BLAST Slam V, hosted in Chengdu, China, has become the first LAN held in the country to feature no Chinese teams or players on the mainstage.
Organized by BLAST and Chengdu Radio & Television, When BLAST Slam V kicks off its playoffs on Friday, Dec. 5, at the Wuliangye Culture & Sports Center in Chengdu, China, it will feature no Chinese teams.
China was initially represented by four teams and 17 individual players, with Xtreme Gaming, Team Tidebound, Yakult Brothers, and Terlaments all in attendance. Legends like Wang “Ame” Chunyu, Zhou “Emo” Yi, and Xu “fy” Linsen, all failed to make the grade and head to the LAN portion of the event.
All four Chinese teams found themselves in the Play-in portion of the tournament, having failed to secure high results in the round-robin group stage. Team Tidebound were knocked out by NAVI 0-2, while Yakult Bros. found themselves eliminated by PGL Wallachia Season 6 winners MOUZ.
Finally, after eliminating Tearlaments, Xtreme Gaming would fall to Team Yandex, leaving every single one of China’s representatives absent for the playoffs.
This is seemingly the first time in Dota 2 history that a Chinese LAN competition has featured no Chinese players during its arena matches. Despite 17 players hailing from China taking part in the event.
It’s a far cry from just a few months ago at Clavision Masters 2025: Snow-Ruyi, another China-hosted LAN, that saw both Extreme Gaming and Team Tidebound in the final days of the event, with Tidebound eventually taking the win. Chinese teams have traditionally performed very well with home advantage, but that just hasn’t been the case at BLAST Slam V.
Perhaps end of year fatigue has affected these teams. After all, it’s been almost non-stop for the past several months for many organizations at the top rung of Dota 2.
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Featured Image Credit: BLAST
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