Images: BLAST
Nigma Galaxy without Miracle notably came out of nowhere to finish second in their group.
Dota 2 BLAST Slam II kicked off on Tuesday (February 4) with a one-day Group Stage, with Tundra Esports and
Gaimin Gladiators topping the standings to earn a direct berth to the semifinals of the tournament's Playoffs.
The second installment of the BLAST Slam series features 10 teams fighting for their cut of a $1 million prize pool from February 4 to 9 in the BLAST Studio in Copenhagen, Denmark. The tournament's fast-paced format kicked off with just one day of Group Stage competition, where the participating teams were split into two groups of five teams each to compete in a round-robin format. Teams are rewarded for a strong performance in the Group Stage with advanced seeding in the Playoffs, with the top performers earning a direct berth to the Playoffs.
Here's how all the action in the BLAST Slam II Group Stage went down:
Tundra, Gaimin Gladiators top BLAST Slam II Group Stage
Still fresh off their victory in FISSURE PLAYGROUND Belgrade 2025 earlier this week, Tundra continue to look like the best team in the world right now as they claimed the first seed of Group A with a 3-1 record. Tundra started their campaign with wins over Talon Esports and BLAST Slam I champions
BetBoom Team, before falling to reigning The International (TI) champions
Team Liquid, then finishing their Group Stage run by beating
Yakult Brothers.
Yakult Brothers also finished with a 3-1 record with wins over BetBoom, Liquid, and Talon, though their head-to-head loss to Tundra only gave them the second seed of Group A and a quarterfinals berth in the Playoffs. Liquid finished with a 2-2 standing and will start in the second round.
Meanwhile, BetBoom and Talon only managed a 1-3 record apiece and will have an uphill battle ahead of them starting in the first round of the Playoffs.
Over in Group B, Gaimin Gladiators finished atop the standings with a 3-1 record off of wins over PARIVISION,
Xtreme Gaming, and
Nigma Galaxy, with their only loss coming at the hands of
Team Falcons. It's a promising result for the three-time Major champions, who have been struggling to start the year as they adjusted to having a new carry player in
Alimzhan “Watson” Islambekov.
But by far the biggest surprise of the tournament so far has been Nigma Galaxy, who could have earned a direct berth to the semifinals had they not lost their head-to-head matchup with Gaimin Gladiators. This result is made even more impressive by the fact that they are playing with Daniel Chan “Ghost” Kok Hong standing-in for
Amer “Miracle-” Al-Barkawi. While Ghost has performed well as Nigma's substitute carry player, it was
Syed Sumail “SumaiL” Hassan who proved to be the driving force behind his team's wins over Falcons, PARIVISION, and Xtreme.
Falcons and PARIVISION were expected to be the two top dogs of Group B prior to the start of the tournament, though both squads have had mixed performances so far and finished with 2-2 records apiece. Despite losing their head-to-head matchup with PARIVISION, Falcons still earned the third seed of Group B and a spot in the second round thanks to a higher Neustadtl score.
Finally, Xtreme struggled mightily and ended up being the only team in the Group Stage that failed to earn a single win.
With the conclusion of the BLAST Slam II Group Stage, the tournament now moves to its single-elimination Playoffs. The bottom two teams from both groups in the previous stage will kick things off in round one, with the higher seeds awaiting them in the next rounds. All matches in the Playoffs will be a best-of-three except for the grand finals, which will be a full best-of-five series.
Here are the matchups for the BLAST Slam II Playoffs:
- Round 1 A: PARIVISION vs Talon Esports
- Round 1 B: BetBoom Team vs Xtreme Gaming
- Round 2 A: Team Liquid vs Round 1 A winner
- Round 2 B: Team Falcons vs Round 1 B winner
- Quarterfinals A: Nigma Galaxy vs Round 2 A winner
- Quarterfinals B: Yakult Brothers vs Round 2 B winner
- Semifinals A: Tundra Esports vs Quarterfinals A winner
- Semifinals B: Gaimin Gladiators vs Quarterfinals B winner
- Grand finals: Semifinals A winner vs Semifinals B winner

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