Team Yandex secure back-to-back titles and set the agenda for the 2026-2027 season

Team Yandex have won the first two major Dota 2 tournaments of the 2026-2027 season, sending a clear signal to the rest of the field: the team is in a class of its own.

Following their victory at PGL Wallachia Season 9 at the end of September, the team followed up with a 3-1 triumph over Team Spirit in BLAST SLAM VIII's best-of-five grand final on 12 October. The win earned Team Yandex a prize of $270,000 USD, while Team Spirit took home $135,000 as runners-up.

The two titles have not come by chance. Both tournaments are the first major events after TI 15 and thus represent the season's opening benchmark for who is best. Team Yandex having won both gives the team a documented dominance that their rivals must now contend with.

For Team Spirit, BLAST SLAM VIII was particularly challenging: the team showed up without their regular offlaner Magomed "Collapse" Khalilov, who has taken a break from professional play, and with Bohdan "Batyuk" Batiuk and coach Ilya "IllidanSTR" Pevcaev as recent additions to the roster. Despite these circumstances, Spirit reached the grand final and showed strength in game 1, where Illya "Yatoro" Mulyarchuk contributed 19 kills and 12 assists.

Team Yandex turned the series around, however, winning the subsequent three games. In game 2, Ammar "ATF" Al-Assaf delivered 20 kills and seven assists, and in the decisive fourth game, Alimzhan "Watson" Islambekov topped the scoreboard with 19 kills and 14 assists.

For the rest of the field, the consequence is concrete: two tournaments have been played, and no team has managed to stop Team Yandex in a grand final. Organisations looking to challenge the team in upcoming tournaments now have two documented results to analyse and respond to.