Liquid, Yandex charge into BLAST Slam VI semifinals

Field Level Media|published: Sat 14th February, 01:27 2026

A Pace Center for Girls Jacksonville student uses a controller to play a video game with police after the Sheriff's Office's new mobile gaming center was unveiled at the facility.

Team Liquid pulled out a marathon 3-2 win over Team Falcons on Friday to reach the semifinals of the BLAST Slam VI event in Attard, Malta.

In the other quarterfinal match, Team Yandex took down HEROIC 3-1.

The Saturday semifinals will feature Team Liquid vs. OG and then Natus Vincere vs. Team Yandex.

BLAST Slam VI is a 12-team Dota 2 event that pays $300,000 to the winner and $1 million overall. The event opened with three days of group play -- a round-robin, best-of-1 format in which each team played each other team once. The top two teams in the standings, Natus Vincere and OG, moved on to the semifinals of the playoffs.

The teams finishing third through eighth in the standings advanced to the play-in round -- four best-of-3 matches in which the winners advance to the playoffs and the losers were eliminated. The teams finishing ninth through 12th in group play competed in the last-chance playoff, another best-of-3 format where the winners advanced to the play-in round and the losers went home.

All playoff matches are best-of-5. The championship squad will receive $300,000 plus $100,000 in team earnings, while the runner-up will get $150,000 and $50,000 in team earnings.

On Friday, Team Falcons opened with a 45-minute win on red before Team Liquid posted a 33-minute victory on red and a 35-minute win on green. Team Falcons sent the match to the limit with a 43-minute victory on green before Team Liquid took the decisive fifth map in 38 minutes on red.

Poland's Michal "Nisha" Jankowski recorded a 46/13/54 kill-death-assist ratio for Team Liquid. Slovakia's Oliver "skiter" Lepko wound up at 40/17/28 for Team Falcons.

After HEROIC earned a 34-minute win on red, Team Yandex captured three consecutive maps, in 46 minutes on red, 46 minutes on green and 47 minutes on green.

Kazakhstan's Alimzhan "watson" Islambekov produced a 43/12/43 K/D/A ratio for Team Yandex. Nicaragua's Yuma "Yuma" Langlet finished at 38/13/30 for HEROIC.

BLAST Slam VI prize pool

1. $300,000 (plus $100,000 in team earnings)

2. $150,000 (plus $50,000)

3-4. $60,000 (plus $29,000)

5-6. $35,000 (plus $15,000) -- Team Falcons, HEROIC

7-10. $22,500 (plus $6.250) -- Team Spirit, Xtreme Gaming, Tundra Esports, GamerLegion

11-12. $10,000 (plus $2,500) -- REKONIX, MOUZ

--Field Level Media