Falcons, Tundra go straight to semis to start BLAST Slam III

Team Falcons and Tundra Esports finished atop their respective groups at the BLAST Slam III event on Tuesday in Copenhagen, Denmark.

By grabbing first place in Groups A and B, respectively, Falcons and Tundra were seeded directly into the semifinals of the playoff stage that begins Wednesday.

The $1 million Dota 2 tournament began with a single-day group stage featuring two round-robin groups of five teams apiece. All matches were best-of-one. The top teams received byes into the semifinals, the second-place finishers were seeded into the quarterfinals, the third-place teams were seeded into Round 2 and the fourth- and fifth-place teams were placed into Round 1.

The playoff stage will run through Sunday in a single-elimination bracket. All matches are best-of-three until Sunday's best-of-five grand final.

On Tuesday, Team Falcons notched victories over Gaimin Gladiators (49 minutes on red), PARIVISION (44 minutes on red) and Team Spirit (50 minutes on green) before Aurora Gaming beat them in 45 minutes on green.

They won the tiebreaker over Gaimin Gladiators, which also finished 3-1 after beating Team Spirit (37 minutes on red), Aurora (31 minutes on green) and PARIVISION (44 minutes on red).

PARIVISION went 2-2 and finished third in Group A. Aurora and Team Spirit finished 1-3 and will compete in Round 1 as fourth- and fifth-place teams.

In Group B, Tundra Esports rebounded from an early loss to Xtreme Gaming (who won in 41 minutes on green) by beating Team Tidebound (36 minutes on green), BetBoom Team (33 minutes on red) and Team Liquid (26 minutes on red).

They won the tiebreaker at 3-1 with Tidebound, which notched victories of Liquid (45 minutes on red), Xtreme Gaming (39 minutes on green) and BetBoom (40 minutes on green).

In third at 2-2 was Xtreme Gaming. Liquid and BetBoom, both at 1-3, will compete in Round 1 of the playoffs.

The tournament continues Wednesday with two best-of-three Round 1 matches:

--Team Liquid vs. Team Spirit

--Aurora Gaming vs. BetBoom Team

--Field Level Media