Team Spirit, PARIVISION lead Playoff-qualified teams at PGL Wallachia Season 4

Eastern Europe reigns supreme in PGL Wallachia Season 4 as all five teams from the region qualified for the Playoffs.

The Dota 2 action is well underway in PGL Wallachia Season 4 as Eastern European powerhouses Team Spirit and PARIVISION lead the pack of eight Playoff-qualified teams out of 16 total participants following the conclusion of the tournament's Swiss format Group Stage on Wednesday (24 April).

Rounding out the list of teams that qualified for the Playoffs are BetBoom Team, Tundra Esports, Team Liquid, Aurora Gaming, Team Tidebound, and Natus Vincere Junior (NAVI Jr).

While most of the Playoff-qualified teams at PGL Wallachia Season 4 are well-known contenders, there is one glaring absence: Team Falcons, who missed out on the Playoffs after losing three straight matches in the closing rounds of the Group Stage. Joining Falcons in the early plane ride home are Xtreme Gaming, HEROIC, Shopify Rebellion, Nigma Galaxy, Edge, AVULUS, and Talon Esports.

Here's how all the action in the PGL Wallachia Season 4 Group Stage went down:

Spirit, PARIVISION lead eight Playoff-qualified teams at PGL Wallachia Season 4

Both Spirit and PARIVISION cruised through the Group Stage, winning every single game they played en route to the Playoffs. Spirit swept Shopify Rebellion, Tidebound, and Aurora while PARIVISION made short work of AVULUS, Edge, and Falcons.

The third Eastern European team in the tournament, BetBoom, also had a strong run through the Group Stage. After getting upset by Tidebound in the first round of the Group Stage, BetBoom bounced back by scoring back-to-back sweeps over NAVI Jr and Edge and taking down Aurora in three games to qualify for the Playoffs.

The two remaining teams from Eastern Europe, Aurora and NAVI Jr, then took all five rounds to secure their spots in the main stage of the tournament.

Aurora started strong with back-to-back 2-1 wins over NAVI Jr and Tundra, before falling to regional rivals Spirit and BetBoom in rounds three and four. But after going through a gauntlet in the first four rounds, Aurora faced a relatively easier opponent in South America's HEROIC in round five and promptly swept the series to advance to the Playoffs.

Meanwhile, NAVI Jr made an impressive comeback from a disastrous start to be among the eight teams moving on to the next stage. The team lost their first two matches against Aurora and BetBoom and were at risk of early elimination. However, NAVI Jr managed to right the ship just in time and score three consecutive sweeps against Talon, Nigma Galaxy, and Falcons. Denying a team as experienced and decorated as Falcons–despite their struggles in this tournament–is especially impressive for a team as young as NAVI Jr.

With Falcons falling short of the Playoffs, the banner of Western Europe was left at the capable hands of reigning The International (TI) champions Liquid and a shorthanded Tundra squad.

Liquid started their Group Stage campaign by sweeping Nigma Galaxy, before they themselves were swept by a Falcons squad, leading to their downward spiral out of the tournament. The reigning TI champions then took down the two Chinese representatives in the tournament, defeating Xtreme in three games and sweeping Tidebound, to punch their tickets to the Playoffs.

Tundra's journey through the Playoffs was similar to that of Liquid, winning in the first round before losing in the second and then scoring back-to-back wins in rounds three and four to advance. Tundra swept HEROIC in round one, lost to Aurora in three games in round two, bounced back with a 2-1 victory over Shopify Rebellion in round four, then defeated Falcons in another 2-1 series in round four.

Finally, Tidebound were the only team not from Western or Eastern Europe to qualify for the PGL Wallachia Season 4 Playoffs. The Chinese team's path through the Group Stage was a rollercoaster as they upset BetBoom in round one, got swept by Spirit in round two, swept Nigma Galaxy in round three, then suffered another sweep at the hands of Spirit in round four. Tidebound then had to face fellow Chinese team Xtreme in round five, proving themselves the superior Chinese team in a 2-0 sweep that earned them a spot in the Playoffs.

With the conclusion of the PGL Wallachia Season 4 Group Stage, all eight Playoff-qualified teams have secured at least US$40,000 in winnings and will next battle it out in a double-elimination bracket for the right to claim the lion's share of US$300,000 out of the tournament's US$1 million prize pool.

Here are the opening matchups for the PGL Wallachia Season 4 Playoffs:

Tundra Esports vs Team Liquid
Team Spirit vs NAVI Jr
PARIVISION vs Team Tidebound
BetBoom Team vs Aurora Gaming

Meanwhile, the eight teams that fell short of the Playoffs will be headed home with at least US$10,000 for their efforts. Falcons, Xtreme, and HEROIC bowed out in 9th-11th place with US$20,000 in consolation; Shopify Rebellion, Edge, and Nigma Galaxy were eliminated in 12th-14th place and earned US$15,000; while AVULUS and Talon exited in 15th-16th place and will take home US$10,000.