Team Falcons and Tundra Esports rounded out the Top 3 while Aurora Gaming, Xtreme Gaming, and Team Spirit were eliminated.
Only three Dota 2 teams remain standing at PGL Wallachia Season 3 with the conclusion of the penultimate day of its Playoffs on Saturday (15 March).
Reigning The International (TI) champions Team Liquid are the first team in the PGL Wallachia Season 3 grand finals after defeating
Team Falcons in the upper bracket finals. Meanwhile,
Tundra Esports rounded out the tournament's Top 3 at the expense of
Team Spirit,
Aurora Gaming, and
Xtreme Gaming.
Here's how all the action in Day 3 of the PGL Wallachia Season 3 Playoffs went down:
Liquid, Falcons, and Tundra are the Top 3 at PGL Wallachia Season 3
Lower bracket quarterfinals
The day started down in the lower bracket quarterfinals, where Spirit knocked out the last Chinese team in the tournament in Xtreme with a resounding 2-0 series sweep.
Xtreme started the series strong and were in control of game one behind some strong play from Jing “Xxs” Lin's Axe leading initiations and executing enemy heroes with Culling Blade. However, Spirit were able to hold off their opponents' aggression long enough for
Illya “Yatoro” Mulyarchuk's Morphling to come online and lead his team to the comeback win just before the 40-minute mark.
Yatoro finished game one with eight kills and five assists on four deaths while Xxs had a game-high 11 kills and six assists on four deaths in the loss.
If Xtreme had difficulty converting leads to the win in game one, Spirit showed them how it's done to close out the series sweep. Spirit dominated the laning stage and never relinquished the net worth lead once they had it, even if it took them over 74 minutes to grind Xtreme down to submission.
Yatoro once again led the way for Spirit in the closeout game with 16 kills and 12 assists on two deaths as Terrorblade. Denis “Larl” Sigitov on an unorthodox mid Riki pick also put up nine kills and 19 assists while
Yaroslav “Miposhka” Naidenov on Jakiro added eight kills and 24 assists, with both players recording five deaths apiece.
Spirit couldn't rest on their laurels after taking out Xtreme, however, as they still had to play in the lower bracket semifinals against the winner of the other lower bracket quarterfinal match to close out the day.
The second series of the day saw both sides taking turns stomping one another, though it was Tundra that came away with the win in game three to knock Aurora out of the tournament.
Tundra kicked things off by bulldozing through Aurora in just 21 minutes of action and with a 34-8 kill lead behind flawless performances from Bozhidar “bzm” Bogdanov on Tiny and
Neta “33” Shapira on a rare Death Prophet pick. Bzm led the way with 13 kills and eight assists while 33 added eight kills and 10 assists.
Not to be outdone by Tundra, Aurora tied up the series with an even more lopsided game as they trounced their opponents in 42 minutes. Egor “Nightfall” Grigorenko on Tiny paced his team's 41-14 kill lead with a series-high 18 kills and six assists on three deaths while
Artem “Lorenof” Melnick on Dragon Knight added a clean 13 kills and 12 assists.
Tundra then tried their best to repeat game one by routing Aurora in just under 23 minutes and up 24-10 in kills. Bzm on Monkey King had eight kills and 11 assists on five deaths to close out the series while Matthew “Whitemon” Filemon on Phoenix pitched in with five kills and 12 assists on just one death.
With their victory over Aurora, Tundra earned the right to challenge Spirit for a spot in the lower bracket finals in the last match of the day.
Upper bracket finals
The action then moved to the upper bracket for the third series of the day, where reigning TI champions Liquid absolutely outplayed Falcons to become the first grand finalists at PGL Wallachia Season 3.
Game one started with both teams on relatively even footing for the first 21 minutes until a string of key pickoffs allowed Liquid to take over in the clashes that followed. To add insult to injury, a Roshan attempt by Falcons at the 28-minute mark that could have given them an opening to come back was foiled when Jonáš “SabeRLighT-” Volek on Dark Seer managed to snatch the Aegis of the Immortal away and help Liquid win the ensuing teamfight.
Liquid then forced the GG call from Falcons after 37 minutes, with Micke “miCKe” Vu on Tiny fueling his team's 29-14 kill lead with 13 kills and 10 assists on just one death.
Game two was a much closer affair, with both teams scrapping all throughout the game before Liquid pulled away in the late game to secure the 2-0 series sweep after a 75-minute slugfest. Despite tanking the most deaths for his team with 13, SabeRLighT on Night Stalker produced another highlight when he salvaged a lost fight for Liquid around the 34-minute mark by snatching the Aegis away from under Falcons' noses for the second time in the series.
Michał “Nisha” Jankowski notably had a standout performance as Puck to help secure a spot in the grand finals for Liquid, finishing with six kills and a series-high 26 assists on a game-best three deaths.
Lower bracket semifinals
The final series of the day then saw Tundra and Spirit clash in the lower bracket semifinals for a spot in the lower bracket finals. Tundra avenged their loss to Spirit in the grand finals of DreamLeague Season 25 by besting them in three games to survive to the final day of the tournament.
Game one was a 42-minute bloodbath as both sides were eager to clash whenever the opportunity presented itself, though Tundra were able to maintain the gold lead for the entire game thanks to Anton “dyrachyo” Shkredov's Alchemist and eventually came away with the win. Dyrachyo and Bzm on Dragon Knight paced their team's 29-22 kill lead with nine kills apiece while combining for 24 assists with two and four deaths respectively.
Spirit then struck back hard in game two, stomping Tundra to the tune of a 34-5 kill lead in just 32 minutes of action. Yatoro led the way as Clinkz and notched 13 kills and nine assists on two deaths while Larl added a clean 11 kills and 10 assists.
The series decider threatened to be a repeat of the DDoS attacks that plagued the DreamLeague Season 25 grand finals due to an extended pause in the action, with casters Shannon “SUNSfan” Scotten and Troels “syndereN” Nielsen notably regaling watchers during the downtime by casting Robson “Teaguvnor” Merritt chugging a beer.
Thankfully, the action eventually resumed and Tundra didn't waste any more time as they routed Spirit in just under 29 minutes to secure the 2-1 series victory and a spot in the lower bracket finals. 33 on Beastmaster paced his team's 23-8 kill lead in the closeout game with 11 kills and nine assists on two deaths while bzm on Tiny added six kills and 10 assists on one death.
With the day's results, Aurora and Xtreme have been eliminated in 5th-6th place and will take home US$60,000 apiece in consolation. Spirit bow out in fourth place and have earned US$80,000 for their efforts.
Meanwhile, Liquid have guaranteed themselves at least a second place finish and US$175,000 in winnings. Of course, they have their sights set on PGL Wallachia Season 3 championship and the US$300,000 grand prize. Falcons and Tundra will duke it out in the lower bracket finals to open the final day of the tournament for the right to challenge Liquid in the championship round.

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