SumaiL and Arteezy Reunite for PGL Wallachia
The first iteration of PGL Wallachia looks reminiscent of PGL Arlington in 2022, which featured nearly half the teams playing with stand-ins. Among the notable substitutes are Sumail "SumaiL" Hassan and Maroun "GH" Merhej for Shopify Rebellion.
This is the first time GH will be playing with Artour "Arteezy" Babaev and it also reunites the North American carry with his former teammate after nearly five years apart.
Arteezy best results in the past were with SumaiL
What better stand-ins can you find? (Credit: Shopify Rebellion).Reuniting the two former Evil Geniuses stars could present problems for other teams. When the duo played together, they achieved several deep runs in the biggest tournaments.
The list includes a bronze medal at the Kuala Lumpur, Frankfurt, Shanghai, and Chong Qing Major. The duo had a deep run at The International Eight, taking third place after losing to LGD.Gaming.
It will be interesting to see how the two former teammates play together. While Arteezy has remained a farming heavy carry, SumaiL's role in a draft is harder to define. He will either try to make space with Puck and Pangolier, yet occasionally he will go for more late-game mid-heroes.
He demonstrated that evolution to his play style while playing for Team Falcons at ESL Birmingham, picking Outworld Devourer and Zeus and focusing less on rotations.
As for GH, he also has a lot to prove at Wallachia. This is his first tournament in eight months and it'll be interesting to see how he performs. Nigma Galaxy has struggled in the past, making it difficult to evaluate how impressive their players are individually.
Nonetheless, GH is currently ranked 15 in Europe and he has been practicing some unorthodox heroes as roaming supports, such as Elder Titan and Io. We're looking forward to seeing those at his games.
Visa issues plague teams attending PGL Wallachia
Tundra Esports at the start of 2024. (Credits: Tundra Esports)While Shopify Rebellion had to bring in two stand-ins for the tournament, they at least will field the majority of their roster for the tournament. Some teams aren't as lucky.
In the case of Blacklist International and Tundra Esports, the two organizations will miss out on the tournament completely. Most of the players on Blacklist are from the Philipines and SEA players generally struggle to get Visas to Western countries on such a tight deadline.
Tundra Esports has two players from Russia, and with the ongoing war in Ukraine, most countries have sanctions against Russia, which makes traveling for them significantly more difficult than before.
The two teams will be replaced by Mouz and Azure Ray respectively. This will be the biggest tournament for Mouz, who apart from winning the Dota 2 World Invitationals, has yet to make their mark on the scene.
Azure Ray has been getting stronger in each appearance, and their third-place finish at Elite League has helped establish them as one of the best teams in China.
PGL Wallachia begins on March 10th. Fans can catch all the action live on Twitch and YouTube.
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