Team Yandex and Aurora survive last chance qualifiers day at BLAST Slam VII

Six teams entered the battle for a spot in the LAN playoffs stage at BLAST Slam VII. These were the squads that finished in the middle of the pack during the best-of-one, round-robin group play.

Yandex and Liquid placed fifth and sixth in the group standings, earning them a skip to the second round of the last chance qualifier (LCQ) bracket. Even so, only Yandex advanced to the playoffs. They secured a clean 2-0 victory over Team Spirit with heavy push strategies built around Lone Druid, Nature's Prophet, and Invoker.

Ws steals the show with Axe

Aurora Gaming had a longer day in the LCQ, starting from the very first round of the bracket. They had to fight through Tundra Esports, who took the first game of the series. Aurora began their quest for a reverse sweep with a nearly perfect Alchemist performance from Egor "Nightfall" Grigorenko in game two.

While Nightfall remained strong throughout the day, it was Chung "Ws" Wei Shen who stole the show with his Axe in every match that followed. He locked in Axe for game three against Tundra, eliminating them from the tournament.

Moving into the next round, Ws was allowed to pick Axe in both games against Liquid and he made the European team pay dearly. He sealed Aurora's spot in the LAN playoffs with a Rampage, ending the day in spectacular fashion.

Team Liquid, Tundra Esports, Team Spirit, and OG were the four teams eliminated in the last chance qualifier bracket. For Spirit and OG, the next major battle will come at The International 2026 regional qualifiers, which begin in mid-June. Until then, BLAST Slam VII will resume with its LAN playoffs this coming Thursday, June 4th. The upper bracket quarterfinals are as follows:

• June 4, 11:00 CEST: Team Falcons vs. Team Yandex
• June 4, 14:30 CEST: BetBoom Team vs. Aurora Gaming

The winners will advance to the semifinals, where LGD Gaming and PARIVISION await. The losers will drop to the lower bracket.