OG, NAVI top BLAST Slam VI Group Stage, secure semifinals berth in Playoffs

OG and NAVI beat out the likes of Team Liquid and Tundra Esports for a guaranteed Top 4 finish in BLAST Slam VI.

The first Tier 1 Dota 2 tournament of 2026, BLAST Slam VI, is now well underway. Southeast Asia's OG and Eastern Europe's Natus Vincere (NAVI) topped the tournament's 12-team Group Stage to secure a semifinals berth in the Playoffs. BLAST Slam VI now proceeds into the Play-Ins, where the 10 other competitors will be fighting for the four remaining spots in the Playoffs.

Here's how all the action in the BLAST Slam VI Group Stage went down:

OG and NAVI top BLAST Slam VI Group Stage

BLAST Slam VI kicked off with a three-day Group Stage, where the 12 participating teams fought to finish in the Top 2 spots in the standings and secure a direct berth to the semifinals of the Playoffs. Meanwhile, the third to eighth-placed teams proceeded to the Play-In, while the bottom four teams were relegated to the Last Chance Playoff.

Ever since Western European organisation OG signed the Filipino roster of Team Aureus last November, the once-struggling team have steadily risen to be among the strongest contenders in the scene with three straight Top 6 finishes in Tier 1 tournaments. That upward trend for OG continued in the early stages of BLAST Slam VI, where they secured a 7-4 record in the Group Stage to advance directly to the Playoffs.

OG notably had a perfect start to the tournament, defeating Team Liquid, Team Yandex, MOUZ, and GamerLegion in the opening day of the Group Stage. They stumbled a bit in day two, losing to HEROIC, Xtreme Gaming, and NAVI, but securing a win over reigning The International champions Team Falcons. The final day of the Group Stage then saw OG lose to Team Spirit, but not before closing out their campaign with back-to-back wins over reigning BLAST Slam champions Tundra Esports and REKONIX.

NAVI also finished with a 7-4 record to claim the other semifinals berth in the Playoffs. The young Eastern European squad defeated the likes of Tundra, REKONIX, Falcons, MOUZ, OG, GamerLegion, and Xtreme while suffering losses to Spirit, Liquid, Yandex, and HEROIC.

Two other teams, Liquid and Tundra, also finished the Group Stage with a 7-4 record. However, they lost the top two spots to OG and NAVI due to tiebreakers determined by each team's Neustadtl scores and head-to-head records.

Liquid and Tundra are still in good position to make the Playoffs through the Play-Ins. Joining them there are Yandex (6-5), Falcons (6-5), Xtreme (6-5), and Spirit (5-6). The bottom four teams of the Group Stage, HEROIC (5-6), GamerLegion (5-6), MOUZ (4-7), and REKONIX (1-10) will first have to survive the Last Chance Playoffs before they can advance to the Play-Ins.

Here are the final standings of the BLAST Slam VI Group Stage:

OG (7-4)
Natus Vincere (7-4)
Team Liquid (7-4)
Tundra Esports (7-4)
Team Yandex (6-5)
Team Falcons (6-5)
Xtreme Gaming (6-5)
Team Spirit (5-6)
HEROIC (5-6)
GamerLegion (5-6)
MOUZ (4-7)
REKONIX (1-10)

Here are the matchups for the BLAST Slam VI Last Chance Playoffs and Play-Ins:

Last Chance Playoffs:

HEROIC vs REKONIX
GamerLegion vs MOUZ

Play-Ins:

Team Yandex vs Team Spirit
Team Falcons vs Xtreme Gaming
Tundra Esports vs winner of HEROIC vs REKONIX
Team Liquid vs winner of GamerLegion vs MOUZ

The BLAST Slam VI Last Chance Playoffs and Play-Ins will take place from 6 to 8 February. The four teams that survive this stage will advance to the quarterfinals of the tournament's Playoffs, which will be hosted live in the BLAST Studios in Malta from 13 to 15 February.

The BLAST Slam VI Playoffs will be a single-elimination bracket, with the four teams that survived the Last Chance Playoffs and Play-Ins starting in the quarterfinals while OG and NAVI will start in the semifinals. All matches in the Playoffs will be a best-of-five. The BLAST Slam VI champions will walk away with the grand prize of US$400,000 (split between US$300,000 in prize money for the players and US$100,000 in team earnings for their organisation) out of the tournament's US$1 million prize pool.