BLAST Slam VIII: Yandex Reverse Sweep Into Upper Final

Team Yandex are one win away from a grand final spot at BLAST Slam VIII. They got there the hard way.

The squad came back from a game down to beat PARIVISION 2-1 in the upper-bracket semifinals. That made them the first team to lock in a place in the upper-bracket final. The result also guarantees Yandex at least a Top 3 finish, US$135,000 in prize money and a day off while the rest of the bracket sorts itself out.

Two Series, Two Deciders

Nothing about Yandex's playoff run has been comfortable. According to GosuGamers, the team opened against LGD Gaming in the upper-bracket quarterfinals and looked set to move on until LGD took game two and dragged the series into a decider. Yandex settled it in 31 minutes. CHIRA_JUNIOR finished that game with eight kills and eight assists on Earth Spirit, while Watson put up 10 kills and four assists on Templar Assassin.

The PARIVISION series was a different kind of test, and a longer one. The first game ran 55 minutes and went to PARIVISION. Yandex hit back to level the series just short of the 52-minute mark. The decider then stretched to 63 minutes before Yandex closed out the reverse sweep. Not a single game in the series finished in under 51 minutes.

Watson was the standout in that final game, going 21 kills and 15 assists with only two deaths. CHIRA_JUNIOR was close behind on the assist charts with 12 kills and 27 assists. ATF added 11 kills and 23 assists. Between them, that trio kept PARIVISION out of the upper-bracket final.

Bouncing Back From Spirit

Context matters here. Yandex went into the playoffs off the back of a loss to Team Spirit in the seeding matches. Two series wins in a row since then make that defeat look like a speed bump rather than a warning sign. It is a quick turnaround, and it has put the team on the most direct road to the title.

How the Bracket Looks Now

On the other side of the upper bracket, Aurora Gaming swept 1W Team 2-0 in their quarterfinal. A clean sweep does not mean a quick one, though. The series took 131 minutes in total, and the opening game alone lasted 77 minutes.

Aurora now meet Team Spirit in the second upper-bracket semifinal. Whoever wins that match faces Yandex for a place in the grand final. Whoever loses drops down and takes on LGD Gaming in the lower-bracket quarterfinals.

The other lower-bracket quarterfinal is already locked in: PARIVISION against 1W Team. Fans who followed the group stage will remember that both LGD and 1W only scraped into the playoffs in the first place. Now they, along with PARIVISION, get one more shot at staying alive. Yandex, meanwhile, can rest knowing a podium finish is already secured.

Our Take

The obvious headline is that Yandex are winning. The more interesting detail is how. Both playoff series went the full three games, and the PARIVISION match was a marathon of games that never dipped below 51 minutes. That suggests Yandex are comfortable grinding out long, messy Dota 2 games instead of relying on fast snowballs, and that is a useful trait deep in a tournament.

It also matters that Watson and CHIRA_JUNIOR showed up in both deciders. A team that can lean on more than one player when things get tight tends to be harder to break.

The thing worth watching is the potential rematch. If Team Spirit beat Aurora, Yandex get an immediate chance to settle the score from the seeding loss, with a grand final spot on the line. If Aurora advance, Yandex face a side that has already shown it can win long games too. Either way, the extra rest day could prove valuable for a roster that has played a lot of Dota in a short space of time.