PGL Wallachia Season 9 opened its Swiss group stage in Bucharest on 19 September, and all eight Round 1 series are done. Going into Round 2, eight teams sit at 1-0 — Xtreme Gaming, Natus Vincere, Aurora Gaming, LGD Gaming, GamerLegion, Conventus Stellarum, Team Nemesis and Team Yandex — and eight sit at 0-1. Round 2 is being played today, 20 September, with the first match scheduled for 10:00 EEST (07:00 UTC).
Nobody has been eliminated yet. The Swiss group runs five rounds and only the top eight of sixteen survive it, so one defeat is recoverable — but the 2-0 and 0-2 groups take shape once today's results are in, and Round 3 is played on 21 September.
PGL Wallachia Season 9 Round 1 results
Every series was a best-of-three. Results from 19 September:
- Team Nemesis 2-1 1w Team — one of the day's more surprising results on paper, with stand-ins on both sides.
- Xtreme Gaming 2-0 Pibbles Corp
- Natus Vincere 2-0 Hokori
- Conventus Stellarum 2-1 PlayTime
- GamerLegion 2-0 Team Cobra
- LGD Gaming 2-1 Yakult Brothers
- Aurora Gaming 2-1 Pipsqueak+4
- Team Yandex 2-1 MOUZ — ATF's first series for the organisation, which announced his signing on 17 September and said he would debut here.
Five of the eight series went the distance, a fair indicator of how little separates the field this early in a rebuild cycle.
Standings after Round 1
Going into Round 2:
1-0: Xtreme Gaming, Natus Vincere, Aurora Gaming, LGD Gaming, GamerLegion, Conventus Stellarum, Team Nemesis, Team Yandex.
0-1: 1w Team, MOUZ, Yakult Brothers, PlayTime, Team Cobra, Hokori, Pibbles Corp, Pipsqueak+4.
Swiss pairs teams on identical records, so the whole Round 2 card is winners against winners and losers against losers. Liquipedia's standings table orders teams by win-loss record, with ties broken by Buchholz score and then initial seeding.
Round 2 schedule, 20 September
All times EEST (UTC+3), UTC in parentheses.
1-0 group:
- Conventus Stellarum vs Xtreme Gaming — 10:00 (07:00 UTC)
- GamerLegion vs LGD Gaming — 13:00 (10:00 UTC)
- Aurora Gaming vs Natus Vincere — 16:00 (13:00 UTC)
- Team Yandex vs Team Nemesis — 19:00 (16:00 UTC)
0-1 group:
- PlayTime vs Team Cobra — 10:00 (07:00 UTC)
- 1w Team vs Hokori — 13:00 (10:00 UTC)
- Pipsqueak+4 vs Yakult Brothers — 16:00 (13:00 UTC)
- MOUZ vs Pibbles Corp — 19:00 (16:00 UTC)
Format, prize pool and what qualification looks like
Sixteen invited teams, no qualifier route into the event. All sixteen play one modified Swiss group from 19–23 September. The top eight advance to a double-elimination playoff bracket on 24–27 September; the bottom eight are eliminated. The grand final is a best-of-five, everything before it a best-of-three.
The prize pool is $1,000,000, and it is weighted hard at the top: $300,000 to the champion, $175,000 for second, $120,000 for third, $80,000 for fourth, $60,000 each for fifth and sixth, $40,000 each for seventh and eighth, $20,000 each for ninth to eleventh, $15,000 each for twelfth to fourteenth and $10,000 each for the bottom two. Finishing ninth instead of eighth is a $20,000 swing, so the middle rounds carry real money.
Patch 7.41f, stand-ins and the post-TI backdrop
The event is being played on patch 7.41f, the gameplay update Valve shipped on 15 September. Its item cost changes — Dragon Lance, Octarine Core, Heart of Tarrasque and others — are getting their first extended competitive test.
Wallachia is also the first tier-1 or tier-2 main event since The International 2026 ended in August, and it opens the Dota 2 calendar we laid out after TI15. That it is happening at all was not a given: 1win Essence III was pulled on its own start day because too many tier-1 rosters were still rebuilding, and Wallachia faced the same reports before PGL confirmed its sixteen on 16 September. One note on the date: early-September coverage, ours included, had the event opening on 17 September. It began on the 19th.
Stand-ins are the visible residue of that rebuild. Liquipedia's participant list records Shad standing in for Pure on 1w Team over a visa issue, Stojkov standing in for Mikoto on Aurora Gaming, and Mo13ei and SaberLight covering for Ken and Jabz on Team Nemesis. Aurora arrive mid-reshuffle, after skiter's signing and Nightfall's move to the bench; skiter played carry in the Round 1 win over Pipsqueak+4.
How to watch PGL Wallachia Season 9
English coverage runs on PGL's Dota 2 Twitch, Kick and YouTube channels. Two games run concurrently in each time slot; the parallel match goes out on PGL's second English Twitch and Kick channels, with YouTube carrying the main stream only.
FAQ
When does PGL Wallachia Season 9 finish? The event runs 19–27 September 2026 at PGL Studio in Bucharest. The Swiss group stage ends on 23 September and the playoffs run 24–27 September.
How many teams qualify for the playoffs? Eight of the sixteen. The top eight in the Swiss standings advance to a double-elimination bracket; the other eight are eliminated.
Who is leading PGL Wallachia Season 9? After Round 1 on 19 September there was an eight-way tie at 1-0 between Xtreme Gaming, Natus Vincere, Aurora Gaming, LGD Gaming, GamerLegion, Conventus Stellarum, Team Nemesis and Team Yandex. A clear leading group of 2-0 teams only exists once Round 2 on 20 September is complete.
How much is the PGL Wallachia Season 9 prize pool? $1,000,000, with $300,000 going to the champion.
Which patch is PGL Wallachia Season 9 played on? Patch 7.41f, released on 15 September 2026.
Sources: Liquipedia's PGL Wallachia Season 9 overview and group stage pages, and Valve's official league and match data for league 20279. Round 1 results were cross-checked against Valve's match records and the event's Round 2 Swiss pairings. Retrieved 20 September 2026.
