Team Yandex lock down a top 3 finish at FISSURE Playground 2

I can confidently say that we are currently in the “stranger things” part of professional Dota 2, because Team Yandex just pulled off a astonishing upset in the playoffs of FISSURE Playground 2. They just beat MOUZ, one of the hottest new teams of the current competitive season, in a grueling three-game series that was truly one for the ages and not something I anticipated in the power rankings for this tournament.

This guarantees them a top 3 finish at the very least, which is not something that I ever could have expected out of this squad in particular.

Game 1 — The mice come out to play

The first game of the series went about as well as I thought it would for MOUZ, as they fired the opening salvo in this match off the back of a clever Broodmother last pick for Miroslav “BOOM” Bičan. Yandex got caught with their pants down thanks to this pick, especially in the offlane where they didn’t really have any answers to Broodmother in the laning phase.

Neither Evgeniy “Noticed” Ignatenko nor Martin “Saksa” Sazdov were equipped to handle the matchup against the Broodmother, which in turn allowed BOOM to just run amok as he pleased in the mid game. One by one, Yandex’s towers fell before the might of the spider army, choking them right out of this game before they could get Alimzhan “watson” Islambekov’s Morphling online.

This was just an out-and-out draft loss for Yandex, and so they had to tap out in just over 35 minutes.

Game 2 — Yandex flip things around

In similar fashion to when they sent Tundra to the lower bracket and seemingly unfazed by the early setback, Yandex went into game 2 looking confident despite the shellacking that they had to endure in the first game. They completely crushed MOUZ in the laning phase in this one, getting pretty much whatever they wanted out of the first 10-15 minutes of the game. Playing as Terrorblade, watson in particular had the time of his life, thanks in no small part to the potent lane combo between his Terrorblade and Arman “Malady” Orazbayev’s Jakiro.

Together, they simply manhandled BOOM’s Pangolier and Melchior “Seleri” Hillenkamp’s Chen, which resulted in all the space that watson could ever want as a carry. He would go on to post a 13-0 kill-death ratio, with a 21 minute Butterfly timing thrown in there to make things even more impressive.

And on MOUZ’ side, they just had no answers to the overfarmed Terrorblade. Only Artem “lorenof” Melnyck had the capacity to deal with watson’s illusions as Leshrac, while the rest of their draft was countered by Terrorblade’s high base armor and the additional health from Manta Style and Hurricane Pike.

Game 3 — Both teams go all out

With the series on the line, it was time for both teams to leave it all on the floor. And that’s exactly what they did in game 3, as the game itself went the distance at almost 65 minutes of elapsed time. MOUZ opened the draft up with a first pick Timbersaw for lorenof in the solo mid spot, with the act of first picking this hero becoming more and more of a popular move in this current metagame.

A 65-minute deciding game ends in favor of YANDEX.

We’ll be back from the arena for the FISSURE Playground 2 Lower Bracket Quarterfinal this Friday. pic.twitter.com/Ur7H7s9d9b

— MOUZ (@mousesports) October 29, 2025

Yandex responded right away with an Ursa pick for watson, which looked like a stroke of genius at the time. Unfortunately for watson, he didn’t get off to a great start in the lane, which then made me think that maybe the Ursa pick wasn’t going to work out after all. But the rest of Yandex probably told him “we got this”, because all of them stepped up big time to save watson from becoming total dead weight.

Ilya “CHIRA_JUNIOR” Chirtsov in particular was a huge factor in ensuring that they stayed afloat throughout this game. His Leshrac was the key to unlocking their teamfight potential, as his insane damage output (read: 73,700 points of damage by the end) would anchor Yandex’s lineup during hectic five-on-five engagements.

It took them a long while to close this game out, though, as Remco “Crystallis” Arets would just refuse to quit as Gyrocopter. Pretty much the last hope for MOUZ in this one in the deep late game, he fought tooth and nail to deal damage in teamfights as well, and with Divine Rapiers coming into play past the 60 minute mark, I honestly thought his output would be enough to turn this game around. That and the fact that MOUZ also had BOOM playing Enigma.

But it still wasn’t enough. Yandex played amazingly well around the threat of Black Hole (R) and Flak Cannon (E), positioning themselves in such a way that they didn’t just fold to the combo. The damage from watson’s Ursa also came in surprisingly handy at this point despite it being really late in the game, helping to burst Crystallis down when Yandex needed it the most.

With Crystallis running out of buybacks by the end, it was just a matter of walking into the Dire base for Yandex and taking the throne. This squad is showing some real potential, and now that they’re in the top 3 at FISSURE Playground 2, the future is looking incredibly bright for this ragtag band.