An action-packed day saw two teams pull off 2-1 reverse sweeps in both the upper and lower brackets.
The competition at Dota 2 PGL Wallachia Season 3 has been thinned down to six teams with the conclusion of the second day of the tournament's Playoffs on Friday (14 March). 
Team Tidebound and 
Gaimin Gladiators were knocked out by 
Aurora Gaming and 
Team Spirit while 
Team Liquid and 
Team Falcons advanced to the upper bracket finals after emerging victorious over 
Xtreme Gaming and 
Tundra Esports in the upper bracket semifinals.
Here's how all the action in Day 2 of the PGL Wallachia Season 3 Playoffs went down:
Tidebound and Gladiators bow out while Liquid and Falcons make Top 3
Lower bracket round 1
Team Tidebound
1-2
Aurora Gaming
The day started down in the lower bracket, where Tidebound and Aurora were pit in the first elimination match of the Playoffs. All three games of the series had one-sided results, with Aurora knocking out Tidebound to advance to the lower bracket quarterfinals.
Aurora struck first in the series, making good use of a powerful mid game-centric draft to comfortably claim the game one win in just under 49 minutes of action. 
Egor “Nightfall” Grigorenko had a stellar start to the match, putting up a clean 10-kill, 12-assist performance with Dragon Knight to pace his team's 26-15 kill lead. 
Artem “Lorenof” Melnick on Leshrac also added seven kills and 14 assists on three deaths.
Tidebound were quick to strike back in game two, stomping Aurora to the tune of a 25-5 kill lead in a 27-minute rout. 
Cheng “NothingToSay” Jin Xiang on Queen of Pain and 
Zhang “Bach” Ruida on an offlane Terrorblade led the way by combining for 16 kills and 11 assists with zero deaths between the two of them.
The decider then saw Aurora dominate the laning stage and never look back, closing out the 2-1 series victory in 45 minutes. Nightfall on Phantom Assassin and Lorenof on Ember Spirit put on a show in game three by putting on flawless performances, with Nightfall notching 17 kills and eight assists, while Lorenof had eight kills and 14 assists.
Team Spirit
2-1
Gaimin Gladiators
The second lower bracket elimination match of the day saw Spirit pull off an impressive 2-1 reverse sweep over Gaimin Gladiators, with game three of the series notably ending in dramatic fashion.
Gaimin Gladiators opened the match with one of their signature high-tempo drafts, which featured 
Alimzhan “Watson” Islambekov on a carry Broodmother, 
Quinn “Quinn” Callahan on Ember Spirit, and 
Marcus “Ace” Hoelgaard on Abaddon. Spirit could do little to stop Gaimin Gladiators from snowballing to a quick 28-minute win, with Watson pacing his team's 20-7 kill lead with a clean six kills and 11 assists, while Quinn added seven kills and eight assists on one death.
Game two was a scrappy, back-and-forth affair where Spirit came out on top after 37 minutes to force the series to a decider. Illya “Yatoro” Mulyarchuk (aka Raddan) led the way as Terrorblade, and recorded 10 kills and 11 assists on two deaths to fuel his team's 27-18 kill lead while Magomed “Collapse” Khalilov on Sand King and Yaroslav “Miposhka” Naidenov on Jakiro notched six kills on three deaths apiece, while combining for 23 assists.
Spirit then pulled out some pocket picks in game three, with Denis “Larl” Sigitov being put on Huskar to dominate the laning stage and make space for Yatoro's Phantom Assassin and Collapse's Sand King to come online and help lead the deathball. Spirit's game plan went off without a hitch and they held the net worth lead for the entirety of the game, though Gaimin Gladiators did put up a valiant effort before eventually conceding the series after 37 minutes following a narrow loss in the match's decisive clash.
Yatoro recorded nine kills and six assists on two deaths to lead Spirit to victory in the closeout game, while Larl added eight kills and seven assists on four deaths.
