota 2 — with PGL Wallachia Season 7 and its regional qualifiers now done and dusted. Only four qualifier slots were awarded by PGL this season instead of six, making each qualifier tournament more valuable and more intense than the last, especially in the Americas and Asia regions.

Didn’t get to catch the qualifiers when they happened? Don’t worry, I’ve got the results for you right here.

Asia — Team Nemesis

Southeast Asian squad Team Nemesis did not let the fact that China and SEA had to compete for a single qualifier slot this time around faze them, as they were the first to come out of the regional qualifiers for PGL Wallachia Season 7. Mind you, they had to kind of sweat for the right to play in Romania in March, as they were knocked down to the lower bracket by Vici Gaming just before they would have gotten to the grand finals.

Fortunately for them, they were able to find a way to fend off the Carlo “Kuku” Palad-led PlayTime in the final elimination round of the tournament, thus setting them up for a rematch with VG. And what a rematch it was. The set went to all five games in one of the most intense battles I’ve seen between China and Southeast Asia in quite some time, with neither team willing to give an inch all the way through.

But it was the SEA club that pulled it off in the end, winning the last two games in a row after going down 2-1 in the series. Not even the surprise Largo pick from the side of Vici Gaming in game 4 was enough to put them away, but then again, I never really expected Largo to get picked in the first place given his rather underwhelming state as a hero right now.

Eastern Europe — Power Rangers

Now here is a team name that I haven’t heard in a long time. Formerly home to players like Danilo “Bignum” Shehovtsov and Artem “fng” Barshak, Power Rangers was a mainstay in between tiers 1 and 2 of the Eastern European scene back in the early days of Dota 2. Now, this version of Power Rangers doesn’t seem to be affiliated with the original organization, but I’m wondering if they may be planning a comeback here. Admittedly, I recognize not a single name in this roster other than Aleksandr “Immersion” Khmelevskoi, but honestly, I kind of like that I don’t.

Anyway, I’m happy to see someone other than Aurora Gaming coming out of the EEU qualifiers, because heaven knows that the top squads from the region are going to qualify nine out of ten times for every tier 1 LAN that comes their way anyway. Lesser-known players making it to top level events is always a good thing, even if they might not perform all that well when the tournament proper happens.

Western Europe — Yellow Submarine

I think I’ve seen this movie before. Yellow Submarine is famous for producing world-class talent out of nowhere, with the most notable instance of course being Team Spirit at The International 2021 (TI10). There is just something about that organization that makes them really good at developing young players and getting them to build insane levels of chemistry, and Yellow Submarine qualifying for PGL Wallachia Season 7 might just be further proof of this.

Of course, both Marat “Mirele” Gazetdinov and Alexey “prblms” Parshukov are known quantities now, but the other three in this club will relish the opportunity to get their feet wet at the highest level. I’m particularly excited to see what Andrei “bottega” Kopytko can bring to the table, as he is kind of in the same position that Alan “Satanic” Gallyamov was last season — in the sense that he’s a 17 year old pubstar playing from the carry position.

Satanic’s breakout year was fascinating to watch, so I’m hoping we get something similar with bottega.

Americas — HEROIC

Sweet, sweet revenge was the name of the game for HEROIC in the Americas leg, as they knocked out not one, but two teams that they had it out for in these qualifiers. First, they got sent to the lower bracket relatively early by GamerLegion, who beat them in the upper bracket semifinal match in three games. They would meet again in the lower bracket final after HEROIC made sure not to drop a single game on the way there, and it was clear that the South American team’s momentum helped them get some much-needed payback.

And by momentum, I really mean it, because they had to go up against their bitter rivals in Perú Rejects for the lone qualifier slot. HEROIC had to be seeing red in this match knowing that they got punked by the Rejects in the ESL One Birmingham South America qualifiers just over a week ago, but thankfully it didn’t result in them getting in their own heads. Instead, they flipped the script on Elvis “Scofield” Peña’s team, this time being the ones to crush them three games to none.

I had honestly expected Perú Rejects to destroy HEROIC in this series, but it’s nice to see that this could indeed be a true rivalry and not a “rivalry” where one team consistently kicks the other’s asses whenever they face each other. Things are heating up in the South American scene, which is always going to be good for business.