Renowned tournament operator BLAST has been killing it in Dota 2 with BLAST Slam, and now the third edition is coming up in just a few hours with BLAST Slam 3. The quickfire tournament will take place over six days, with the group stage in particular being extremely short; just one day of play will determine the playoff picture.

Opinion: BLAST Slam 3 Format is Unforgiving, and That’s Okay, Sometimes

Speaking of the group stage, carrying over from the previous two iterations of the competition is the format that everyone hates to love and loves to hate: best-of-one matches. It’s not a stretch by any means to look at this format as the most volatile on offer in the professional Dota 2 scene, because it is. Having very little room to adapt to opponents in the group stage can be detrimental to any team — even the most skilled and experienced.

But is it really all that bad?

Variety is the Spice of Dota 2 Life

It’s no secret that the 2024-2025 Dota 2 season is packed. We’ve had 11 tournaments worth $1 million or more take place since The International 2024 concluded, and there’s another three coming up before TI14 starts in early September. We’ve had no shortage of top-level contests since the season began, to the point where some of the best teams in the world are straight up skipping out on some just to give themselves a break.

With this kind of hectic competitive calendar comes staleness, and in turn, possible burnout — both for professional players and fans alike. Tournament formats tend to blur together when they’re all mostly the same between closely-scheduled competitions, which dulls the excitement of the spectator experience.

Of course, not every tournament this season plays exactly the same. While most will just use the classic best-of-two round robin group stage into double elimination bracket format and call it a day, there are some organizers that like to mix it up with some sort of variation of this style. PGL Wallachia Season 4, for example, has a Swiss group stage. Sometimes we see the GSL format (four groups of four teams each with a bubble match in between), sometimes we see two separate group stages like with DreamLeague.

But all of these variations are just that: variations. This season, only BLAST really does anything really unique with their format, and personally, I think this kind of spicy take on premier tournaments is healthy for the scene overall.

Is it All Just Gambling?

“But best-of-ones are just a casino,” I hear you say. Yeah, there is some truth to that. As I mentioned, there’s no chance to adapt to one’s opponent if you only get to play one map against them. Even best-of-two sets have that, despite the fact that teams don’t get to solidify their positions against certain teams unless they pull off a clean 2-0 victory.

BLAST Slam 3’s group stage lasting only one day kind of exacerbates this problem as well. Participating clubs don’t get to study their adversaries as they head into their next game, because there’s always a game to be played in such a short amount of time. Diving into a replay to see where your next challengers’ heads are at isn’t viable when there isn’t even a second group stage day.

And with the King of the Hill format for the bracket, the fact that all Bo1 matches here are played in one sitting makes it extra punishing for those that don’t come into the tournament in great shape. Sure, no one gets eliminated coming out of the group stage, but the playoffs are also single elimination and force teams that don’t do well to go through up to five rounds of ridiculously high stakes matches.

For the Occasion

But this just goes back to the points I made earlier: nobody else in the Dota scene does this. BLAST Slam’s distinctive format is the only one of its kind at this level, so it’s not like we’re seeing coinflips for thousands of dollars on a daily basis between the best teams in the world. There is room for cardiac formats like this every now and then. And again, I think having this kind of diversity between competitions keeps things fresh and thrilling, at least when it’s kept to a healthy minimum.

BetBoom Team BLAST Slam 1
Image credit: BLAST

I am in no way suggesting that using this format or something similar for The International is a good idea. The world championship in particular is just too prestigious and important to the game’s competitive history for that. Hell, I’m not even saying this should be a regular thing across the rest of the competitive scene. But sprinkling it into the season here and there is great for the overall viewing experience.

I’ll admit that it kind of sucks for the teams involved, though. BetBoom Team’s Danil “gpk” Skutin seems to think otherwise, but they won the first BLAST Slam — so his opinion is probably a little biased. Either way, BLAST Slam 3 is probably going to be just as good as the first and second, so I say to the organizers: keep on keeping on.