Yandex, Spirit reach upper-bracket final at DreamLeague Season 27

Field Level Media|published: Thu 18th December, 20:02 2025

YMCA member Austin Manengu works the keyboard as he plays a game of Fortnite during the unveiling of the new gaming lab at the Maplewood Family YMCA in Rochester Thursday, June 20, 2024. YMCA of Greater Rochester in partnership with Metro Sports & Entertainment Group will open two gaming labs for youth and teens this year.

Team Yandex won two matches Thursday and joined Team Spirit in reaching the upper-bracket final of the DreamLeague Season 27 playoffs.

After the playoffs began with three matches Wednesday, Yandex played in the last upper-bracket quarterfinal match saved for Thursday. They took down Virtus.pro 2-1 to set up a date with Tundra Esports -- whom they rallied past by the same score.

The other match of the day saw Spirit sweep PARIVISION 2-0.

The $1 million Dota 2 event began with 24 teams competing in a Swiss System group stage. All matches were best-of-three, with the top eight teams advancing to the double-elimination playoffs.

Playoff matches will all be best-of-three ahead of the best-of-five grand final on Sunday.

The championship team will receive $200,000 in prize money and a $30,000 club reward. The runner-up side will get $125,000 and a $25,000 club reward.

On Thursday, Yandex beat Virtus.pro in 35 minutes on green, fell in 45 minutes on red and won the clincher in 31 minutes on green. Russia's Ilya "CHIRA_JUNIOR" Chirtsov averaged an impressive 12.7-4.0-12.0 kills-deaths-assists ratio to lead Yandex.

In the upper-bracket semifinals, Tundra opened with a quick 28-minute win on red before Yandex grinded out wins of 51 minutes and 67 minutes on green. Kazakhstan's Alimzhan "watson" Islambekov provided 29 of his 30 total kills in Yandex's two map wins, posting an average K-D-A of 10.0-4.7-9.7.

Team Spirit turned back PARIVISION in 35 minutes on green and 35 minutes on red. Illya "Yatoro" Mulyarchuk of Ukraine powered Spirit with a 12.0-1.5-7.5 average K-D-A.

The schedule continues Friday with the start of the lower bracket:

--Lower-bracket Round 1: OG vs. Virtus.pro

--Lower-bracket Round 1: Team Falcons vs. Xtreme Gaming

--Lower-bracket quarterfinal: Tundra Esports vs. Team Falcons/Xtreme Gaming winner

DreamLeague Season 27 prize pool, with prize money and club reward (dollar amounts for teams 1-16 are minimums)

1. $200,000, $30,000

2. $125,000, $25,000

3. $75,000, $20,000

4. $50,000, $15,000

5-6. $14,000, $10,000

7-8. $10,000, $10,000

9-16. $10,500, $7,500 -- BetBoom Team, Team Liquid, Natus Vincere, Runa Team, MOUZ, Nigma Galaxy, Team Tidebound, Pipsqueak+4