LGD Gaming claim the top seed at BLAST Slam VII Group Stage

Shortly after making its return to Dota 2, LGD Gaming are already making waves at BLAST Slam VII.

The return of iconic Chinese organisation LGD Gaming to competitive Dota 2 is off to a stellar start, as its South American roster have finished claimed the top seed of the BLAST Slam VII's round-robin Group Stage. LGD finished with an 8-3 record, beating out the likes of Eastern European powerhouses PARIVISION and BetBoom Team to secure an upper bracket semifinals berth in the BLAST Slam VII Playoffs.

LGD announced its return to Dota 2 after a two-year absence with the signing of the ex-HEROIC roster shortly before BLAST Slam VII kicked off. While the ex-HEROIC squad have clearly been the best team from South America and a fixture in international events this season, no one expected they would put on such a strong performance against the best from the rest of the world.

BLAST Slam VII

Type: Online (Group Stage), Offline (Playoffs)
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark (Playoffs)
Venue: BLAST Studio (Playoffs)
Schedule: 26 May - 7 Jun, 2026
Participating teams: 12
Prize pool: US$1 million
Organiser: BLAST

How LGD finished as the top seed of the BLAST Slam VII Group Stage

LGD finished the BLAST Slam VII Group Stage with an 8-3 record; with wins over BetBoom, GLYPH, Aurora Gaming, Team Spirit, PARIVISION, Xtreme Gaming, Tundra Esports, and Team Yandex, while their three losses came at the hands of Team Falcons, Team Liquid, and OG.

LGD, PARIVISION, and BetBoom notably all finished with 8-3 records, but LGD won the tiebreaker over those two teams by virtue of winning their matches against them. To put LGD's performance in the BLAST Slam VII Group Stage in perspective, they defeated the champions of the last two Tier 1 tournaments–DreamLeague Season 29 champions PARIVISION and PGL Wallachia Season 8 champions BetBoom–as well as four of the seven teams to receive direct invites to The International (TI) 2026, namely Aurora, Xtreme, Tundra, and Yandex.

LGD have also been statistically the best-performing team of BLAST Slam VII so far, with the team averaging 5.03 KDA, 2,579 GPM, and 3,296 XPM. That makes them the second best team in terms of KDA, as well as third best in terms of GPM and XPM, among all teams in the Group Stage.

Three LGD players are also in the Top 5 list of the best players in BLAST Slam VII so far in terms of statistics. Offlaner Adrian “Wisper” Cespedes Dobles sits in third place with 7.05 KDA, 616 GPM, and 773 XPM; carry player Yuma “Yuma” Langlet is in fourth with 6.81 KDA, 669 GPM, and 791 XPM; and mid laner Santiago “TaiLung” Agüero Gustavo is fifth with 6.68 KDA, 641 GPM, and 759 XPM.

As the top seed of the Group Stage, LGD earned a direct berth to the upper bracket semifinals of the BLAST Slam VII Playoffs alongside second seed PARIVISION. Meanwhile, third seed BetBoom and fourth seed Falcons will start in the upper bracket quarterfinals.

Yandex, Liquid among six teams in BLAST Slam VII Last Chance Qualifier

The final two spots in the BLAST Slam VII Playoffs will be up for grabs between the fifth to 10th seeds of the Group Stage, namely and in order of seeding: Yandex, Liquid, Aurora, Spirit, OG, and Tundra.

As the fifth and sixth seeds, Yandex and Liquid will start in the second round of the Last Chance Qualifier. They will face the winners of the first round, which will feature Spirit taking on OG and Aurora facing Tundra.

The winners of the second round of the Last Chance Qualifier will advance to Playoffs and start in the upper bracket quarterfinals, where they will face Falcons and BetBoom. All matches in the Last Chance Qualifier will be a best-of-three.

Meanwhile, Xtreme and GLYPH were the first teams to be eliminated from BLAST Slam VII after finishing in the bottom of the standings with 3-8 and 2-9 records, respectively. While GLYPH were arguably the biggest underdogs of the tournament, and thus an early exit for them is not too surprising, Xtreme bombing out is more surprising when considering they were among the seven teams to earn a direct invite to TI 2026.

Here are the final standings for the BLAST Slam VII Group Stage: