HEROIC, Team Liquid advance at BLAST Slam VI

HEROIC and Team Liquid each recorded a sweep on Sunday to punch their ticket to the quarterfinals of the BLAST Slam VI event.

HEROIC posted a 2-0 win over Tundra Esports in their play-in match, courtesy of 56- and 40-minute victories on red. HEROIC will compete again in Friday’s quarterfinals against Team Yandex.

Team Liquid notched a 2-0 win over GamerLegion in their play-in match on Sunday, courtesy of a 27-minute victory on red and 37-minute triumph on green. Liquid will be back in action on Friday against Team Falcons in the other quarterfinal.

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 are 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.

The teams that win Friday’s quarterfinals advance to Saturday’s semifinals. Natus Vincere gets the winner of Team Yandex-HEROIC while OG faces the Team Falcons-Team Liquid victor. The grand final will be held on Feb. 15.

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) — Team Spirit, Xtreme Gaming, Tundra Esports, GamerLegion

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

–Field Level Media