Three days have passed since the group stage of PGL Wallachia Season 4 began, with the pecking order now starting to take shape as the tournament approaches the Playoffs. The strongest teams at the event are the very squads that I expected to do well, but there are two very pleasant surprises in that regard.
I’m talking about Tidebound and Aurora Gaming, the two teams I put in 9th and 10th place respectively in my power rankings for the competition. I picked Aurora in particular as my dark horse for the event, given that they’ve got former International champions on the roster. It’s the same for Tidebound, but I didn’t think of them as a dark horse — but rather actual contenders, albeit at the bottom of that crop of teams.
Rise Tidebound
Tidebound are proving once again that they are indeed capable of going on deep runs at premier LANs like PGL Wallachia. The group stage isn’t done yet, of course, but they currently sit at two wins and one loss in terms of sets, putting them in fourth place in the group after three days of play. Their day 1 outing was really impressive, pushing down three games and closing the series versus BetBoom, one of the best teams in the world.
The second day wasn’t that great for them, but that’s because they ran into the ESL One Raleigh second placers Team Spirit. They lost two straight games in the series, but the first game was actually closer than the overall result would imply. It was a real back-and-forth affair, but unfortunately for Tidebound, Denis “Larl” Sigitov was just too good as Monkey King.
They bounced back nicely earlier today, though, taking an easy 2-0 victory against Nigma Galaxy. They’re looking nice and solid heading into the final two days of the group stage, and if they can beat another one of the top eight teams before the playoffs roll around, their momentum will likely help them grab a podium finish.
Tidebound will face a significant challenge tomorrow, going up against Team Liquid. I predict that this series in particular will go all three games, probably in favor of Liquid but Tidebound are solid enough to eke out a win in this one.
Aurora Gaming, Aura Farming
Lest we forget, the Aurora roster is actually composed of some real good players. As I mentioned earlier, this team has two former International champions in it, in the form of Alexander “TORONTOTOKYO” Khertek and Myroslav “Mira” Kolpakov. The rest of the cast are no slouches either: Egor “Nightfall” Grigorenko, Gleb “kiyotaka” Zyryanov, and Nikita “panto” Balaganin round out the squad.
Beating Na’Vi Junior in day 1 was more or less expected, but what I didn’t see coming was them winning against Tundra Esports the day after. In fact, Tundra actually won the first game in that series, off the back of Remco “Crystallis” Arets and Bozhidar “bzm” Bogdanov having good games as Templar Assassin and Storm Spirit respectively.
🌟 @AuroraDota2_GG take down @TundraEsports 2-1 in a tight series!
They move up to 2W-0L in the Swiss Stage 🚀#PGLWallachia pic.twitter.com/SsjC2Mxj8t
— PGL DOTA 2 (@pgldota2) April 20, 2025
But Aurora answered back in the second game in dramatic fashion, thanks to Nightfall’s 15-1 performance as Anti-Mage. Get this: the score by the end of the 31 and a half minute contest was 41-9 in favor of Aurora. Talk about a complete shellacking.
Aurora used the momentum and motivation from game 2 in order to seal the deal in the third game, where Nightfall had another 15-1 performance, but this time as Phantom Assassin. He and panto winning their lane helped Aurora put the game in a stranglehold right away. And although they relinquished the net worth lead to Tundra after the 25 minute mark, the farm distribution was already in the right places. Alongside panto’s Jakiro and kiyotaka’s Ember Spirit, Nightfall enjoyed a comfortable late game that Tundra had no answer for.
They lost two straight games to Team Spirit today, in which there is absolutely no shame. They are still in pretty good position right now, and teams would do well not to underestimate them going forward. They’re up against BetBoom Team tomorrow, which will be another significant litmus test for whether or not this team can have a good run.
Nigma Galaxy, Lost in Space
I almost feel bad for pointing Nigma Galaxy’s troubles out, because they’ve been going through a rough patch in like the last three tournaments they’ve participated in. They bombed out of ESL One Raleigh after they finally had to play teams that were actually good in the group stage, which is sad to think about considering that they went 4-0 to start there.
They’re currently below the cutoff point for the playoffs at PGL Wallachia Season 4, and it’s unlikely that they’ll get themselves out of the hole they’ve dug themselves into at this point. Their fans are probably going through it right now, which I’m sure they’re tired of after years of mediocrity despite the legendary names in this roster.
If they actually want to do better than they have over the last few months, they’re going to have to pull something out of a hat here. They’ve definitely got years of competitive experience, but I’m not quite sure they have the straight up chops to beat even some of the weaker teams in the field. They did beat AVULUS two games to one yesterday, so they have that going for them — but unless they find their groove over the next two days, I don’t think they’ll be seeing the playoffs.
They’re facing Na’Vi Junior tomorrow, though, in a match where Nigma should be favored. They tend to do well against teams at a similar power level to them, so maybe there’s hope for them yet.
