The MongolZ won 1win Private Club #2 in Belgrade, Serbia, beating PARIVISION 3-0 in the best-of-five grand final on October 22, 2026. It was their first trophy since the Esports World Cup 2025, 14 months earlier, and it came at the first event of a rebuilt lineup. Eight teams played for $100,000, and MongolZ took the title the long way, through the lower bracket.
The MongolZ's run
MongolZ's lineup was Yesuntumur "nin9" Gantulga, Garidmagnai "bLitz" Byambasuren, Usukhbayar "910" Banzragch, Sodbayar "Techno4K" Munkhbold (Techno on HLTV) and Anarbileg "cobrazera" Uuganbayar, coached by Erdenedalai "maaRaa" Bayanbat. After a last-place finish at FISSURE Playground 3, the team benched Zolbayar "tikuak" Chimedtseren and Dugarsuren "DarkMeister" Ireedui, brought cobrazera back after almost three months on the bench and signed nin9 from The Huns.
nin9, 28, has history with this group. He played for MongolZ in 2018, when maaRaa was still in the lineup, and in 2022 he, bLitz and Techno4K were on IHC Esports, the first Mongolian team to qualify for a Major, with maaRaa as coach at Antwerp. Of the move, nin9 told HLTV: "I had that confidence in me that I could be the piece they needed to win games."
Three of the five, bLitz, 910 and Techno4K, also played the Austin Major final that MongolZ lost 2-1 to Team Vitality in June 2025. HLTV ties the team's slump to the benching and eventual loss of Azbayar "Senzu" Munkhbold, and says things got worse when Ayush "mzinho" Batbold left. MongolZ came to Belgrade 49th in the October 5 list of the Valve Regional Standings (VRS), the ranking Valve uses for invitations, and that list still showed the old lineup. Of the eight teams, only PRIVATE, 95th, ranked lower.
The bracket was double elimination: a team drops to the lower bracket after its first series loss and is out after its second. Every series was best of three, first to two maps, except the final.
| Round | Opponent | Result | Maps |
|---|---|---|---|
| Upper quarter-final | Alliance | 2-0 | Inferno 13-8, Dust II 13-11 |
| Upper semi-final | BIG | 0-2 | Cache 8-13, Mirage 4-13 |
| Lower bracket | magic | 2-0 | Inferno 13-9, Ancient 13-10 |
| Lower bracket | PRVT | 2-0 | Mirage 13-6, Ancient 13-7 |
| Lower final | BIG | 2-1 | Cache 4-13, Inferno 13-3, Mirage 13-7 |
| Grand final | PV | 3-0 | Ancient 13-6, Mirage 13-11, Dust II 13-4 |
The loss to BIG on October 20 left MongolZ one defeat from going home. They beat magic and PRVT on October 21 without dropping a map, recovering from 4-8 at half-time on Inferno against magic. The rematch with BIG in the lower final began with a 4-13 on BIG's pick, Cache, before MongolZ won Inferno 13-3 and the deciding map, Mirage, 13-7, with 910 the best-rated player on the server at 1.60.
The grand final
PV reached the final without losing a series: 2-0 against magic, 2-1 against Fnatic after a 16-14 overtime win on Inferno, and 2-0 against BIG in the upper final. In the best-of-five veto, PV removed Nuke and MongolZ removed Anubis, the teams picked the other maps in turn, and Cache was left as the decider.
| Map | Picked by | PV | MongolZ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ancient | PV | 6 | 13 |
| Mirage | MongolZ | 11 | 13 |
| Dust II | PV | 4 | 13 |
On Ancient, PV's own pick, MongolZ won the first half 10-2. Mirage was the only close map: MongolZ led 8-4 at half-time and 12-4 soon after, then lost seven rounds in a row before taking the 24th and last round for 13-11. Dust II, PV's second pick, went like Ancient, with a 9-3 first half and a 13-4 finish. Inferno, MongolZ's second pick, and Cache were never played.
Standout players
The final belonged to nin9. HLTV wrote that he "took over in the title decider after a relatively quiet tournament", and over the three maps he had 53 kills to 32 deaths, 91.1 average damage per round (ADR) and a 1.56 rating. Vladislav "xiELO" Lysov was PV's best at 1.28.
All ratings here are HLTV's Rating 3.0, and our stats explainer covers what goes into it. Over the whole event, xiELO came first with 1.37 across 10 maps, ahead of BIG's Benjamin "blameF" Bremer (1.36 over nine) and Fnatic's Artem "cairne" Mushynskyi (1.31 over seven). The champions' best were 910 at 1.28 and bLitz at 1.19, both over all 14 of MongolZ's maps.
Final standings
| Place | Team | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | The MongolZ | $25,000 |
| 2nd | PARIVISION | $17,500 |
| 3rd | BIG | $13,500 |
| 4th | PRIVATE | $11,000 |
| 5th–6th | Fnatic, magic | $9,000 each |
| 7th–8th | Team Liquid, Alliance | $7,500 each |
PRVT came through the closed qualifier and lost their first series to BIG, then knocked out Alliance and Fnatic, both 2-0, before MongolZ ended their run on October 21. Alliance, beaten by MongolZ and PRVT, shared last place with Liquid. Liquid did not win a map against Fnatic or magic, and against magic they let a 10-3 lead slip on Dust II. Across the event, Cache and Mirage were played seven times each, and Nuke and Anubis once.
What's next
MongolZ went straight on to PGL Masters Bucharest (October 24–31), with IEM Beijing to follow back to back. In Bucharest they beat Legacy 2-0 on October 27, which put them in a playoff-qualifying match among the teams on two wins and two losses.
After that comes the PGL Major Singapore 2026, from November 24 to December 13, with invitations taken from Valve's VRS list of November 2. HLTV judged that MongolZ's place at the Major was never in danger, but that their form had put a direct invite to its second stage at risk, and that the run in Belgrade had likely removed that risk.
Sources
- The MongolZ outclass PARIVISION … on debut with nin9 — HLTV.org
- PARIVISION vs. The MongolZ, grand final match page — HLTV.org
- Event overview: prize distribution, teams and format — HLTV.org
- The MongolZ sign nin9 and bring back cobrazera — HLTV.org
- nin9: "I had that confidence in me that I could be the piece they needed to win games" — HLTV.org
- Global standings as of October 5, 2026 — Valve on GitHub
- Najlepsi gracze … (the event's top-rated players) — EPICPLAYZ.pl
- The MongolZ end 14-month title drought with victory on nin9's debut — ESPORTNOW
