Falcons soar to tie for first in BLAST Slam VII group stage

Team Falcons swept three matches on Wednesday to pull into a tie for first place in the group stage of the BLAST Slam VII at Copenhagen, Denmark.

One of the wins for Team Falcons came against Team Yandex, leaving those clubs tied for first place at 5-1. Team Yandex won their other two matches of the day.

PARIVISION captured both of their Wednesday matches to sit in third place at 4-1. Team Liquid enjoyed a 3-0 day to improve to 4-2, level in fourth place with LGD Gaming, who went 2-1 on Wednesday.

The $1 million event is beginning with 12 participants in a group stage that runs through Friday. Group play is a round-robin, best-of-one format. The top two teams at the end of the week will advance to the upper-bracket semifinals of the playoffs, while the third- and fourth-place teams will start in the upper-bracket quarters.

The fifth- and sixth-place teams will proceed to Round 2 of the last-chance qualifier, while teams 7-10 in the standings will begin in Round 1 of that stage. The bottom two teams will be eliminated.

Team Falcons began action Wednesday with a 33-minute win on green over Aurora Gaming. Russia's Stanislav "Malr1ne" Potorak paced Team Falcons with a 12-1-12 kill-death-assist ratio.

Team Falcons then logged a 48-minute victory on red over Team Yandex behind Malr1ne's 18-3-15 K-D-A ratio. A 40-minute triumph on red over Xtreme Gaming capped Team Falcons' perfect day, with Jordan's Ammar "ATF" Al-Assaf registering a 7-1-10 K-D-A ratio for the victors.

BLAST Slam VII standings

T1. Team Falcons, 5-1

T1. Team Yandex, 5-1

3. PARIVISION, 4-1

T4. Team Liquid, 4-2

T4. LGD Gaming, 4-2

T6. BetBoom Team, 2-3

T6. GLYPH, 2-3

T8. Aurora Gaming, 2-4

T8. Team Spirit, 2-4

T8. Tundra Esports, 2-4

11. OG, 1-4

12. Xtreme Gaming, 1-5

BLAST Slam VII payouts (prize money, team earnings)

1. $300,000, $100,000

2. $150,000, $45,000

3. $70,000, $23,000

4. $50,000, $17,000

5-6. $40,000, $15,000

7-8. $25,000, $10,000

9-10. $15,000, $5,000

11-12. $10,000, $2,500

--Field Level Media