Team Spirit sweep unbeaten Team Yandex to lift PARI Universe title

Team Spirit swept Team Yandex 3-0 in the PARI Universe Grand Final, denying their rivals a single game win on the way to the title, Esports.gg News reported.

The result ended a run in which Yandex had remained undefeated since the group stage. The two sides have met repeatedly since The International 2026, starting with BLAST Slam 8, and both had finished top of their respective groups in the PARI Universe group stage.

Spirit's route to the final was far from straightforward. They fell to the lower bracket after an upset loss to OG before fighting back through PARIVISION, Team Liquid and GamerLegion to reach the championship series.

That lower-bracket run included a tight elimination match against GamerLegion. Esports.net News reported that Spirit took the first game against OG in their October 28 upper-bracket quarter-final before losing the next two, sending them into the elimination round against GamerLegion. Illya "Yatoro" Mulyarchuk carried the response on Kez, finishing 13/2/8 and 17/4/9 across the two games as Spirit swept GamerLegion out of the event.

Yandex had reached the Grand Final by beating TI 2026 runners-up PARIVISION 2-1 in the upper-bracket semi-final on October 29, according to Esports.net News. PARIVISION won the second game 25 kills to one, with Yandex conceding the map after just 16 minutes, but offlaner Ammar "ATF" Al-Assaf helped close out the series, finishing 13/2/7 on Timbersaw with 40,000 hero damage.

Yandex had entered the playoffs as Group A winners with a 4-0 series record and 8-1 in maps. They had also opened the 2026-27 season by winning PGL Wallachia Season 9 in ATF's debut, taking $300,000 from a $1 million prize pool, and had beaten Spirit 3-1 in the BLAST Slam VIII Grand Final in Malta on October 11 for a $270,000 prize.

In the PARI Universe decider, Spirit appeared to expose a weakness other teams had struggled to find against Yandex by focusing their attacks on ATF, according to Esports.gg News. Each of the three games was still closely contested, with Spirit forced to fight for every map.

Spirit's success in the series did not rest solely on their star carry. Denis "Larl" Sigitov's Earthshaker stood out in Game 1, while Bohdan "Batyuk" Batiuk made an impact with Enigma in Game 2 and Timbersaw in Game 3. Batyuk's Black Holes repeatedly caught multiple Yandex players, creating openings for Yatoro to deal damage safely.

Batiuk, a Ukrainian player who has also featured for Yellow Submarine, has emerged as a potential rising star for Spirit on the back of the run, Esports.gg News reported.

PARI Universe was the second tier-1 event of the 2026-27 season, with ten teams competing. The champion's prize of $125,000 is split into $80,000 for players and $45,000 for the club.

Magomed "Collapse" Khalilov remains on a break from professional Dota 2, leaving Spirit's next competitive plans still to be confirmed.