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BLAST Slam VI takeaways – How BLAST can perfect their Slam Dota 2 events?

Dota 2 and Gaming Editor

Publish Date: February 17, 2026

BLAST Slam VI was a great way to fully kick off the 2026 Dota calendar with star-studded top-flight tournament with twists, turns, and a dramatic conclusion. But after the dust has settled, what can be learned from BLAST Slam VI?

We’ve spent some time looking at the BLAST Slam VI format, the matches, the teams, and broadcast, and we’re weighing in on what we loved about the tournament and what we loathed. Here’s our thoughts on how BLAST can perfect their Slam events in the future.

Image Credit: BLAST

How BLAST can perfect their Slam Dota 2 events

Here’s some of our observations on BLAST Slam VI and what we’d like to see in the future.

What worked

Quick format: With just six game days over a 10-day period, BLAST Slam VI had the perfect combination of event length and action. Focusing on weekends, and prioritising the playoffs meant this tournament was a breeze to watch, even for casual viewers.

Best-of-Fives in Playoffs: Best-of-five series are truly the best type of Dota, but usually we have to wait until the Grand Finals of events to see them. For BLAST Slam IV, every single Playoff game was a best of three, and that meant hype, nail-biting series like the Team Falcons/Team Liquid five-game classic, and NAVI vs. Yandex. We want to see this more
Finals Day meant Finals Day: On Sunday, Feb 15, there was one game: The Grand Finals. And that meant we didn’t have to wait through the lower bracket, or give the upper bracket winner a full day of rest and prep. It meant a fairer final, and one that wrapped up in time for viewers to still relax on a Sunday evening.

What didn’t work

Playoff Byes: Thanks to the unusual Neustadtl tiebreaker rules, we had four teams with the same record, but with Natus Vincere and OG advancing straight to playoffs thanks to head-to-head results. That meant OG and NAVI had almost a week off playing, and both were promptly beaten by Team Liquid. While NAVI had a great game against Yandex, we think we’d like to have seen either team play some more games, and be tested earlier. We’d like to see a different bracket seeding format or this format changed.

Best-of-ones in Groups: Part of the problem with the above was the best-of-ones in the Group Stage. There were some questionable losses (such as Team Falcons managing to lose to Gamer Legion), and it meant almost all the teams had very similar records. It’s hard to judge the quality of a team from a single game, and it made the Group Stage feel high-stakes but also an absolute coin flip. Let’s get rid of the BO1s.

Timing/Dates: Picking Valentine’s weekend for your tournament is always going to hurt viewership, especially when you’re expecting fans to fly to travel to Malta for the finals. Dota fans aren’t the stereotypical ‘forever alone’ basement dwellers they’re often portrayed as, and we’re sure plenty missed out on watching this event because they had other plans. Avoid major holidays, especially ones where people traditionally spend time with family or significant others.

That said, it’s perhaps too late to implement these changes for BLAST Slam VII, which was announced on Feb. 15 alongside the Grand Finals.

Image Credit: BLAST

Changes to come in BLAST Slam VII

With some changes to the qualifiers, a changed format, BLAST Slam VII heads to Copenhagen this May and June. Here’s what’s new:

Open qualifiers from March 30-31
Closed qualifiers with 8 teams
- 2 Slots for Europe, 1 slot for SEA, 1 slot for China
Additionally: Double Elimination Playoffs
More matches, +38 games and more potential hours of gameplay

Ultimately, these changes to format seem good, but they throw out the window many of the things we liked about BLAST Slam VI. The shorter event, the more focus on Playoffs, and likely, the single game on the final day. We’d really like to see a mid-point between both formats