BLAST Slam 3

Next up in the BLAST Dota calendar is BLAST Slam 3. For an event so far in the future, we don’t have a lot of details available and I’ll hazard a guess that it’ll be some time before we get anything in the way of a team announcement BUT we do have a format.

BLAST tournaments follow something of a different format than we’re used to in the world of pro Dota 2 and that makes it all the more exciting. As always, we’ll start with a group stage though.

• Stage 1: Groups – 10 teams will compete and will be split into 2 groups of 5. They’ll play through a round robin format where all games are a mere Bo1.
• Stage 2: Playoffs – All teams will qualify for the playoffs and will enter into a single elimination bracket through a King of the Hill style seeding. All matches will be a Bo3, apart from the grand finals, which will be a Bo5.

What is King of the Hill?

King of the Hill is a style of allocating teams to their places in the playoffs according to how well they played in the group stage.

The top team in each group will be seeded straight into the semi-finals. The second place teams will go into the quarterfinals. Third place teams will go into round 2 and the 4th-5th place teams will have to fight their way through from round 1.

So while no one will be eliminated from the group stage, it’s really in the teams’ interest to play their very best from day 1 to give themselves the best chance.

This format, especially the best of 1 groups, is absolutely brutal and there is no room for error at all. That’ll definitely make for some interesting competition!