PGL Wallachia Season 8 got a lot more interesting this group stage as both finalists in the previous Tier 1 Dota 2 event, Tundra Esports and Team Yandex found themselves eliminated after a 0-3 start to the tournament.
Tundra Esports, the champions of ESL One Birmingham 2026 and DreamLeague Season 28 before that, crashed out in 16th place, while Team Yandex, winners of PGL Wallachia Season 7 and runners up at ESL One Birmingham, came 15th, as per their Buchholz score. Here’s how it went down.
It’s been a rough tournament for both Tundra and Yandex. Yandex kicked off with a match against Team Falcons, perhaps their most forgivable loss. Falcons have been resurgent this past event, perhaps due to Stanislav “Malr1ne” Potorak and Ammar “ATF” Al-Assaf’s recent adventures as stand-ins keeping them on their toes.
But the rest of Yandex’s losses seem unexplainable. A defeat at the hands of 0-1 South America Rejects and former Junior lineup NA’VI concluded their defeat.
Similarly, Tundra’s losses to Heroic, Virtus.pro and finally MOUZ seemed out of character for the team that was previously lorded as perhaps the best in the world just a few short weeks ago.
Much of the losses seem focused on both team’s struggles against the upcoming meta of 7.41b. In particular, the likes of Lone Druid and Sladar, whose absurd carry potential and lane dominance respectively have made a mockery of plenty of teams this tournament so far.
While we’re hesitant to point to a few hero picks and drafts as reasons behind a collapse this significant, there’s certainly some correlation.
Today’s matches (April 21) also saw Virtus.pro, NAVI and Vici Gaming exit the event. Two of these teams were squads with victories over Tundra and Yandex. The defeat is so significant that casters were asking noted Dota stats man Ben “Noxville” Steenhuisen if he could track whether such a drop off for a team has ever happened before in Dota 2.
PGL Wallachia’s Group Stage concludes tomorrow with six remaining teams battling for just three spots. Stick with Jaxon.gg for more Dota 2 coverage.
Featured Image Credit: PGL
21+ and present in VA. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER.
