Falcons, HEROIC stay alive in BLAST Slam I playoffs

Team Falcons and HEROIC rallied for first-round playoff wins on Wednesday at the BLAST Slam I in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Falcons overtook OG 2-1 to advance to a second-round matchup against Gaimin Gladiators on Thursday. HEROIC came back to beat Team Spirit, earning the right to oppose PARIVISION on Thursday.

The 10 teams in the $1 million Dota 2 event were divided into two groups for the opening round-robin phase of single-map matches.

The top team in each group (BetBoom Team and Tundra Esports) earned berths in the playoff semifinals. The second-place teams (Team Liquid and Xtreme Gaming) qualified directly into the quarterfinals. The third-place teams (PARIVISION and Gaimin Gladiators) secured Round 2 places in the playoffs, and the fourth- and fifth-place teams started the playoffs in Round 1.

All playoff matches best-of-three except for the best-of-five final on Sunday. The winning team will receive $400,000, and the runner-up will earn $200,000.

On Thursday, OG began with a 33-minute win on red before Falcons won the next two maps on red, in 46 and 45 minutes. Russia's Stanislav "Malr1ne" Potorak paced Falcons with an average 9.7/3.0/8.0 kill-death assist ratio, while Thailand's Nuengnara "23savage" Teeramahanon wound up at 7.7/4.0/6.3 for OG.

Spirit claimed the first map in 43 minutes on green. HEROIC responded with a 56-minute victory on green and a 61-minute win on red. Nicaragua's Yuma "Yuma" Langlet paced Spirit with a 14.3/4.0/15.0 K-D-A ratio. Russia's Denis "Larl" Sigitov finished at 10.7/5.0/15.0 for Spirit.

BLAST Slam I prize pool

1. $400,000

2. $200,000

3-4. $80,000

5-6. $50,000

7-8. $40,000

9-10. $30,000 -- Team Spirit, OG

--Field Level Media