BLAST Slam 6 Malta semifinals: Liquid and Na’Vi ascend to the championship match

BLAST Slam 6 Malta is the gift that keeps on giving, with the latest set of playoff matches delivering the hype and excitement.

Today, we saw Team Liquid do battle versus the red hot OG, as well as Team Yandex going up against the young upstarts in Na’Vi.

Team Liquid vs. OG

Game 1 — Liquid turn up the heat right out of the gate

Things kicked off with Team Liquid going up against OG, in one of the most anticipated matches in this playoff bracket. While OG did come into this series with the “advantage” of having two days of rest upon arriving in Malta, it didn’t help them much in this case as Liquid smashed them 3-0 anyway.

The first game saw Liquid playing at a blistering pace fueled by their excellent laning phase. As Erik “tOfu” Engel alluded to in my interview with him a few days ago, they went with the lane swap in game 1, putting Samuel “Boxi” Svahn next to Michael “miCKe” Vu as opposed to tOfu playing position 5. This gambit worked out beautifully, as Boxi’s Marci set the tempo early on in this game with miCKe dishing out the Shadowraze (Q/W/E) damage with Shadow Fiend.

Essentially, what Liquid did was take OG’s strengths for themselves in a rather humiliating display of dominance. OG normally has the early game locked down just from their usual playstyle, but they got punked in this game before they even knew what hit them.

Game 2 — That damn frog

And just like tOfu also said in the same interview as the one I mentioned above, game 2 was all about Marcus “Ace” Christensen’s offlane Largo. His 15 minute Aghanim’s Scepter rush was just in time for what Liquid had in mind for this game, which was to just enable miCKe’s Dragon Knight and Michał “Nisha” Jankowski’s Void Spirit.

OG’s draft exhibited serious damage issues this game, which is not what you want when you’ve got Largo and Dragon Knight staring you down from the other side. The healing and magic damage coming out from the Scepter-enhanced Amphibian Rhapsody (R) was too much for OG to deal with this game, made worse by the fact that their only sources of reliable damage were Weaver and Timbersaw.

It’s hard to win when you can’t bring the enemy carry down, especially when it’s someone like miCKe playing. With their backs against the wall at this point, OG had to dig deep in game 3 just to survive.

Game 3 — 85 minutes of chaos

They did that, but unfortunately it still wasn’t enough in the end — though the way Liquid closed this series out was definitely unexpected. They went with a zoo strategy involving Ace on Lycan and miCKe on his signature Nature’s Prophet, while OG gave John “Natsumi-” Vargas his favorite hero Gyrocopter. On paper, Gyrocopter should have been really good against Liquid’s draft thanks to Flak Cannon (E), but they bungled the early game once more which put them on the back foot early.

some deeply evil gameplay going on rn 😈 pic.twitter.com/jO9ZfDbE4l

— Team Liquid Dota (@teamliquiddota) February 14, 2026

Liquid’s huge lead in the mid game allowed them to choke OG out of the map for a prolonged period of time. And while it took them 55 minutes of very, very cautious play, Liquid finally cracked mega creeps before tier 5 items came into the picture. With a net worth lead of almost 25,000 gold at this point, it was Liquid’s game to lose — but things would extend for another 25 minutes from here.

This was of course because Natsumi- managed to buy himself a Divine Rapier followed by a Black King Bar. With the kind of firepower he was bringing to each teamfight, Liquid just couldn’t make the final push work the way they wanted to. From the 60 minute mark onwards, things just went completely off the rails, with OG even managing to get mega creeps for themselves. There was even a point where they had a 20,000 net worth lead, flipping the game on its head at least in terms of gold.

NO RATS ALLOWED pic.twitter.com/qElgGn1PbJ

— OG (@OGesports) February 14, 2026

Sadly, even with all the teamfight wins that OG eked out in the deep late game, the fact that Liquid had Nature’s Prophet and Lycan meant that they always had to keep an eye on their base. True enough, miCKe went for an all-in play with his own Divine Rapier at the 85 minute mark. Even though Andrei “skem” Ong had an Abyssal Blade on his Ancient Apparition, it just wasn’t sufficient to stop miCKe from ending the game without going for an actual teamfight.

Not a great showing for OG, but they still end up in fourth place at worst. They are getting better and better with each tournament appearance, but it’s clear from this performance that they’re not quite at contender level just yet.

Team Yandex vs. Na’Vi

Game 1 — Immediate statement win

What is it with these semifinals and game 1 stomps? Yandex seemed to take a page right out of the Liquid playbook to start their series against Na’Vi, as they destroyed their opponents in less than 35 minutes. Arman “Malady” Orazbayev and Martin “Saksa” Sazdov were every bit the star support duo that they’re cracked up to be this game, with both causing havoc in the first 15 minutes as Jakiro and Shadow Demon respectively.

