Falcons, Nigma Galaxy charge into BLAST Slam II semis

Team Falcons needed less than an hour to complete a 2-0 sweep of Yakult Brothers in the quarterfinals of the BLAST Slam II event on Friday in Copenhagen, Denmark.

In the other quarterfinal, Nigma Galaxy edged PARIVISION 2-1.

Team Falcons move on to face Gaimin Gladiators in the semifinals on Saturday, while Nigma Galaxy will clash with Tundra Esports. Gaimin Gladiators and Tundra Esports earned triple byes for direct entry into the semis.

The $1 million Dota 2 tournament began last week with two groups of five teams. A round robin of best-of-one matches in each group determined seeding for the playoff stage.

All matches are best-of-three until the grand final on Sunday, which will be best-of-five. The championship side will make $300,000 in prize money plus $100,000 in team earnings.

On Friday, Team Falcons thrashed Yakult Brothers in 17 minutes on green and 33 minutes on red.

Jordan's Ammar "ATF" Al-Assaf posted an average 8.0/0.5/9.5 kill-death-assist ratio for Team Falcons. China's Zhou "Emo" Yi finished at 3.5/3.0/3.5 for Yakult Brothers.

Nigma Galaxy opened with a 32-minute win on red before PARIVISION equalized with a 47-minute victory on green. Nigma Galaxy claimed the decisive third map in 45 minutes on red.

Malaysia's Daniel "Ghost" Chan logged a 14.0/2.7/10.7 K-D-A ratio for Nigma Galaxy. Russia's Alan "Satanic" Gallyamov wound up at 8.3/3.3/5.7 for PARIVISION.

BLAST Slam II prize pool, with prize money and team earnings

1. $300,000, $100,000

2. $150,000, $50,000

3-4. $60,000, $20,000

5-6. $35,000, $15,000 -- Yakult Brothers, PARIVISION

7-8. $30,000, $10,000 -- Team Liquid, BetBoom Team

9-10. $25,000, $5,000 -- Talon Esports, Xtreme Gaming

--Field Level Media