The BLAST SLAM VIII online phase ended on 3 October, and the playoff field is now locked at six teams. PARIVISION and Team Spirit won their seeding matches and go straight to the upper-bracket semi-finals; Team Yandex, Aurora Gaming, LGD Gaming and 1w Team enter at the quarter-finals. OG and GamerLegion lost the last chance deciders and are out. The $750,000 event resumes on 8 October at BLAST Arena Studios in Malta, with a best-of-five grand final on 11 October.
BLAST SLAM VIII playoff bracket
The bracket is double-elimination, every series best-of-three except the grand final.
- Upper-bracket quarter-final: Team Yandex vs LGD Gaming
- Upper-bracket quarter-final: Aurora Gaming vs 1w Team
- Upper-bracket semi-final: PARIVISION vs the first quarter-final winner
- Upper-bracket semi-final: Team Spirit vs the second quarter-final winner
The bye matters in a bracket this short: PARIVISION and Team Spirit skip a LAN series and sit one win from the upper-bracket final. It is not immunity. Semi-final losers drop into the lower-bracket quarter-finals, where defeat means elimination in fifth to sixth, so a seeded team can still be out on day two. The quarter-finalists get that same second life.
PARIVISION has not dropped a game: 2-0 in both Group A series, then 2-0 against Aurora Gaming for a 6-0 record across three series. The roster is Satanic, No[o]ne-, Noticed, 9Class and Dukalis, coached by Puppey.
Team Spirit is unbeaten in series too, though it gave up a game to Team Nemesis and another to Team Yandex. It takes the other semi-final slot with the lineup rebuilt after Collapse and Miposhka moved to the inactive roster on 21 September: Yatoro and Larl alongside Batyuk, rue and "not me".
The 3 October seeding and last chance results
Four best-of-three series closed the online stage: the seeding matches set the group winners' entry point, the last chance matches were straight elimination.
Seeding matches
- PARIVISION 2-0 Aurora Gaming
- Team Spirit 2-1 Team Yandex
Last chance matches
- LGD Gaming 2-1 GamerLegion
- 1w Team 2-1 OG
Team Yandex, the reigning PGL Wallachia Season 9 champion, lost its first series of the event to Team Spirit and drops to the quarter-finals against an LGD Gaming side on a two-series elimination run.
OG's exit ends a side that only came together on 23 September, ten days earlier. Topson and OneJey joined Natsumi and skem, with SSS on loan from PARIVISION. They lost their opener 1-2 to BetBoom Team, took second in Group C, then fell 1-2 to 1w Team with one of the last two LAN slots on the line.
BLAST SLAM VIII playoff schedule
Playoffs run 8–11 October at BLAST Arena Studios in Malta. Times below are CEST, the venue's local time, with UTC in parentheses.
- 8 October, 11:00 (09:00 UTC) — Upper-bracket quarter-final: Team Yandex vs LGD Gaming
- 8 October, 14:30 (12:30 UTC) — Upper-bracket quarter-final: Aurora Gaming vs 1w Team
- 8 October, 18:00 (16:00 UTC) — Upper-bracket semi-final: PARIVISION vs Yandex/LGD winner
- 9 October, 11:00 (09:00 UTC) — Upper-bracket semi-final: Team Spirit vs Aurora/1w winner
- 9 October — both lower-bracket quarter-finals
- 10 October, 12:30 (10:30 UTC) — Upper-bracket final
- 10 October, 16:00 (14:00 UTC) — Lower-bracket semi-final
- 11 October, 11:00 (09:00 UTC) — Lower-bracket final
- 11 October, 15:00 (13:00 UTC) — Grand final, best-of-five
BLAST's schedule and Liquipedia give the same time for every series listed with one. For the lower-bracket quarter-finals BLAST puts both in a single 14:30 CEST slot while Liquipedia splits them, 14:30 and 18:00, so only the date is given above; both place them on 9 October.
Who is out, and what the six are playing for
Ten teams are out. Eight went out in the group stage: Xtreme Gaming, Team Nemesis, BetBoom Team and Team Liquid in ninth to twelfth, Level UP, Natus Vincere, MOUZ and Yakult Brothers in thirteenth to sixteenth. OG and GamerLegion follow in seventh to eighth for $20,000 each.
BLAST splits the $750,000 into $550,000 of prize money and $200,000 of team earnings, and pays all sixteen teams. The champion takes $270,000 — $200,000 to the players, $70,000 to the organisation — ahead of $135,000, $95,000 and $65,000 for second, third and fourth. Fifth to sixth pays $35,500, the floor every remaining team has already banked.
The playoffs run on the 7.41f gameplay patch, released on 15 September and still the live build. BLAST SLAM IX follows later this year, one of the fixtures on the post-TI15 Dota 2 calendar.
How to watch
The primary English broadcast runs on the BLASTDota channels on Twitch, YouTube and Kick, with a secondary BLASTDotaB feed. Russian coverage is on betboom_dota_ru, Ukrainian on dota2_maincast, Chinese on Huya. NatTea hosts, with casters including ODPixel, Fogged, Cap and SVG.
FAQ
Which teams made the BLAST SLAM VIII playoffs? Six: PARIVISION, Team Spirit, Team Yandex, Aurora Gaming, LGD Gaming and 1w Team. PARIVISION and Team Spirit start in the upper-bracket semi-finals; the other four start in the quarter-finals.
When do the BLAST SLAM VIII playoffs start? 8 October 2026, with the first upper-bracket quarter-final at 11:00 CEST (09:00 UTC). The bracket runs to the grand final on 11 October at 15:00 CEST.
What are the BLAST SLAM VIII quarter-final matchups? Team Yandex vs LGD Gaming and Aurora Gaming vs 1w Team, both best-of-three on 8 October.
Who was eliminated in the BLAST SLAM VIII last chance stage? GamerLegion lost 1-2 to LGD Gaming and OG lost 1-2 to 1w Team. Both finish seventh to eighth for $20,000.
Where are the BLAST SLAM VIII playoffs being played? On LAN at BLAST Arena Studios in Malta, after an online group stage.
What is the BLAST SLAM VIII prize pool? $750,000 across all sixteen teams, with $270,000 to the champion.
Sources: BLAST's official SLAM VIII tournament API, schedule and 2026 BLAST Dota SLAM rulebook; Liquipedia's SLAM VIII bracket, prize pool and streams data; GosuGamers' and Hotspawn's last chance recaps. Retrieved 4 October 2026.
