Tundra and Falcons lock down playoff berths, Liquid just miss out on play-in at BLAST Slam 4

The group stage of BLAST Slam 4 is done and dusted, with the standings now locked in for the rest of the preliminary phases. Both Tundra Esports and Team Falcons finished with nine wins and two losses each, thus guaranteeing them semifinal seeding at the LAN segment in Singapore on November 7th.

Meanwhile, some of the teams with new or tweaked rosters like HEROIC and MOUZ have put themselves in the play-in stage, where they will have to play just one best-of-three series in order to advance to the playoffs. These squads have put in very admirable efforts to get where they are now, and have beaten some big names in order to avoid the last chance playoff bracket.

Speaking of which, Team Liquid just narrowly missed out on doing just that, as they were unable to win their game against MOUZ earlier today. This gave them a record of 4-7 coming out of the group stage, which meant that they didn’t even get a shot at any sort of tiebreaker for a play-in spot.

Top dogs once more

Picking up pretty much right where they left off as far as the previous Dota 2 season is concerned, Falcons and Tundra are enjoying nearly flawless tournament runs so far. I expected nothing less from the defending International champions, of course, but I have to give props to Tundra in particular for integrating Ivan “Pure” Moskalenko and Matthew “Ari” Walker so quickly after they arrived in the post-TI14 roster shuffle.

Seriously, this team doesn’t even look like one that just picked up two new players. I’d forgive you for not even noticing that they’re going through BLAST Slam 4 not with Remco “Crystallis” Arets or Martin “Saksa” Sazdov, because they’re just playing that well. They deserve to be in first place as they are right now, and will be more than just a formidable opponent for anyone facing them come playoff time.

Highly contested midfield

The teams in the play-in have all surprised me (and the Dota community at large, I’m sure) one way or another. I mentioned HEROIC and MOUZ earlier, who have really come out of the gates strong with seven wins and four losses to their names. I praise HEROIC in particular yesterday for sticking to their signature playstyle this tournament, showing their draft versatility frequently throughout the group stage and actually making any off-beat picks work to perfection.

But it’s MOUZ that really deserve a big shoutout here. I personally didn’t think this roster would make much of a splash this season, and instead stay within the top 6 to top 8 range at most premier tournaments. They’re off to a fantastic start as an entirely new lineup, and I’m excited to see what else they might have in store for us this year.

That said, staying consistently good is very difficult in this game, so it’s still far too early to call them perennial threats. And besides, they still have to make it through the play-in if they want to make it to the LAN portion in November.

As for the rest of the midfield, the only other club that stands out is Team Spirit, and not necessarily in a good way. I thought they’d do a bit better than they have so far, although fourth place in the group stage standings is nothing to sneeze at. After all, taking on Nikita “panto” Balaganin is a huge change for them, especially since he’s their new captain and shot caller.

And while panto is a good player in his own right, going from Yaroslav “Miposhka” Naidenov to him and jumping into a tier 1 tournament so soon after obviously has its cons. I’m sure Spirit will find a way to adjust their play around their new captain as the season rolls on, but for now, they might have to settle for a lower placement as they figure things out with panto.

So close, but not quite close enough

Yesterday, I mentioned how Team Liquid managed to improve their record in this tournament and save themselves from utter embarrassment. I was already starting to think that they might sneak into the play-in after all, but losing to MOUZ on the final day of the group stage meant that they will have to go through the last chance playoff instead.

GG @mousesports 🤝

They take the final game of our @BLASTDota Slam IV Group Stage run. We'll be back tomorrow to fight for our tournament life in the Last Chance Playoffs! 😤#LetsGoLiquid pic.twitter.com/YZB6iJjT8M

— Team Liquid Dota (@teamliquiddota) October 18, 2025

Full credit to MOUZ again for playing as well as they have thus far, but Liquid really need to step up if they want to survive. This roster is just packed with way too much talent for them to bomb out of a top level tournament this early, and they’ll want to get the reps in with Marcus “Ace” Christensen and Erik “tOfu” Engel in Singapore anyway.

Fortunately, their ninth place result in the group stage means they automatically get the best bracket draw in the play-in. Yakult Brothers have won just one map out of 11 at BLAST Slam 4, making them the worst team of the tournament right now. If Liquid cannot beat them in a best-of-three for their tournament lives, then they absolutely do not deserve to go any further. This should be a gimme for them, if they can collect themselves beforehand.

So anyway, the full standings from the group stage are as follows:

The last chance playoff begins tomorrow, October 19th, starting with Team Liquid versus Yakult Brothers and BetBoom Team versus Execration. The winners of each set will advance to the play-in against HEROIC and Team Spirit respectively, while the losers will be eliminated from the tournament.