Team Liquid rout Tundra Esports to claim PGL Wallachia Season 3 championship

This marks Team Liquid's first Tier 1 tournament victory since they raised the Aegis of Champions last September.

Reigning Dota 2 The International (TI) champions Team Liquid became the ultimate victors of PGL Wallachia Season 3 after they routed Tundra Esports, 3-1, in the tournament's grand finals on Monday (17 March).

With this victory, Liquid claimed the grand prize of US$300,000 out of PGL Wallachia Season 3's US$1 million prize pool, as well as their first Tier 1 tournament victory since they raised the Aegis of Champions last September. This also marks the first career Tier 1 title for Liquid offlaner Jonáš “SabeRLighT-” Volek, who joined Liquid to replace Neta “33” Shapira following the latter's departure to Tundra.

Liquid trounce Tundra to win PGL Wallachia Season 3

Liquid and Tundra outlasted 14 other teams to face off in the PGL Wallachia Season 3 grand finals. Both teams started their campaigns in the Swiss format Group Stage, where Liquid qualified for the Playoffs with a clean 3-0 match record, while Tundra barely scraped by with a modest 3-2 standing.

In the Playoffs, Liquid looked nigh-unstoppable as they tore through the upper bracket to become the first team to qualify for the tournament's championship round. They first defeated Aurora Gaming in three games at the upper bracket quarterfinals, before scoring back-to-back sweeps over Xtreme Gaming in the upper bracket semifinals and Team Falcons in the upper bracket finals.

Meanwhile, Tundra took the long way to get to the grand finals. They first defeated Gaimin Gladiators in three games to open their upper bracket stint before getting knocked down to the lower bracket following a 1-2 defeat to Falcons. Under threat of elimination, Tundra stepped up their game and knocked out Aurora and Falcons to survive to the final day of the tournament. The team then bested Falcons in a rematch at the lower bracket finals to earn the right to challenge Liquid for the PGL Wallachia Season 3 title.

Team Liquid3-1Tundra Esports

The grand finals opened with a bloody 53-minute brawl, where both teams remained on relatively even footing for much of the game before Liquid pulled away in the late game with some expertly-executed teamfights to claim their first win of the series. Michał “Nisha” Jankowski sparked Liquid's opening win with a rare mid Tinker pick and notched 11 kills and 23 assists on just one death out of his team's 37-27 kill lead. Micke “miCKe” Vu on Sven also played phenomenally and finished with a series-high 17 kills and 14 assists against seven deaths.

Game two was a much more one-sided affair, where Liquid made good use of a strong mid game tempo lineup led by miCKe's Ursa, Nisha's Puck, and SabeRLighT's Night Stalker to bulldoze through Tundra in 36 minutes and claim a commanding 2-0 series lead. MiCKe led the way in game two with 11 kills and six assists on three deaths, while SabeRLighT added eight kills and 17 assists on three deaths.

With their backs against the wall in game three, Tundra showcased some of their signature dominance by claiming the game three win after a 32-minute rout where they never once relinquished the net worth lead. Anton “dyrachyo” Shkredov on Alchemist and Bozhidar “bzm” Bogdanov on Invoker keyed Tundra's only win of the series by notching six kills apiece and a combined 19 assists, with dyrachyo dying three times while bzm only gave up one death.

Liquid smelled blood in the water in game four, which ended up being the most one-sided game of the grand finals as the reigning TI champions simply brushed Tundra aside in just under 40 minutes of action to secure the title. MiCKe topped the kill board for the third time this series to close out the grand finals, putting up 13 kills and nine assists on just one death as Tiny. SabeRLighT on Tidehunter also pitched in with nine kills and 16 assists on one death.

With a tournament victory under their belts now, Liquid are in prime position to receive a direct invite to TI 2025 in Hamburg, Germany in September this year. The reigning TI champions will be looking to become the third team in the history of Dota 2 to repeat as world champions, and earn a third Aegis of Champions for their organisation to add to their trophies from 2017 and 2024.

Liquid will be looking to build on their success from PGL Wallachia Season 3 in their next tournament appearances in FISSURE Universe: Episode 4, taking place from 22 to 30 March, as well as ESL One Raleigh 2025 and PGL Wallachia Season 4 in April.