With the immense space afforded to them by the two supports, the rest of Yandex just did whatever the hell they wanted for the rest of the game. Alimzhan “watson” Islambekov and Ilya “CHIRA_JUNIOR” Chirtsov ran roughshod over Na’Vi’s lineup as Kez and Beastmaster, and honestly the mid Bristleback pick over on Na’Vi’s side just fell completely flat.

With a nearly 30,000 net worth lead in their hands by the end of the mid game, Yandex had an easy time closing it out before Na’Vi had a chance to make a comeback.

Game 2 — Niku goes nuclear

Na’Vi bounced back in a massive way in game 2, thanks mostly to the fact that they picked Kez for Artem “Niku” Bachkur against CHIRA_JUNIOR’s Invoker. This matchup is practically unplayable for Invoker, as his attack damage is just far outstripped by Kez’ own attack damage. It definitely showed in this lane, as Niku simply owned CHIRA_JUNIOR, which set him up for an unstoppable mid game.

VERY FUN HERO @natusvincere pic.twitter.com/O9ScXMBu7x

— BLAST SLAM (@BLASTDota) February 14, 2026

I mean, he got a Kaya and Yasha at 19 minutes, and this is an item that you don’t normally see on Kez. The reduction to his cast animations was definitely worth it, though. Coupled with the fast Weaver Aghanim’s Shard from Taras “gotthejuice” Linnikov, Niku and gotthejuice just sliced and diced their way through the Yandex lineup.

The result? A victory in less than 25 minutes. Superstar showing from Niku, for sure

Game 3 — And then he doesn’t

Unfortunately, Niku followed it up with a pretty bad outing in game 3. He held his own against CHIRA_JUNIOR’s Invoker even without Kez, but he just made a bunch of questionable moves throughout the entirety of this game. Walking up to Yandex’s triangle alone as Viper was probably the worst of it, and at that point I honestly thought he might have genuinely been trolling.

There’s just no world where a move like that would ever be advisable, whether at the pro level or in pubs. That’s just asking to get ganked, especially on a hero like Viper whose only escape is tied to Aghanim’s Shard. So that’s 1,400 gold you have to spend just to gain access to an escape mechanism. Anyway, watson was more than happy to take advantage of the Viper pick as well, as his Clinkz just burned down the Netherdrake wherever there was a teamfight to be had.

It took a while for Yandex to close this game out because of the waveclear on Na’Vi’s side (Kunkka and Dragon Knight), but it was also just clean, disciplined play to not throw away their lead unnecessarily.

Game 4 — Frantic late game sees Na’Vi survive and the rest of Malta jolted awake

I’m glad I stayed up for this series, because the fourth game was probably the most intense thing I’ve seen in this tournament so far. I initially thought that picking Templar Assassin for gotthejuice would end up backfiring for Na’Vi, as watson got his hands on a 24-pick Terrorblade — making for a matchup that is normally Terrorblade favored.

But I guess gotthejuice just told himself, “Nah, I’d win”. Even though watson was able to farm just as fast as gotthejuice, it just wasn’t enough to fend him and the rest of Na’Vi off. There were points in this game where it looked like Yandex would turn things around after Na’Vi got a hold of the net worth lead in the mid game, but some clean teamfight execution from the side of Na’Vi prevented them from actually flipping this game on its head.

I say that, but if you just watched the ending of this game, you would think that Yandex were supposed to win. They had a 13,000 net worth lead in the final minute or so, but Na’Vi just had such a big push advantage that it ended up not mattering much. This was Na’Vi’s cue to end the game, which they tried to do — but a clutch Spear of Mars (Q) from Abdimalik “Malik” Sailau put a temporary stop to gotthejuice’s attempt to raze the Ancient down.

Yandex actually managed to kill gotthejuice through all this, but even that wasn’t enough as he simply bought back and used Boots of Travel to finally bring the Ancient down for good. Honestly, words will never do the ending justice, so I would like to turn your attention to the clip above.

Game 5 — Huskar and Dazzle reward Na’Vi with a grand final appearance

As soon as Saksa got his hands on a last pick Ancient Apparition in the drafting phase of game 5, I thought for sure that Na’Vi would get punished for picking Huskar and Dazzle. It turns out that I don’t really know much in this regard, because Na’Vi mollywopped Yandex anyway. I guess when you put Huskar against Windranger in the middle lane, he’s gonna get whatever he wants either way.

THEY DID IT @natusvincere pic.twitter.com/NaZJ7BWH65

— BLAST SLAM (@BLASTDota) February 14, 2026

So Niku, with Baqyt “Zayac” Emiljanov protecting him as the Dazzle, created all the space in the world for gotthejuice’s Razor — despite the presence of an Ancient Apparition on the other side. And you can bet that gotthejuice didn’t disappoint these two when it came to actually carrying in the late game, because he delivered big time when they needed the insurance.

For a team that had the hardest counter to Huskar in their draft, Yandex ended up with very few answers to the rest of Na’Vi’s draft. This result puts Na’Vi in a grand final in the year of our lord 2026, and I cannot wait for them to face Team Liquid tomorrow for the BLAST Slam 6 title.