Tundra Esports get off to hot start at BLAST Slam V

Tundra Esports, who won the BLAST Slam IV championship earlier this month, began BLAST Slam V with two group-stage wins on Tuesday.

MOUZ and OG also completed the opening day of action with 2-0 records.

The $1 million Dota 2 event is starting with 12 teams competing in a round-robin of single-map matches. The top two teams in the group-stage standings move straight into the playoff semifinals, while the next six teams head to a play-in event. Teams that come in ninth through 12th will compete in a last-chance playoff on Sunday.

One team will advance out of the last-chance playoff into the play-in event, also on Sunday. Four head-to-head, best-of-three play-in matches will be held, with the four winners earning playoff quarterfinal berths and the other teams eliminated.

The single-elimination playoffs are scheduled for Dec. 5-7 in Chengdu, China. The quarterfinals and semifinals will feature best-of-three matches, and the grand final will be best-of-five.

The championship team will receive $300,000 in prize money and $100,000 in team earnings, while the runner-up will get $150,000 and $50,000, respectively. The top three teams will earn berths in BLAST Slam VI.

On Tuesday, Tundra downed Team Yandex in 45 minutes on red, then beat Execration in 33 minutes on red. Israel's Neta "33" Shapira paced Tundra with a 12-0-13 kill-death-assist ratio in the first match, and Bulgaria's Bozhidar "bzm" Bogdanov led the team with a 10-1-7 K-D-A ratio in the second match.

In other opening-day results:

--Yakult Brothers def. Team Falcons

--Xtreme Gaming def. HEROIC

--OG def. Yakult Brothers

--MOUZ def. Xtreme Gaming

--OG def. Execration

--Team Falcons def. Team Tidebound

--Natus Vincere def. Team Yandex

--Natus Vincere def. Team Tidebound

--Team Falcons def. HEROIC

--Tearlaments def. Team Tidebound

--MOUZ def. Natus Vincere

--Execration def. Tearlaments

BLAST Slam V group-stage standings

T1. Tundra Esports, 2-0

T1. MOUZ, 2-0

T1. OG, 2-0

T4. Natus Vincere, 2-1

T4. Team Falcons, 2-1

T6. Tearlaments, 1-1

T6. Xtreme Gaming, 1-1

T6. Yakult Brothers, 1-1

9. Execration, 1-2

T10. HEROIC, 0-2

T10. Team Yandex, 0-2

12. Team Tidebound, 0-3

BLAST Slam V 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

7-10. $22,500, $6,250

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

--Field Level Media