PARIVISION, Team Spirit Advance Directly to BLAST SLAM VIII Playoffs Finals

The BLAST SLAM VIII Playoffs begin on Oct. 8 with four teams already seeded directly to the finals bracket.

PARIVISION, Aurora Gaming, Team Spirit and Yandex advanced straight to the finals following seeding matches, organizers said.

LGD, GamerLegion, 1w and OG battled in the Last Chance stage to determine the final two playoff spots.

LGD defeated a reinvigorated GamerLegion lineup to secure its place.

"This LGD team is scary, one that can’t be counted out, and one of the reasons future predictions aren’t going to be as easy as previous tournaments," the preview notes said.

Despite GamerLegion looking "in the best form they have in months, they struggled to land the knockout punch against a more stacked LGD lineup."

1w earned its playoff berth with a performance against OG, though OG managed to score a win in the series.

"Even that matchup wasn’t as decisive as we’d like, with OG scoring a win on the back of a Topson carry on Pangolier," the notes stated.

In seeding matches, The International 15 finalists PARIVISION showed strong form despite a recent break.

Team Spirit, the reigning TI champions, defeated Yandex despite playing without Collapse and using some stand-ins.

"This isn’t the Team Spirit of TI15, missing Collapse and having some stand-ins, but it was still enough to handle Yandex," the notes stated.

Yandex, despite reinforcing its roster with ATF, struggled against Team Spirit and now faces a challenging playoff path.

"It’s perhaps a sign of the changing of the guards in the post-TI roster shuffle period that we’re not predicting a straight 2-0 for Yandex," the preview said.

Prediction markets favor LGD over Yandex in their likely first-round matchup, the preview indicated, noting "a strong showing from LGD could flip the script, especially if they start playing more like a team than they currently have."

1w is considered an underdog against the veteran Eastern European squad of Aurora Gaming.

"We’d really like to say 1w Team can handle Aurora but we’ve not seen that kind of absolute capability from this team for almost a calendar year," the notes said.

It described 1w as "firmly a B+ player in the world of late 2026 Dota" and placed Aurora ahead of them.

The upper bracket of the playoffs is expected to feature a match between Yandex and PARIVISION.

"And even with the addition of ATF to that lineup, we’re inclined to believe that PARIVISION will come out on top," the preview concluded.

The event follows a GSL-style group stage that narrowed the field to eight teams.

BetBoom and Team Liquid were among the teams that failed to make the cut, with the notes suggesting "new rosters comes new uncertainty."