Natus Vincere, OG charge into BLAST Slam VI semifinals

Natus Vincere and OG each won two of their three matches on Thursday to clinch playoff semifinal berths at the BLAST Slam VI event.

Both teams finished with 7-4 records, as did Team Liquid, who also went 2-1 on Thursday, and Tundra Esports, who lost three of their four Thursday matches.

Tiebreaker rules sent OG and Natus Vincere directly to the playoffs, while Tundra Esports and Team Liquid now must fight their way through the play-in round.

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, move on to the semifinals of the playoffs.

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

The play-in and last-chance rounds will be played Friday through Sunday. The four remaining teams will play in the quarterfinals on Feb. 13. The semifinals will be on Feb. 14 and the grand final on Feb. 15.

On Thursday, Natus Vincere topped Gamer Legion in 36 minutes on red, fell to HEROIC in 58 minutes on red and defeated Xtreme Gaming in 55 minutes on red.

OG lost to Team Spirit in 47 minutes on green before downing Tundra Esports in 45 minutes on green and REKONIX in 33 minutes on red.

The play-in slate is set for the next three days:

FRIDAY

Last-chance playoff: HEROIC vs. REKONIX

Last-chance playoff: GamerLegion vs. MOUZ

SATURDAY

Play-in (winner to playoff quarterfinals): Team Yandex vs. Team Spirit

Play-in (winner to playoff quarterfinals): Team Falcons vs. Xtreme Gaming

SUNDAY

Play-in (winner to playoff quarterfinals): Tundra Esports vs. HEROIC/REKONIX winner

Play-in (winner to playoff quarterfinals): Team Liquid vs. GamerLegion/MOUZ winner

BLAST Slam VI group-stage final standings

1. Natus Vincere (7-4)

2. OG (7-4)

3. Team Liquid (7-4)

4. Tundra Esports (7-4)

5. Team Yandex (6-5)

6. Team Falcons (6-5)

7. Xtreme Gaming (6-5)

8. Team Spirit (5-6)

9. HEROIC (5-6)

10. GamerLegion (5-6)

11. MOUZ (4-7)

12. REKONIX (1-10)

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)

7-10. $22,500 (plus $6.250)

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

--Field Level Media