Team Liquid get back to form at the BLAST Slam 6 Malta grand finals

They’ve done it: Team Liquid are your BLAST Slam 6 Malta grand champions.

They defeated Natus Vincere three games to one in a very convincing win, something that they’ve been searching for over the past few months after an extremely mixed start to the new competitive season.

Game 1 — Core Phoenix ain’t it

Team Liquid kicked things off with a carry Windranger pick for Michael “miCKe” Vu, as well as the mid Razor for Michał “Nisha” Jankowski. Nisha crushed Artem “Niku” Bachkur’s Ember Spirit in the mid lane matchup as expected, given how hard it is for a melee hero like Ember Spirit to deal with Static Link (W).

Last thing you see before getting Powershot by a 13-1 Wind pic.twitter.com/L1IEsNemoW

— BLAST SLAM (@BLASTDota) February 15, 2026

This didn’t help Na’Vi’s case in this game at all, because they needed Niku to help Yurii “pma” Prots’ offlane Phoenix actually make plays around the map. Unfortunately, this never came to pass, and the offlane Phoenix pick just fell flat as a result. This worked very much in miCKe’s favor, who would not have been able to deal with Supernova (R) using Focus Fire (R) if pma was allowed to have an actual game.

Instead, pma was held to level 18 in a 33 minute game, which proved more than enough of a disadvantage for Liquid to pretty much ignore him the rest of the way. With no way to stop the Windranger, Na’Vi were forced to give up the first game.

Game 2 — gotthejuice lives up to his name

The second game turned this match into a series before it got away from Na’Vi, thanks in no small part to Taras “gotthejuice” Linnikov and his signature Templar Assassin. I mean this dude farmed up a storm this game, allowing him to grab a 13 minute Desolator followed by a 19 minute Hurricane Pike. He then followed this up with a 23 minute Daedalus — honestly a disgusting farming pace all things considered.

This did however mean that his Black King Bar timing came later than usual, which Liquid seemingly knew with the moves they were making on the map. They forced a lot of teamfights onto Na’Vi in hopes of punishing the delay, which worked pretty well in keeping them in the game. Na’Vi still had a huge net worth lead, but Liquid’s teamfight execution let them hang around despite the deficit.

Most normal BLAST SLAM game ending this week pic.twitter.com/coKj8unU1K

— BLAST SLAM (@BLASTDota) February 15, 2026

A huge clash at around the 40 minute mark trimmed Na’Vi’s lead by a massive amount, and at this point it looked like Liquid had Na’Vi’s number for sure. But bizarrely, this was when Nisha decided to just buy a Refresher Orb on Razor despite not having enough gold saved up for buyback. Na’Vi took full advantage of this by picking him off, which put him on the sidelines long enough for Na’Vi to get two full lanes of barracks.

And while there were some teamfight wins heading into the deep late game for Liquid at this point, Nisha’s mistake had set them back too far for them to realistically recover. Mega creeps went the way of Na’Vi some time after, which made it difficult for them to defend their base by the end.

Game 3 — Liquid dominate the laning phase

Oof, this one was pretty hard for Na’Vi fans to watch. The Eastern European team basically didn’t get to play Dota at all this game, and as is tradition with Liquid games, it was Samuel “Boxi” Svahn and his signature Marci that made it miserable for Na’Vi. The man was all over the place as he usually is on this hero, and honestly that’s really all I have to say about how this game went.

Liquid did show some moments of weakness and poor judgment towards the later stages, though, where they played more like an undisciplined squad that did not have the kind of collective experience that they do on paper. They went for a few rather unnecessary dives into Na’Vi territory, which gave Na’Vi some openings that should never have been there in the first place.

But because Liquid just had a massive net worth lead, a few throws here and there ended up not mattering. There was just too much damage and control coming from their side for Na’Vi to deal with, even with gotthejuice trying his absolute hardest to carry as Razor.

Game 4 — Outplayed and outclassed

Sadly for Na’Vi, the fourth and final game of this series didn’t go much better than the previous one. They weren’t down 20,000 gold at the 25 minute mark in this one, and they were able to get some pickoffs here and there in teamfights, but Liquid were simply on another level by this point in the match. Basically, for every little win that Na’Vi were able to eke out in this game, Liquid would get back twice or even thrice over.

THEY HAVE DONE IT @teamliquiddota secures the win with a 3-1 🏆 pic.twitter.com/Tn1CAKndX6

— BLAST SLAM (@BLASTDota) February 15, 2026

Another fantastic laning phase for Liquid set them up for the mid game, and the amount of map control they had allowed them to shut Na’Vi out as the game approached the 30 minute mark. They got a free set of barracks at this point in the game, then followed it up with a Roshan attempt that Na’Vi just could not stop. Not even the best possible Arena of Blood (R) from pma in this moment, which did kind of happen, was enough to pull Na’vi out of the hole they were in.

And with a very farmed Dragon Knight now in their back pocket, it was just a matter of time before Liquid overran Na’Vi’s defenses. This result should be a massive confidence booster for them after such a rough start to the season — especially for Marcus “Ace” Christensen and Erik “tOfu” Engel, who joined the team after the International 2025 (TI14) roster shuffle.

They seem to have figured out what adjustments they needed to make in order to fully integrate their two newest players, and I can confidently say that Liquid are back and possibly stronger than ever. As for Na’Vi, they can still hold their heads high after this result, knowing that they reached their first ever grand final as a roster.