BLAST Slam 1: The First of Many

Denmark-based tournament organizer BLAST, known for the BLAST Premier series of Counter-Strike 2 tournaments, is expanding into Dota 2 for the first time since its founding in late 2016 — with their first foray into the scene called BLAST Slam 1.

If you’re just as excited as we are to see BLAST try their hand at Dota 2, we’ve got you covered with our BLAST Slam 1 viewer’s guide.

When and where is BLAST Slam 1?

BLAST Slam 1 is set to take place in Copenhagen, Denmark — the same city that most recently hosted The International and where the BLAST studio and headquarters are located.

The tournament starts November 26th, and will run until December 1st. The group stage is from November 26th to the 29th, while the playoffs will be on November 30th to December 1st.

BLAST Slam 1 format

The format of the competition itself is the classic round robin group stage into playoff bracket. The field will be split into two groups of five teams each. However, there are a few twists everyone will have to watch out for. First off, every group stage match will be a best-of-one, giving teams no time to adapt to their group rivals.

Secondly, the playoffs will be single elimination across the board. No second chances for anyone here; each squad will have to bring their A-game in order to survive. In addition, the group stage will determine how far ahead each team will be seeded — otherwise known as the King of the Hill format. For example, the squad that tops their group will start the playoffs in the semifinals, giving them a huge advantage over lower seeded teams and guaranteeing them a top 4 finish at the very least.

But either way, the playoffs will feature best-of-three matches until the grand finals, which will be a best-of-five series.

Teams competing

World-class organizations will be at BLAST Slam 1, including current International champions Team Liquid, previous TI winning orgs like Team Spirit and OG Epsorts as well as the ever-dominant Team Falcons. Interestingly, all ten squads at the tournament were directly invited; no qualifier matches were played at all.

What is the Prize Pool Distribution?

$1 million will be distributed to the teams as follows:

• 1st place — $400,000
• 2nd place — $200,000
• 3rd-4th place — $80,000
• 5th-6th place — $50,000
• 7th-8th place — $40,000
• 9th-10th place — $30,000

Where Can I Watch BLAST Slam 1?

BLAST doesn’t have a dedicated Twitch channel for their Dota 2 tournaments as of the time of writing, but they do have a YouTube channel up and running right now. We’ll update this viewer’s guide with the Twitch channel once it’s online.