The group stage at BLAST Slam 1 may not be that unique in itself, considering that none of the teams will be eliminated coming out of it. All of the participating squads will see the playoffs no matter where they finish in their group, but there’s a big twist from there: the King of the Hill format.
Those that end up placing towards the bottom of their group will have an extremely harrowing uphill battle (pun kind of intended) ahead of them. Every series in the playoffs will be single elimination, and not doing well in your group means you start from one of the earlier rounds in the bracket. This in turn means it’s more likely for you to mess up and see yourselves suddenly eliminated if you run into a strategy that you can’t beat.
And so, we ask the question: which group is the group of death and BLAST Slam 1? Whatever that group is, there’s going to be so much at stake, without even eliminating anyone from the tournament outright yet.
| BLAST Slam 1 Group A | |
|---|---|
| Team Name | Region |
| Team Falcons | WEU |
| BetBoom Team | EEU |
| PARIVISION | EEU |
| Heroic | SA |
| Xtreme Gaming | CN |
| BLAST Slam 1 Group B | |
|---|---|
| Team Name | Region |
| Gaimin Gladiators | WEU |
| OG | WEU |
| Team Liquid | WEU |
| Team Spirit | EEU |
| Tundra Esports | WEU |
It’s Group A
Well, there’s not much to it, but yes, Group A is one hundred percent the group of death here. You’ve got Team Falcons, a squad which has won two premier tournaments in a row this year, BetBoom Team, the only team to give them some pause at DreamLeague Season 24, and PARIVISION, an up-and-coming roster that has hit their stride way sooner than anyone expected.
Falcons alone is a huge headache for anyone unfortunate enough to be put in this group in a format like this, but them’s the breaks sometimes. They’re in seemingly unstoppable form right now, and undoubtedly have their sights set on winning every single major tournament they can until they don’t.
BetBoom, meanwhile, is probably the second best team in the world at the moment, knowing how much Tundra Esports and Team Liquid have struggled lately. Although they weren’t the only team to give Falcons some trouble at DreamLeague, they were the only squad that actually made them look somewhat human in a grand final setting. Teams at BLAST Slam 1 beware: do not trifle with BetBoom; they are completely legit.
PARIVISION on the other hand have also been excellent right out of the gate. They’ve taken the fast-paced style that everyone is running these days and made it really work for them in their debut at DreamLeague.
So we know they can hang with the best despite only having been around for over a month at this point, but there is an asterisk here: team captain Andrey “Dukalis” Kuropatkin won’t be in attendance due to visa issues. Nikita “pantomem” Balaganin will stand in for Dukalis at BLAST Slam 1, so they’ll have to figure out how to integrate him into their playstyle as soon as possible.
All in all, though, it’s clear that this group is going to be a bloodbath. Falcons will be the most likely front runners to win BLAST Slam 1 for obvious reasons, but the rest of the matches will be ugly and frantic and that’s just how competitive Dota 2 should be.
