Team Yandex completed its stellar run through BLAST Slam VIII and took down Team Spirit 3-1 in the grand final on Sunday in Attard, Malta.
Team Yandex goes home with $270,000 of the $750,000 total prize pool. Their total is divided into $200,000 for the players’ share and $70,000 for team earnings.
Yandex went 2-0 to win Group C but took their only loss of the event when they fell 2-1 to Spirit in the seeding match. Yandex proceeded to start the playoff stage in the upper-bracket quarterfinals and tore through the bracket, blanking Spirit 2-0 in Saturday’s upper-bracket final before continuing to enjoy revenge when they met for a third time in the grand final.
Spirit opened with a 41-minute victory on Radiant, but Yandex answered with 53- and 48-minute wins on Dire. They closed out the tournament and clinched the title with a 57-minute win on Radiant.
Alimzhan “watson” Islambekov of Kazakhstan led the way for Yandex, totaling 50 kills, 12 deaths and 51 assists across the four maps.
Earlier in the day, Spirit overcame PARIVISION 2-1 in the lower-bracket final for the right to face Yandex.
PARIVISION struck first with a 38-minute win on Radiant, but Spirit triumphed in 40 minutes and 43 minutes on Dire. Ukraine’s Illya “Yatoro” Mulyarchuk finished with a 28-7-21 combined K-D-A to guide Spirit.
After the double-elimination group stage last week, the first-place teams in each group (PARIVISION, Aurora Gaming, Team Spirit and Team Yandex) advanced to the seeding matches, the second-place teams moved on to a last-chance round, and the other eight teams were eliminated. PARIVISION and Team Spirit won the seeding matches to grab the two first-round byes.
All matches in the double-elimination playoff bracket were best-of-three until the best-of-five grand final.
BLAST Slam VIII prize pool (player prize, team share):
1. $270,000 ($200,000, $70,000) — Team Yandex
2. $135,000 ($100,000, $35,000) — Team Spirit
3. $95,000 ($75,000, $20,000) — PARIVISION
4. $65,000 ($50,000, $15,000) — Aurora Gaming
5-6. $35,500 ($25,000, $10,500) — 1w Team, LGD Gaming
7-8. $20,000 ($12,500, $7,500) — GamerLegion, OG
9-12. $11,500 ($7,500, $4,000) — Xtreme Gaming, Team Nemesis, BetBoom Team, Team Liquid
13-16. $7,000 ($5,000, $2,000) — Level UP, Natus Vincere, MOUZ, Yakult Brothers
–Field Level Media
