BLAST Slam VIII Group Stage Delivers Major Upsets as Liquid and NAVI Exit

Zloster Published October 3, 2026

an image of the casting panel at BLAST Slam VII

BLAST Slam VIII started a few days ago, and after a few days of epic clashes, the Group Stage is finally over. As mentioned in our BLAST Slam VIII overview, we saw some pretty interesting clashses Now that the matches are over, it’s time for the Seeding Match, Last Chance and the Playoffs. Let’s see what happened.

Group A

an image of No[o]ne from TEAM VISION holding his hands up

Image credit: Valve

As expected, Group A had one big favorite and he lived up to the expectations. PARIVISION had no issues and won against Level UP and LGD Gaming.

Level UP was the first to wave goodbye after losing to Xtreem Gaming. As for LGD Gaming, the team played against Xtreme Gaming in the Decider Match. The series was close, but LGD proved to be the better team and defeated their opponents.

Group B

Image credit: Valve

Moving on to Group B, this is where we saw the first surprise. Dota 2 fans expected Natus Vincere to perform better, but the squad lost both matches against 1w Team and Team Nemesis. This was the last nail in the coffin.

Unsurprisingly, Team Spirit had no issues and won against Team Nemesis and 1w Team. This ensured it secured a slot for the Seeding Match.

As for the decider, we saw the match between Team Nemesis and 1w Team. We expected a much closer game, but that wasn’t the case.1w Team was better in Games 1 and 2 and will advance to the Last Chance match.

Group C

Team Yandex was ahead of the rest in Group C, as expected. The squad defeated MOUZ and BetBoom Team, securing a slot for the next stage. Speaking of MOUZ, it became the first team to be eliminated after losing both matches.

The decider here was between OG and BetBoom Team and the game turned out to be much more interesting than before. We expected BB Team to have little to no problems, but this was actually not the case. OG was the better team in the series and it deserved to win.

Group D

Lastly, we have Group D, where Aurora Gaming surprised everyone. The team achieved impressive results after defeating GamerLegion and Team Liquid. The latter made it to the Decider Match, where it had to face GamerLegion.

Yakult Brothers became the first team to be eliminated after losing two matches. This is yet another nail in the coffin for the Chinese Dota 2 scene.

The Decider Match here was between GamerLegion and Team Liquid. Even though everyone expected Liquid to dominate, the latest roster changes seem to have done them no good. The team failed to live up to the expectations and lost the series, resulting in an elimination.

Seeding Match & Last Chance

Now that the Group Stage matches are all over, we know the BLAT SLAM VIII Seeding Match & Last Chance.

We will have the following two Seeding Matches:

PARIVISION vs Aurora Gaming
Team Spirit vs Team Yandex

A quick look at some of the best Dota 2 betting sites will show you that PARIVISION and Team Spirit are the two big favorites. However, judging by what we’ve seen from their opponents, these are among the series where you never know what’s going to happen.

In terms of the Last Chance, we will have these matchups:

LGD Gaming vs GamerLegion
1wTeam Vs OG

The Eliminated Teams

Following all of the matches, Dota 2 fans had to wave goodbye to the following teams – Xtreme Gaming, Level UP, Natus Vincere, Team Nemesis, BetBoom Team, MOUZ, Team Liquid and Yakult Brothers. Make sure to keep an eye on the upcoming matches because they will be very interesting and follow us for more information.

Featured image credit: Valve