Unstoppable Yandex crush NAVI in one-sided PGL Wallachia finals
Team Yandex has swept the grand finals of the PGL Wallachia Season 9
Dota 2
tournament, defeating Natus Vincere (NAVI) in a 3-0 drubbing this past weekend (Sep. 27).
As
predicted, the revitalized Yandex, hot off the signing of former Team Falcons star Ammar “ATF” Al-Assaf, crushed their youthful opponents in a three-game sweep in the best-of-five finals. Here’s how it happened:
Team Yandex lift the trophy at PGL Wallachia Season 9. Image credit: PGL/Ammar “ATF” Alassaf
Team Yandex sweep NAVI in PGL Wallachia Season 9 finals
After upsetting the star-studded LGD Gaming roster (albeit fulfilling what the Dota 2
prediction markets
had forecast), helmed by Sumail “SumaiL” Hassan and ATF’s former Falcons teammate Jingjun “Sneyking” Wu, NAVI headed to the finals with a lot of confidence. The team of young stars, where the average age is 20, and the youngest player, Artem “Niku” Bachkur, is just 17, played like veterans far beyond their years in their dismantling of LGD.
But the young CIS squad hit a brick wall in the form of a Yandex team stacked with
real
veteran players, among them TI winners Martin “Saksa” Sazdov and ATF. In what was a dominant display, Yandex schooled the upstart NAVI in three successive games.
Game one, and Yandex might as well have had two Pos 1s, with ATF breaking out his signature Razor to bully his opponent’s Weaver. Game 2 went little better, with Taras “gotthejuice” Linnikov’s Lone Druid unable to do anything against his opponents.
The final game went little better with a flawless performance from ATF on Huskar. Throughout the matchup, his lane partner, Saksa, made himself a nuisance picking Dark Willow in all three matches. This lane might just be the best duo in all of Dota right now, with Saksa’s roaming and ATF’s self-sufficiency complimenting each other perfectly.
With the victory, Yandex took home $300,000 in prize money, and enter this early part of the 2026/2027 Dota 2 season as the top team. Their performance at upcoming
BLAST Slam VIII
is sure to be one to watch as they enter as favorites versus untested rosters from other teams, a depleted
TI15 champs in Team Spirit, and other last-season titans like PARIVISION
Featured Image Credit: Team Yandex
Michael Hassall
About Michael Hassall
Michael is an eight-year veteran of games writing and has been playing games for as long as he can remember. With bylines across the internet, he has used his expertise to cover esports, prediction markets, mainstream gaming, streamers and more.
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