China fail to get even a single team through to Chengdu at BLAST Slam 5

To say that the play-in stage of BLAST Slam 5 was an utter disaster for the entirety of the Chinese Dota 2 scene would be a massive, massive understatement.

Not a single squad from the very region hosting the LAN portion of the event will even see the main stage at all — as neither Team Tidebound, nor Xtreme Gaming, nor Tearlaments, nor Yakult Brothers managed to survive their single elimination matches today. Meanwhile, OG, MOUZ, Natus Vincere, and Team Yandex will all qualify for the offline segment ahead of them, with HEROIC and Execration the fifth and sixth teams to fall just short.

Generational fumble?

Okay, it would probably be a gross overstatement to say this, because none of the three Chinese teams in question are “generational” at all. XG are probably the closest to falling under this description given the list of names on their roster, but they’re now mostly composed of veterans still chasing after glory that eluded them in years past.

[#BLASTSLAM V]

Play-in

TT vs @natusvincere (BO3)

Game 2: TT Lose

TT 0-2 Navi

We regret that we failed to advance to the offline knockout stage, missing the opportunity to meet everyone at the Blast Slam S5 Chengdu event. After the competition, we will actively review the… pic.twitter.com/fFtxqCqW8H

— Team Tidebound (@TeamTidebound) November 30, 2025

But just as far as the fumble itself goes? Yeah, I’d say this is pretty bad even for the standards of current day Chinese Dota. They had four different teams in a field of just 12, and they couldn’t even manage to get one past the play-in stage. Imagine getting four distinct chances to get some representation at a tournament taking place in your own home country, only to barely even show up on the road getting there.

I’m genuinely afraid now that there will be close to no one attending the event as a spectator once the surviving teams arrive in Chengdu. Chinese Dota fans are extremely passionate and support their homegrown talent to the bitter end, but tend to care little about clubs outside of their own territory. This has always been the case and likely will continue to be the case until the heat death of the universe, so things might end up looking quite bad in terms of crowd shots next week.

All in all, this was just an abysmal showing for the host region, at a time when China needs every last win it can get in Dota 2. XG making it to the grand final match at The International 2025 (TI14) was supposed to kickstart another wave of Chinese teams stepping up to the plate, but it’s becoming increasingly clear to me (and the rest of the Dota community) that maybe they truly just don’t care about the game over there as much as they used to.

Rivals forge ahead

On the other hand, non-Chinese teams had a field day today as they usually do. OG in particular have taken a huge leap forward, especially compared to their previous outing at BLAST Slam 4 when they were still known as Team Aureus. Whereas they failed to make the top 6 at Singapore, they’ve made up for that big time by qualifying for the LAN portion of BLAST Slam 5.

in case anyone needed a reminder of what happened the last time we played a LAN in China… pic.twitter.com/gUwVS1OhKb

— OG (@OGesports) November 30, 2025

This roster is getting better and better with each passing day, and are clearly gelling together more and more under the guidance of coach Adam “343” Shah. They’re still well below the top Western and Eastern European teams purely in terms of talent, but I can easily see them fighting for podium finishes this season if they continue on this rapid upward trajectory. Just gotta rein in the Southeast Asian tendency to get too emotional in close games and make terrible decisions in the middle of it all.

MOUZ have made it through, as expected. They managed to avoid the curse of winning a single premier tournament and then immediately looking washed up thereafter, which bodes very well for their overall strength against the rest of the professional scene moving forward this season. Na’Vi, meanwhile, continue to stay consistent as they come, and now have a chance to really level up as a squad in Chengdu.

And we're back in Chengdu! 🇨🇳
We qualified for the @BLASTDota Slam playoffs.

It was an uphill battle, but we earned it.#VAMOUZ pic.twitter.com/iMXNSxFbVe

— MOUZ (@mousesports) November 30, 2025

HEROIC were a big disappointment this time around. For a team that finished top 4 in Singapore, they didn’t really follow through too well. I was hoping they would keep their momentum going and find ways to improve their play, but they just fell completely flat here. Now, I’m not going to be a doomer and say that this team needs to disband, but there might be a roster change on the horizon if they don’t figure things out sooner than later.

As for Execration, I don’t really have too much to say. They were pretty much the worst team in the tournament, beaten only by Tearlaments in that regard, so it’s hardly a surprise seeing them go home early.