en
Team Yandex are the DreamLeague Season 27 Champions
After five days of great Dota 2 matches, DreamLeague Season 27 is over, and Team Yandex came out on top as champions. Let's see how both grand finalists got to the Grand Final and who fell on their path to victory. Beyond that, we will also compare performances with previous tournaments.
DreamLeague Season 27 is the first step into the new season of the ESL Pro Tour. This means that teams that placed well have an edge, even if they did not win the tournament. Finally, we will see what awaits at the beginning of 2026, since this is the last Tier 1 tournament of 2025.
Team Yandex's Jouney to the Grand Finals
The first team to make it to the Grand Finals was Team Yandex. Their first match in the Playoffs was a fairly fast 2-1 victory against Virtus.pro. Both of their wins took between 30 and 35 minutes, which sits right around the average for shorter matches.
Next, Yandex faced Tundra Esports in the Upper Bracket Semifinals. Things started pretty badly, with Tundra winning the first map in just 28 minutes. After two long recovery matches, Yandex turned the series around and secured a 2-1 victory, with both wins taking around an hour each.
In the Upper Bracket Finals, Team Yandex faced Team Spirit in an Eastern European duel. Despite Team Spirit's long history of success, Team Yandex put on a show of their own in the finals and won 2-0. Both matches lasted around 42 minutes, and this victory placed Yandex directly into the Grand Final.
Team Spirit: Tripping on the Last Match
Team Spirit had a similar journey to the Grand Finals but kept things straight to the point in all of their matchups. Their first victory was a clean 2-0 against Xtreme Gaming on the first day of the Playoffs. The opening match was particularly demanding and took over an hour to conclude, as expected when facing a Chinese team.
Their next adversary was PARIVISION in the semifinals. Once again, Team Spirit won both maps, but this time they were much faster, with each game lasting around 35 minutes. This victory placed Team Spirit in the Upper Bracket Finals against Team Yandex.
In the Upper Bracket Finals, Team Spirit suffered their first loss, as Yandex claimed a 2-0 victory. This sent Yandex straight to the Grand Finals, while Team Spirit dropped to the Lower Bracket Finals for one last chance.
In the Lower Bracket Finals, Team Spirit met PARIVISION once again to fight for the remaining slot in the Grand Finals. After an hour-long first map and a second game that lasted around 40 minutes, Team Spirit secured another 2-0 and earned their rematch with Yandex in the Grand Final.
Grand Final: Eastern European Duel
It seems like Dota 2 is once again falling under Eastern European domination, and the DreamLeague Season 27 Grand Finals were proof of this. After a spike in performance following their latest roster shuffle, Team Yandex reached yet another Grand Final.
Team Spirit took some time to adjust to the absence of Miposhka but now seems to be consistently finding their way back into Grand Finals. The series started with a victory in favor of Spirit, but Yandex tied things up 1-1 on the second map.
After catching up to Team Spirit, Yandex took full control of the series. They won the third map in just 25 minutes and closed things out with a 3-1 victory after taking the fourth and final map. Team Yandex are the DreamLeague Season 27 champions!
Prize Money and EPT Points
As usual, the higher a team places, the higher their prize money. At ESL events, teams also earn EPT points, which grant direct invites to future tournaments and eventually to the Esports World Cup.
Team Yandex claimed the highest reward as the DreamLeague Season 27 champions: $200,000 in prize money, a $30,000 club reward, and 3,400 EPT points: 3,000 for first place and 400 from their Group Stage victories.
Team Spirit received $125,000 in prize money, a $25,000 club reward, and 3,000 EPT points split between 2,500 for second place and 500 from five Group Stage victories. Finally, PARIVISION earned $89,000 for third place, a $20,000 club reward, 2,000 points for finishing third, and an additional 400 points from the Group Stage.
Last season, the EPT leaderboard ended with PARIVISION on top with 24,745 points, followed by BetBoom Team with 15,760 and Team Spirit with 12,500. This means Yandex secured over 10% of last season’s top EPT score in a single tournament.
What Comes Next in the Dota 2 Pro Circuit
As usual, January will be packed with qualifiers. From the beginning to the end of the month, teams will compete in open and closed qualifiers for BLAST Slam VI, DreamLeague Season 28, ESL One Birmingham 2026, and PGL Wallachia Season 7.
The next Tier 1 tournament currently scheduled is BLAST Slam VI on February 3. Alongside a full month of qualifiers, we should also expect plenty of roster shuffles as teams prepare and try to shift the balance heading into the new season.
Closing Thoughts
Team Spirit reached their second Grand Final of the season but still seems to need a small push to secure tournament victories with their new hard support. On the other hand, Team Yandex capitalized on their growth and managed to add another unexpected name to the list of tournament champions for the new season.
The new year brings a wave of rapidly evolving rosters that threaten what was once the stable reign of established organizations. Professional Dota 2 is in a very interesting spot, perhaps the best it has been in a long time, and at the center of it all is the clear reduction in the gap between powerhouse teams and smaller organizations.
We will soon take a closer look at how DreamLeague Season 27 impacted the metagame, so if you want to stay informed on meta shifts, new hero builds, and patch news for Dota 2, check out our news section on the Strafe website. Happy Holidays!
Featured Image Source: Twitter (@ESLDota2)