Upper bracket semifinals
0-2
Team LiquidFollowing the lower bracket matches, the action moved to the upper bracket where four teams fought over two spots in the Top 3. Reigning The International (TI) champions Liquid scored the only 2-0 victory of the day after grinding out back-to-back late game wins over Xtreme.
Game one saw both teams engage in constant clashes all across the map, with Xtreme managing to hold on to a narrow net worth lead as Hongcheng “Xm” Guo's Queen of Pain racked up 10 kills. However, the tides turned in Liquid's favour as their heavy teamfight lineup scored a teamwipe on Xtreme around the 43-minute mark. The reigning TI champions then sealed the deal by obliterating their opponents in one last clash that forced them to call GG at the 55-minute mark, with 
Michał “Nisha” Jankowski's Invoker notably scoring a stylish Triple Kill off a perfectly-timed Cataclysm.
Nisha led the way for Liquid in game one with 15 kills and 12 assists on five deaths out of the team's 33-25 kill lead, while 
Micke “miCKe” Vu on Tiny pitched in with 11 kills and six assists on just one death.
Game two followed a similar script as the previous game, with Xtreme nursing a narrow gold lead until Liquid blew things wide open with a massive teamfight win at the 29-minute mark. From there, it was just a matter of Liquid grinding down a stubborn Xtreme defense to eventually close out the series sweep after an hour of action. Nisha once again was the star of the show, this time styling on Xtreme as Storm Spirit, and racking up 15 kills for a second consecutive game to go along with 14 assists on two deaths.
2-1
Tundra EsportsThe day then closed with the second upper bracket semifinal match between two Western European powerhouses in Falcons and Tundra, where Falcons pulled off the day's second 2-1 reverse sweep to become the second team to make it to the Top 3.
Tundra opened the series with a dominant win, besting Falcons in 47 minutes with one of their signature high-sustain drafts keyed by Anton “dyrachyo” Shkredov's Alchemist and 
Bozhidar “bzm” Bogdanov's mid Dazzle. Bzm continued to make his case as the best Dazzle player right now – making good use of the hero's new Nothl Projection ultimate to dish out both healing and harm from afar – and finished the game with 14 kills and nine assists on just one death.
Falcons then looked to bounce back in game two with a Huskar pick, which they gave to 
Ammar “ATF” Assaf, to go along with two more high-damage, tanky core heroes in a carry Abaddon for 
Oliver “Skiter” Lepko and Pangolier for Stanislav “Malr1ne” Potorak. Falcons dominated the laning stage and snowballed out of control as expected, though Tundra managed to draw things out to just under 70 minutes before ultimately conceding game two.
ATF led the way for Falcons with 15 kills and 12 assists on four deaths, while skiter added 10 kills and 18 assists against three deaths. Meanwhile, bzm on Windranger put up an admirable 14 kills and five assists on eight deaths in the loss.
Losing game two seems to have knocked the wind out of Tundra, as they barely put up a fight in game three against an unorthodox Falcons draft that featured skiter essentially playing an offlane Tidehunter in the safe lane while Malr1ne on Nature's Prophet and ATF on Bristleback acted as the team's real carry heroes. Falcons secured the reverse sweep in rather anticlimactic fashion as ATF recorded 12 kills and five assists on just one death to pace his team's 22-9 kill lead in the closeout game.
With the day's results, Tidebound and Gaimin Gladiators bow out of PGL Wallachia Season 3 in 7th-8th place and will be taking home US$40,000 in consolation. Meanwhile, Liquid and Falcons have guaranteed themselves at least a Top 3 finish and US$120,000 in winnings. Of course, those two teams in the upper bracket finals have their eyes set on a spot in the grand finals, where the lion's share of US$300,000 will be up for grabs.
Day three of the PGL Wallachia Season 3 Playoffs will start with the two lower bracket quarterfinal matches, where Tundra will take on Aurora while Spirit will face off against Spirit. Following that will be the upper bracket finals between Liquid and Falcons, before the day closes with the lower bracket semifinals featuring the winners of the lower bracket quarterfinals.
For Dota 2 match results and updates on the go, don't forget to check out our Telegram channel.
