BLAST Slam VI Team Liquid Defeat NAVI 3 1 and What the New 2026 Format Means for Dota 2

The Team Liquid team has officially written its name into history, becoming the victor of BLAST Slam VI after a strong confrontation with Natus Vincere (NAVI). The final battle ended 3-1, and it was, frankly, powerful. Thanks to this victory, the “Liquid” hit the main jackpot of the total prize pool of 1,000,000 dollars, which is about 760,000 pounds, if you count the exchange rate. The Dota 2 tournament, in truth, turned out to be extremely unpredictable.

Team Liquid’s Path to Victory at BLAST Slam VI

The beginning of the journey for Team Liquid, by the way, did not look like an easy walk. They finished the group stage in third place with a score of 7-4. At the same time, NAVI, admittedly, dominated and reached the playoffs directly from the first place.

Further — more. In the Play-In Liquid stage, GamerLegion was literally run over with a score of 2-0. Curiously, it was at this stage that Tundra Esports left the tournament — the winners of the last four BLAST Slam events shamefully flew out of HEROIC, losing 0-2.

In the quarterfinals, the “Liquid” faced a bigger test — the current champions of The International 2025 from Team Falcons. The matches were so intense that the fate of the slot was decided only on the fifth card — the victory of Liquid with a score of 3-2. In the semifinals, the team, apparently, caught incredible courage and blew away OG Esports (3-0). NAVI, in turn, made it to the finals through a difficult series with Team Yandex, which ended with a score of 3-2.

The decisive match began with the dominance of Liquid. Although NAVI, to their credit, snapped at the second map, which dragged on for more than an hour. As a result, Team Liquid apparently proved to be more resilient and took the next two cards, putting a bold dot in the championship.

Grand Final BLAST Slam VI Liquid vs NAVI series review

The final episode between Team Liquid and Natus Vincere turned into a real digital thriller, where, frankly, the nerves of the fans were on edge until the last second. The battle in the Bo5 format ended with the triumph of the “Liquid” with a score of 3:2, while the path to the championship, in truth, resembled a roller coaster with wild comebacks and fatal mistakes.

Map 1: Total control of Liquid

Liquid opened the account boldly and confidently. The key moment happened in the 18th minute in Roshan’s lair. After a fierce fight, they literally erased the NAVI five from the map, took Aegis and began methodically strangling the opponent along all lines. By the 32nd minute, the Ukrainian team had thrown out a white flag — the middleman Nisha on his hero simply left no chance for the NAVI defense, while Mickey on Razor dominated on a planetary scale.

The peaks were indicative: Liquid took Razor, Templar Assassin (Gotthejuice) and a powerful sidelane with Ember Spirit — pure aggression. NAVI, however, apparently did not find an adequate response and suffered from a lack of control. This map, in fact, set the pace for the entire series.

Map 2: Madness for 64 minutes

It was the best performance of the tournament, according to analysts and commentator Adekvat. Pure action. Liquid won back the 10,000 gold gap twice, fighting against megacrips. In the final batch, an incredible moment happened: Mick’s clutch Lotus Orb deflected the lasso of the enemy Ringmaster. Nevertheless, without a buyback, everything fell apart on Nisha — NAVI won the throne and equalized the score. 1:1, and this, in general, showed the steely character of the “Born to win.”

Map 3: The retaliatory strike of the “Liquid”

Liquid regained their advantage by betting on dominance in the mid-game. While NAVI was frantically trying to farm, the combination of Boxi and iNSaNiA was literally tearing the map to pieces. The high-level fights ended with a full vape — NAVI simply did not have enough vision review and control. The score was 2-1, and the KDA stats of Mick and Nisha looked, frankly, frighteningly perfect.

Map 4: NAVI clinging to a chance

The Ukrainians were not going to give up and took the fourth card on a competent counterpick. The bet on teamfight with Ember Spirit and Ringmaster worked with a bang. Liquid lost momentum due to several annoying feeds, and NAVI, along the way, competently realized the advantage in runes. 2:2 — the series has moved into a crucial stage, where the cost of error has skyrocketed.

Map 5: The Final Chord and Triumph

The decisive round was the benefit of Liquid analytics. After the 20th minute, the pressure became unbearable. Despite the fact that NAVI tried to put pressure on megacrips again, Nisha’s triplekill put an end to their hopes. Liquid are the BLAST Slam VI champions, taking away $1,000,000 in prize money. The meta with Sniper and Tinker in their performance, apparently, turned out to be invincible.

And here lies the main intrigue for future seasons.

New BLAST Slam 2026 format and tournament system

After the fanfare of BLAST Slam VI died down, the organizers of BLAST hurried to roll out an announcement of the upcoming changes. The seventh event, in fact, will be hosted by Copenhagen — Denmark is waiting for guests from May 26 to June 7.

This is where the fun begins. BLAST decided to completely redesign the format, which will become the base for all future events. This is actually not their first experiment with Dota 2. Last June, the rules were also changed, but now everything is on a larger scale.

What awaits us in 2026:

1. Remote start. The first week will be held online — twelve teams will compete in a round Robin system in the bo1 format.
2. Last chance qualification. The top 4 teams advance to the playoffs, while those ranked 5th through 10th go to the LCQ meat grinder.
3. Complex LCQ grid. There are four “last chance” games planned in total. First, the 7-10 and 8-9 pairs will compete in the bo2 format, and then the winners will meet with the 5th and 6th places for the right to advance to the main stage.
4. The studio finale. The second week is a clean LAN at BLAST Studios. The Double Elimination system, where matches go up to two wins (bo3), and the finals go up to three (bo5).

Open qualifiers for the seventh season will start on March 30-31. The closed selections will be held on April 2-3. Apparently, the fight for slots will be life and death.