Talon Esports and Yakult Brothers among BLAST Slam II team invites

BLAST has unveiled the teams invited to compete in the second edition of the BLAST Slam Dota 2 tournament series.

In total, 10 teams will head to Copenhagen, Denmark and compete for a share of a $1m (~£816,825) prize pool.

The most notable absence from the BLAST Slam II event is PGL Wallachia Season 1 champion Team Spirit. The 2021 and 2023 winners of The International finished the inaugural BLAST Slam event in last place.

Alongside Team Spirit, HEROIC and OG didn’t receive invitations to compete in the event, opening the door for three new teams to participate.

Filling the slots are Chinese team Yakult Brothers, Southeast Asian team Talon Esports, and UAE esports organisation Nigma Galaxy.

Returning for BLAST Slam II are Team Liquid, Team Falcons, Parivision, Xtreme Gaming, Gaimin Gladiators, Tundra Esports and BLAST Slam I winners BetBoom Team.

BLAST Slam II is the second Dota 2 event of the tournament circuit that was first unveiled in May 2024. BLAST also operates notable events in Fortnite, Rainbow Six Siege and Counter-Strike 2.

Taking place from February 3rd to 9th, 2025, the BLAST Slam II is split into a group stage and the playoffs.

The 10 teams are split into two groups of five where they’ll play best-of-one (BO1), round-robin matches to earn seeding points.

The top seeds advance to the semi-finals, the second seeds qualify for the quarter-finals, the third seeds play in round two. The fourth and fifth seeds are placed in round one.

The playoffs feature a single-elimination bracket where the majority of matches are best-of-three (BO3). The Grand Final is a best-of-five (BO5) match.

The $1m prize pool is split across all ten teams as follows: