BLAST SLAM VIII Recap

BLAST SLAM VIII is the latest in the Slam series. Heading to the BLAST Arena Studios in Malta, 16 teams faced off from October 3rd to October 11th for a $550,000 cash prize pool. The team owners would also be walking away with a split chunk of change with $200,000 USD dedicated to each of the high placing teams to keep the lights on.

BLAST SLAM VIII Teams

PARIVISION

• Alan “Satanic” Gallyamov
• Volodymyr “No[o]ne-” Minenko 
• Evgeniy “Noticed” Ignatenko
• Edgar “9Class” Naltakian
• Andrey “Dukalis” Kuropatkin

Team Spirit

• Illya “Yatoro” Mulyarchuk
• Denis “Larl” Sigitov 
• Bohdan “Batyuk” Batiuk
• Alexey “not me” Kosmynin
• Aleksandr “rue” Filin

Team Yandex

• Alimzhan “watson” Islambekov 
• Ilya “CHIRA_JUNIOR” Chirtsov 
• Ammar “ATF” Al-Assaf
• Martin “Saksa” Sazdov
• Arman “Malady” Orazbayev 

Team Liquid

• Michael “miCKe” Vu
• Yeik “MidOne” Nai Zheng
• Adrián “Wisper” Dobles
• Samuel “Boxi” Svahn
• Erik “tOfu” Engel 

Aurora Gaming

• Oliver “skiter” Lepko
• Rafli “Mikoto” Fathur Rahman
• Chung “Ws” Wei Shen
• Myroslav “Mira” Kolpakov
• Oleh “kaori” Medvedok

BetBoom Team

• Ilya “Kiritych” Ulyanov
• Vitalie “Save-” Melnic
• Matvey “MieRo” Vasyunin
• Georgii “swedenstrong” Zainalabidov
• Vladislav “Kataomi`” Semenov

1w Team

• Ivan “Pure” Moskalenko
• Bozhidar “bzm” Bogdanov 
• Neta “33” Shapira
• Matthew “Ari” Walker 
• Matthew “Whitemon” Filemon 

LGD Gaming

• Máximo “Wits” Orozco Alza 
• Sumail “SumaiL” Hassan
• Cedric “Davai” Deckmyn
• Thiago “Thiolicor” de Oliveira Cordeiro
• Jingjun “Sneyking” Wu

Xtreme Gaming

• Wang “Ame” Chunyu
• Kam “Moon” Boon Seng
• Nicholas “zeal” Lim 
• Zhao “XinQ” Zixing
• Ye “BoBoKa” Zhibiao

OG

• John “Natsumi-” Vargas
• Topias “Topson” Taavitsainen
• Valery “SSS” Lazarev
• Ivan “OneJey” Zhivitsky
• Andrei “skem” Ong

GamerLegion

• Yuma “Yuma” Langlet
• Francis “RCY” Fundemera
• Victor “Fayde” Zuev
• Danil “Bignum” Shekhovtsov
• Paul “Speeed” Bocchicchio

MOUZ

• Bilguun “423” Altanginj
• Ondřej “Supream^” Štarha
• Miroslav “BOOM” Bičan
• Artem “mrls” Selepko
• Joel “MoOz” Ozambela

Natus Vincere (NaVi)

• Taras “gotthejuice” Linnikov
• Artem “Niku” Bachkur
• Yurii “pma” Prots
• Tamir “daze” Tokpanov
• Stanislav “Riddys” Mitroshkyn

Level UP

• Nikolay “WoE” Ruban
• Aleksey “Ainkrad” Diveevskiy 
• Nikolai “bb3px” Evdokimychev
• Aleksandr “queezy小个子” Lipin
• Andrey “Htrd” Fedorov 

Yakult Brothers

• Lou “Lou” Zhen
• Zhou “Emo” Yi 
• Xiang “Beyond” Zhenghong
• Hu “Kaka” Liangzhi 
• Jiang “天命” An

Team Nemesis

• Souliya “JaCkky” Khoomphetsavong
• Argle “Ken” Llesis
• Anucha “Jabz” Jirawong 
• Tri “Jhocam” Kuncoro
• Ravdan “NARMAN” Narmandakh 

BLAST SLAM VIII Groups

Blast Slam 8 split all 16 teams into 4 groups of 4. The top seed out of each group would play a Seeding Match to decide who started with an Upper Bracket Semifinal Bye, and who would play in the round 1 against the surviving 2nd seeds. Despite bringin in a decently sized bracket of 16 teams, only 6 escaped to the Double Elimination Playoffs.

