Team Spirit first into BLAST Slam VIII playoffs, BetBoom outlast OG in 87 minutes

Team Spirit are the first team into the BLAST Slam VIII playoffs. The TI 2026 champions swept 1win 2-0 on Wednesday, Sept 30, to win Group B and lock in a trip to the offline stage in Malta.

How did Team Spirit reach the BLAST Slam VIII playoffs without Collapse?

Team Spirit swept 1win 2-0 to win Group B, with Batyuk filling the offlane for Collapse and Yatoro going 34/3/29 across the two games.

With the offlaner and coach Miposhka on a break, Batyuk fills the offlane and Illidan coaches the side, according to GosuGamers.

Yatoro did not look like a man missing a teammate. He went 17/2/15 on Slark in a 42-minute opener, then 17/1/14 on Nature's Prophet as Spirit closed game two in 21:50 with a 36-9 kill score, per OpenDota. That is 34 kills and three deaths across the series.

How did BetBoom Team beat OG at BLAST Slam VIII?

BetBoom Team beat OG 2-1 in Group C, and the decider ran for 86 minutes and 59 seconds. Save- went 12/3/12 on Lina in his first series for the team.

BetBoom took game one in under 39 minutes and OG answered with a 32-minute win. Then neither side would let go. Offstage described the decider as a map full of momentum swings.

It was BetBoom's first series with Save- in the mid lane. He finished the decider 12/3/12 on Lina, next to Kiritych's Tiny and MieRo's Lycan, and BetBoom closed the map with a 39-31 kill score.

OG arrived with a new team built around Topson, who came out of retirement for this lineup. He played Windranger in the decider and went 10/7/12. Natsumi's Phantom Lancer farmed 1,488 last hits and ended with the highest net worth in the game, 69,055 gold, per OpenDota. OG still lost.

Group C's other opener was quick by comparison. Team Yandex, who won PGL Wallachia Season 9 before this event, beat MOUZ 2-0 in 32 and 42 minutes. Yandex and BetBoom now meet for first place in the group.

Day one: four of six series went the distance

Tuesday set the tone. Four of the six opening series needed a third game, and only PARIVISION and Aurora Gaming got through without dropping a map.

Team Nemesis, the Southeast Asia qualifier, took the first map off Spirit before losing the next two. NaVi won their first game against 1win and then dropped two in a row.

LGD Gaming, with SumaiL in the mid lane, beat Xtreme Gaming 2-1. Xtreme are playing with MooN as a stand-in for Xm, who is out for personal reasons. Team Liquid also field a stand-in: MidOne is their mid for this event, and they needed three games to get past China qualifier Yakult Brothers.

When are the next BLAST Slam VIII matches and playoffs?

The group stage runs until Oct 2, seeding and Last Chance matches follow on Oct 3, and the playoffs are Oct 8-11 at BLAST Arena Studios in Malta.

As we filed this, PARIVISION and LGD Gaming were playing for first place in Group A, while Team Nemesis and NaVi were fighting to stay alive in Group B. Here is the rest of the road to Malta, all times CEST:

• Wed, Sept 30, 18:30: Level UP vs Xtreme Gaming, Group A elimination match.
• Thu, Oct 1, 15:00: Team Yandex vs BetBoom Team for first place in Group C, plus MOUZ vs OG in the elimination match.
• Thu, Oct 1, 18:00: Aurora Gaming vs Team Liquid for first place in Group D, plus GamerLegion vs Yakult Brothers.
• Fri, Oct 2: decider matches for second place in every group, 15:00 for Groups A and B, 18:00 for Groups C and D. 1win already wait in Group B's decider.
• Sat, Oct 3: seeding matches for the four group winners and Last Chance series for the four runners-up. Team Spirit face the Group C winner at 18:00.
• Oct 8-11: double-elimination playoffs at BLAST Arena Studios in Malta. The grand final is a best-of-five on Oct 11 at 15:00.

Each group is a four-team GSL bracket with best-of-three series. Group winners go to the seeding matches, where the winners earn upper bracket semifinal spots and the losers drop to the quarterfinals. Runners-up get one Last Chance series, and third and fourth place go home.

That leaves six teams for Malta. The prize pool is $750,000, and the champion takes $270,000. The full bracket lives on Liquipedia.