Team Yandex will face off against Heroic in the BLAST Slam playoffs today. Even though these two teams aren’t the biggest names in the scene, we’ll definitely be treated with a good match considering how well Heroic’s newest recruit has been playing. Here are our Team Yandex vs HEROIC predictions and betting preview for this BLAST Slam playoffs match.
Heroic went into 2026 with a huge roster crisis. They were forced to let go of Elvis “Scofield” Peña, who was arguably their best player, and Adrián “Wisper” Dobles had to switch back to the offlane after playing mid for a while.
These roster issues might have been a blessing in disguise, as the team secured prodigy Santiago “TaiLung” Agüero Gustavo. TaiLung has been destroying other mid laners throughout the group stage.
Image: Heroic via X (@heroicdota2)
TaiLung played a key role in Heroic’s play-in victory against Tundra Esports – the team that won four BLAST Slam titles in a row. Across the Best-of-3 series, TaiLung only died once, going 12/1/11 and 18/0/5 to eliminate the defending champions.
Heading into the playoffs, TaiLung is now Heroic’s secret weapon, though all the attention he’s brought doesn’t necessarily make him a “secret” anymore.
Read also: Blast Slam VI betting preview
Team Yandex have become one of the most consistent teams in the scene since Martin “Saksa” Sazdov joined the team. They regularly made deep runs at S-tier events, even winning DreamLeague Season 27 to bag their first trophy.
Photo: BLAST
There is however one important detail going into this series against Heroic. Offlaner Evgeniy “Noticed” Ignatenko will miss the event due to visa issues and will be replaced by Abdimalik “Malik” Sailau. Noticed has been playing extremely well throughout the group stage, so his absence is a huge blow for Yandex.
Still, Malik is no slouch. He’s played for top teams such as Team Spirit and PSG Quest, and is still a very reliable player.
On paper, Yandex would be the obvious choice. We’re having second thoughts with the stand-in situation and how well TaiLung has been playing.
TaiLung has clearly exceeded expectations, and it’s fair to say that several teams may have underestimated him or simply didn’t have enough time to prepare. His group stage performances have certainly put a target on his back, and teams like Yandex are definitely going to be prepared for his hero pool.
That said, the stand-in situation still makes this series closer than we initially anticipated. Even so, we believe Yandex have enough structure and experience to take the series. There’s also a chance TaiLung cracks under pressure in a LAN environment, given his limited experience at these events.
We’ll be backing Yandex to win the series. But if you’re looking for Dota 2 betting value elsewhere, keep an eye on maps duration. Heroic love dragging games out, and Yandex typically don’t mind going late either. We believe over map duration bets are worth monitoring depending on how the drafts go.
Our predictions:
Odds courtesy of GG.Bet. Read our GG.Bet review for more info.
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Featured image: BLAST
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