Group A

• PARIVISION
• LGD Gaming
• Xtreme Gaming
• Level UP

Group B

• Team Spirit
• 1w Team
• Team Nemesis
• NaVi

Group C

• Team Yandex
• OG
• BetBoom Team
• MOUZ

Group D

• Aurora Gaming
• GamerLegion
• Team Liquid
• Yakult Brothers

PARIVISION and Team Yandex both looked in top form, exiting the group with no games dropped. The other top seeds, Team Spirit and Aurora Gaming dropped a game on route to a 2-0 finish in the Group Stage. The 2nd seeds out of the groups, LGD Gaming, 1w Team, OG and GamerLegion each finished their groups, winning their decider matches to secure a chance at the Playoffs.

This left the seeding matches and the Last Chance matches to decide the layout for the final bracket.

LGD Gaming and 1w Team secure Playoffs spot

Both Last Chance Qualifiers went to 3 games.

LGD vs GamerLegion opened up with a near 1 hour game. GamerLegion would break open first game, taking the Mirarna and Largo from their success into Game 2. They wouldn’t find the same success in the second, with LGD seeing a full composition switch. Bringing the Bounty Hunter, Nature’s Prophet, Dazzle, Slark and Dark Seer into Game 2, LGD cracked back, takign the fast game of the series, calling GGs in 35 to go onto Game 3. Here, both the Mirarna, Dark Seer and Dazzle would be banned out, forcing new looks from both sides.

45 minutes of back and forth, neck and neck gameplay, a massive fight win in the 39th minute swung a huge gold lead that marked the end times for GamerLegion

1w and OG were next up to the plate. Just like with the other series, OG would open up with the longest game of the series. 1w lead going into the 23rd by short margins, that would flip and slowly creep out of control as the night fell. the gap would extend further and further in OG’s favour with each skirmish, culminating in the fountain falling in just under 44.

Following in LGD’s footsteps, 1w team changed up wholesale and delivered the fastest Game of the series. Going into the final, it was an entirely new look once more with 2 of the bans sniping the Enigma and Invoker.

To decide their fates, Largo, Hoodwink, Tiny, Keeper of the Light and Luna faced off against Lone Druid, Techies, Pudge, Pangolier and Doom. Pangolier made it through all 3 games, but the Pos 5 win that opened up the series, would be it’s only success. In another relatively brisk game, 1w got off to a heart start. 4x the kills and 4k more gold, the squad continued to snowball their advantage.

PARIVISION and Team Spirit lock in the top seeds

Not all top seeds were created equal. While all exit the Group Stage 2-0, there was more sorting to be done. Playing a Seeding Match, PARIVISION and Aurora Gaming butt heads, while Team Spirit and Team Yandex went head to head.

All 4 would start in the Upper Bracket, regardless of outcome, but a win here would get them 1 stage ahead, and put them on a straight shot to the Grand Finals.

PARIVISON made relatively light work of Aurora Gaming, beating them out in 2 straight games across the better part of an hour. Team Spirit and Team Yandex would go the full 3 maps tho, keeping the same vibes of the other series we’ve talked about. First to open up was Team Yandex, only to receive an answer back in what would be the shortest game of the series. Unlike the other series, the TI winners were able to pick up this 2nd Game win while maintaining the Pangolier across games, moving it from Pos 3 to Pos 2.

Seeing relatively consistent bans from Team Yandex, we saw 3 very different looks from Team Spirit’s deep Hero pool, taking the final map with Earth Spirit, Clockwerk, Ancient Apparition, Dark Seer and Slark.

Playoffs

With both the Last Chance games and the Seeding matches played, the Playoffs opening matches were set in stone.

• Team Yandex vs LGD Gaming (winner plays PARIVISION)
• Aurora Gaming vs 1w Team (winner plays Team Spirit)

The first match saw Yandex and LGD face off first, featuring relatively safe picks for the opening game. Once again Pangolier made it through the draft phase and into LGD’s hands, keeping up with Nature’s Prophet, Techies, Hoodwink and Dark Willow for the most contested heroes. Dark Willow comfortably leads the pack in that aspect, dwarfing Hoodwink in the bans.

While Yandex picked up the first game, teams that haven’t been able to finish it in 2 have found themselves routinely on the back receiving end of a 2-1 comeback. 41 minutes later, LGD sealed up the 2nd to take the series level. The theme of the Group Stages would not follow into the Playoffs. Yandex picked up the final game, continuing their time in the upper bracket to face off against 1st seed PARIVISION.

Aurora vs 1w would not going quite as deep, with Aurora finishing it in 2. Waiting for them in the lower bracket, the defending TI champions, falling short against Team Yandex in 3 maps, and going the distance against 1w to keep the bracket run alive. Aurora would make short work of LGD after themselves not getting through Team Spirit.

This weekend, Yandex and Spirit were a cut above, PARIVISION ended the Aurora bracket run, tripping in the final hurdle of the lower bracket final, being unable to make it to the illusive Grand Finals.

Yandex have looked in top form. Since their roster move, bringing in ATF, they’ve been moving with purpose and picking up win after win. This event would be no different, picking up Winner’s Finals 2-0, and making a statement 3-1 win in Grand Finals against Spirit for the 2nd time.