While the BLAST Slam V qualifiers are going on, the BLAST Slam IV teams take a break before the start of the play-offs, where they can qualify for BLAST Slam VI. Yes, all these numbers are correct.
It’s the first Tier 1 tournament after The International 2025, but BLAST Slam IV took place in two phases. First, the 12 teams played a full round of best-of-one (Bo1) matches against each other to decide the general seeding. Then, the best-of-three (Bo3) round of play-ins took off, where four teams had the chance to advance further in the tournament. And, after a week of playing, four teams were eliminated.
Then why did they take a three-week break? And why did the FISSURE Playground 2 start with the same teams if the other tournament isn't over? Let's address the elephant in the room.
After the 2024 season, multiple tournament operator announced their roadmap for 2025-2026. However, they made this without a clear idea of each other's schedules. To work around this, some online tournaments now overlap with others, allowing them to take advantage of players camping at common grounds.
Although BLAST Slam IV is an offline tournament taking place in Singapore, it features an online group stage. This allows most teams playing the FISSURE Playground 2 in Belgrade to participate without missing any games.
However, two Tier 1 tournaments happening at the same time is confusing for the viewers, and it's easy to feel overwhelmed with so many games. When the 2025 season ends, we hope that the tournament operators fix their schedules for spectators to have time to watch every important event, and for players to take a break before they burn out.
BLAST Slam IV format and seeding
Just like every other edition of this tournament, teams play a massive Bo1 round in the group stage to determine their seeding during play-offs.
- Top two teams immediately qualify for the semifinals
- The remaining teams go through a play-in phase
- The four winning teams advance to the quarterfinals
BLAST Slam IV event has two more teams compared to the last edition. However, the play-offs stage is considerably shorter, with only six teams advancing. The previous season had the full list of 10 teams playing.
The top four teams also qualify for BLAST Slam VI, since most of them are already invited to BLAST Slam V.
Play-offs schedule
The following games are in Pacific Time (PT)
Quarterfinals
- Nov. 6 | 11:30 p.m. - MOUZ vs Team Spirit
- Nov. 7 | 3 a.m. - Aurora vs HEROIC
Semifinals
- Nov. 7 | 11:30 p.m. - Tundra vs TBD
- Nov. 8 | 3 a.m. - Falcons vs TBD
Grand Final
- Nov. 8 | 11:30 p.m. - TBD
Prize pool distribution
The BLAST Slam IV event's millionaire prize pool is distributed as follows:
- $750,000 for the teams playing
- $250,000 for the organizations
Placement Prize money Team earnings Team(s) | 1st $300,000 $100,000 TBD | 2nd $150,000 $50,000 TBD | 3rd-4th $60,000 $20,000 TBD, TBD | 5th-6th $35,000 $15,000 TBD, TBD | 7th-8th $30,000 $7,500 Aureus, Na'Vi | 9th-10th $25,000 $5,000 BB Team, Liquid | 11th-12th $10,000 $2,500 Yakult, Execration |
While we wait for BLAST Slam IV to develop, check out our Dota 2 section for more news on the other tournaments happening at the same time!
