The reign of Yandex to continue? PARI Universe Dota 2 tournament preview and predictions

Michael Hassall Published 22/10/2026

After a short break in proceedings, the 2026/2027 Dota 2 event season is set to continue with PARI Universe, a new Dota 2 tournament from FISSURE set to take place over the next two weeks.

Even with a smaller prize pool ($250,000) and a limited number of teams, this tournament is hitting top-tier competition levels because of the calibre of names involved, and the arrival of Stanislav “Malr1ne” Potorak on Team Liquid. That roster change alone could throw predictions into disarray, which is why we’re breaking down the tournament with our PARI Universe preview here!

PARI Universe tournament details

Kicking off on Oct. 22, right as the leaves turn red and the skies darken, PARI Universe will run through until Nov. 1, with the playoffs taking place right smack-bang in spooky season on Halloween (Oct. 31).

This will be, as mentioned, a smaller field at play, with just 10 Dota 2 teams, competing across two groups. We’ll have two eliminations from the group stage, and then a eight-team bracket with double elimination.We like this tournaments, with an open qualifier team, LEGION, filling out the ranks, it should be an entertaining series of games.

Image credit: FISSURE

PARI Universe event preview

If this tournament had a headline, it would be the return of Malr1ne. One of the most impactful mid players of the last few years has a new team, having landed at a permanent home with Team Liquid following the dissolution of the iconic Team Falcons roster that won so many tournaments and TI14. And Malr1ne was a vital part of many of those victories. With a depleted field of competition, Team Liquid finally might have found the missing piece of the puzzle to bring this organization back to competitive relevance in Dota 2.

But they’re facing off against some heavy hitters. PARIVISION are still dangerous. This team still has the chip on its shoulder from two straight TI finals losses, and is looking to avenge the recent defeats against rivals Team Yandex. Speaking of Yandex, the team is on fire, with two straight tournament wins after the addition of Ammar “ATF” Al-Assaf to the roster.

A tier below, but still punching hard are Team Spirit, 1w Team, and BetBoom. This is still not quite the Team Spirit roster we’d expect with Magomed “Collapse” Khalilov still taking a break, but a dangerous lineup nonetheless. 1w Team have yet to live up to their potential, seemingly waiting for the right patch to strike. And BetBoom Team are never far from contention, even with this current incarnation not looking as potent as past iterations.

PARI Universe event predictions

Below we’ve outlined our predictions for the PARI Universe tournament, both an overall prediction, and individual matches.

Overall PARI Universe event predictions (Oct. 23)

Let’s be real: We think Team Yandex has this again. But we’re hopeful PARIVISION and Spirit can challenge them. We’re also hopeful the new version of Team Liquid punches within their weight category in this event.

1win Team vs. OG

1win have struggled this event already (how many times have we wrote that recently?) and yet we still hold out hope. Against an OG roster that really hasn’t found its identity, that almost demands to lose so much they eventually win (if you take Ceb’s word for it), we’re still picking 1w. But OG do have the chance to upset the team who really have lived up to their name the last few tournaments, 1win. As a result, we’re picking 1w, but expect the prediction markets to keep this one close.

Team Liquid vs. Gamer Legion

As mentioned multiple times in this article before, this new Team Liquid lineup with Malr1ne looks more potent that before. And that spelled disaster for 1w in the opening matchup who just couldn’t beat the infused with new talent Liquid. And while Malr1ne was a bad matchup for BZM, he’ll be an even worse matchup for NA’s RCY who is going to have to weather the storm against one of the best midlaners in the world looking to prove his worth.

BETBOOM Team vs. Astra Invicta

We haven’t yet seen the true potential of this BB lineup, and Astra Invicta could be a close one for them. We’re also aware of how badly Astra Invicta got beaten in the opening day. Still, we’re torn on this Nigma Galaxy successor org. As a result, we’re predicting BETBOOM Team to win, but a 2-1 result – the first of the tournament.

PARIVISION vs. LEGION

In possibly the only completely sure-thing in this day of matches, we think it’s a shoe-in that PARIVISION defeats LEGION. The open qualifier team will be just massively out of their depth here against one of the most dangerous and scrappy teams who demolished Astra Invicta in the opening day. This the Puppey-coached team led by Satanic and Noone, and we really can’t see Legion putting up more than a cursory challenge to the TI14 and TI15 runners up.

Featured Image Credit: FISSURE

Michael Hassall

About Michael Hassall

Michael is a eight-year veteran of the games writing space, but has being playing them for as long as he can remember. With bylines across the internet, he’s used his expertise to cover esports, prediction markets, mainstream gaming, streamers, and more besides.

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