BLAST Slam 1 Teams Announced

It’s almost time for BLAST’s innaugural step into the world of Dota 2 esports. The BLAST Slam 1 is due to kick off on November 26th and with just a couple of weeks to go, we finally have the teams that are going to be taking part.

BLAST certainly haven’t struggled to get the biggest names in Dota involved. There aren’t many surprises on this list and that means some we should expect some truly top tier competition.

Teams at BLAST Slam 1

The only slight disappointment here is how Europe-centric the line up is. It’s not surprising, Europe has won every single iteration of The International since 2015 and has dominated other regions in a way never replicated in another game. But when 7/10 teams are playing in European leagues, it does lack the international feel of other tournaments.

Wild card teams

After their 4th place finish at DreamLeague Season 24, only being knocked out by champions Falcons, it’s not too crazy to see PARIVISION on this list. This roster is definitely getting the “new Dota team” treatment as others struggle to get a handle on their play style and adapt to the strategies.

That being said, I’m not sure how long ago the teams locked in for BLAST Slam 1. Presumably it was before DreamLeague started, giving whoever made that decision some remarkable foresight!

Are OG back?

It’s been a rough couple of years for OG fans, myself included. They managed to hold on to some of the TI winning roster’s prestige with OG 2.0 but once the downward trajectory started, they never really recovered.

While the actual team line ups haven’t been confirmed just yet, I don’t think OG will be playing at full strength. OG announced in a tweet on October 19th that Shad would be standing in for 23Savage and xNova would be standing in for Ceb for the rest of the year. I’m not expecting much from them at BLAST Slam 1 but it’d be great if they could pull it out the bag.