LGD Gaming, 1W Team round out Playoff-qualified teams at BLAST SLAM VIII

LGD Gaming and 1W Team join PARIVISION, Team Spirit, Team Yandex, and Aurora Gaming in the BLAST SLAM VIII Playoffs.

LGD Gaming and 1W Team completed the lineup of teams qualified for the BLAST SLAM VIII Playoffs after they defeated GamerLegion and OG, respectively, in the tournament's Last Chance stage on Sunday (4 October).

LGD and 1W join Group Stage top seeds PARIVISION, Team Spirit, Team Yandex, and Aurora Gaming in the BLAST SLAM Playoffs, which will be hosted in the BLAST Arena Studios in Malta from 8 to 11 October. PARIVISION and Spirit will also start the Playoffs in the upper bracket semifinals after they defeated Aurora and Yandex, respectively, in the tournament's Seeding Matches.

Read on as we break down all of the action in the BLAST SLAM VIII Seeding Matches and Last Chance stage:

LGD Gaming and 1W Team complete Playoff field at BLAST SLAM VIII

The BLAST SLAM VIII Last Chance stage featured the four second seeds from the Group Stage duke it out for the last two spots in the Playoffs, with the winners advancing to the upper bracket quarterfinals in the Playoffs while the losers were eliminated.

The first Last Chance match saw Group A second seed LGD take on Group D's GamerLegion, with LGD shaking off a demoralising loss in game one and coming back to take the series with a 2-1 reverse sweep.

In game one, GamerLegion dominated the laning stage to build an early lead and never looked back. While LGD were able to draw things out to the late game, GamerLegion secured the win just before the hour-mark with a very lopsided 40-10 kill lead. Yuma “Yuma” Langlet on Sven led the way with a clean 10-kill, 11-assist performance while Francis “RCY” Fundemera on Earth Spirit pitched in with 10 kills and 22 assists on just one death.

LGD were quick to shake off their loss in game one by giving GamerLegion a taste of their own medicine in game two. In arguably the most one-sided game in recent memory, LGD stomped GamerLegion in 35 minutes and racked up 28 kills while only conceding one death.

Syed Sumail “SumaiL” Hassan on Slark led the way for LGD with eight kills, Máximo “Wits” Orozco Alza on Nature's Prophet had seven kills, while Cedric “Davai” Deckmyn on Dark Seer, Thiago “Thiolicor” Cordeiro on Bounty Hunter, and Jing “Sneyking” Wu on Dazzle had four kills apiece. Davai notably had LGD's lone death in game two.

Game three was close affair until the 40-minute mark, when LGD won a massive teamfight that eventually allowed them to secure the 2-1 series victory after 45 minutes of action. Wits on Nature's Prophet led the way with 11 kills and nine assists on two deaths while SumaiL on Pangolier added seven kills and 15 assists against just one death.

The other Last Chance match also saw a 2-1 reverse sweep, with 1W fending off OG to become the final team qualified for the BLAST SLAM VIII Playoffs.

OG came out swinging to start the series, with Zhyvitski “OneJey” Ivan putting on a show with his signature support Gyrocopter pick to lead his team to a 43-minute win. OneJey paced OG's 30-20 kill lead in game one with nine kills and 13 assists on seven deaths.

1W were quick to bounce back from their game one loss and comfortably won game two in 24 minutes behind stellar play from Ivan “Pure” Moskalenko on Sven and Bozhidar “bzm” Bogdanov on Invoker. Pure and bzm each notched 10 kills and combined for 14 assists in the win, with Pure only having one death while bzm finished with a clean record.

With the final spot in the BLAST SLAM VIII Playoffs on the line in game three, 1W stomped OG to the tune of a 27-4 kill lead in 28 minutes. Neta “33” Shapira on Largo led the way with 12 kills and 15 assists on one death, while Pure on Luna and bzm on Tiny both notched a clean six kills and a combined 29 assists.

PARIVISION and Spirit secure upper bracket semifinals berths at BLAST SLAM VIII Playoffs

The BLAST SLAM VIII Seeding Matches saw the four top seeds from the Group Stage face off for better positioning in the Playoffs, with the winners earning a direct berth to the upper bracket semifinals.

The first Seeding Match saw PARIVISION reassert their position as the strongest team in the world by soundly sweeping Aurora. In game one, PARIVISION racked up 33 kills and conceded just three deaths in a 27-minute rout. Alan “Satanic” Gallyamov on Ursa had a perfect 12-kill, eight-assist performance while Volodymyr “No[o]ne” Minenko on Earth Spirit pitched in with nine kills and 13 assists on two deaths.

Game two was a much closer affair, where PARIVISION dominated the crucial mid game teamfights to secure the 2-0 series sweep after 43 minutes of action. Satanic on Templar Assassin finished the closeout game with 12 kills and 14 assists on five deaths while No[o]ne on Snapfire had 11 kills and 22 assists against four deaths.

The second seeding match then saw the third 2-1 reverse sweep of the day, with reigning The International (TI) champions Spirit handing Yandex their first series loss of the season to secure their spot in the upper bracket semifinals.

Game one saw Yandex pull out what has quickly become one of their most favoured strategies: a late Huskar pick for new offlaner Ammar “ATF” Assaf to form a strong trio of core heroes, with Alimzhan “Watson” Islambekov on Lone Druid and Ilya “CHIRA_JUNIOR” Chirtsov on Monkey King for this game.

The early game was a bloodbath, but Yandex won the crucial mid game teamfights that handed them the win by the 36-minute mark. ATF paced his team's 27-24 kill lead with 10 kills and seven assists while Watson pitched in with eight kills and six assists, with both players having two deaths apiece.

Yandex pulled out the Huskar pick for ATF once again in game two, but Spirit were able to counter it with plenty of single-target damage from Illya “Yatoro” Mulyarchuk's Nature's Prophet, Denis “Larl” Sigitov's Pangolier, and Alexey “not me” Kosmynin's Nyx Assassin. Spirit neutered ATF's Huskar by inflicting nine deaths on him en route to securing the game two win in 26 minutes. Larl paced his team's 36-13 kill lead with a clean 12 kills and 16 assists while Yatoro pitched in with 11 kills and 17 assists on just one death.

Game three saw Yandex leading for much of the game, but Spirit were able to turn the tables in the late game thanks to a massive five-man Vacuum from Bohdan “Batyuk” Batiuk's Dark Seer. Yandex were unable to recover from losing that crucial late game clash, which allowed Spirit to complete the 2-1 reverse sweep after 46 minutes of action.

Yatoro on Slark put up 13 kills and 12 assists on five deaths to pace Spirit's 41-34 kill lead in the closeout game. Batyuk also added seven kills and 35 assists on three deaths while Aleksandr “rue” Filin on Ancient Apparition pitched in with eight kills and 24 assists against 10 deaths.

The BLAST SLAM VIII Playoff picture

The BLAST SLAM VIII Playoffs will take place in the BLAST Arena Studios in Malta from 8 to 11 October. It will follow a double-elimination format with all matches being a best-of-three except for the grand finals, which will be a full best-of-five series.

As the winners of the Seeding Matches, PARIVISION and Spirit will start in the upper bracket semifinals. Meanwhile, Yandex, Aurora, LGD, and 1W will start in the upper bracket quarterfinals. Here are the opening matchups for the BLAST SLAM VIII Playoffs:

Upper bracket quarterfinals: