Tundra Esports are back to back BLAST Slam Champions

Tundra Esports solidified their place as one of the best teams of the current season after securing the BLAST Slam III Championship title with another dominant performance.

Diamonds are made under pressure, and it seems that Tundra know everything about that, as they proved once again that they are the team that thrives the most when having to play in a merciless King of the Hill tournament format. Despite having to change their carry player between BLAST Slam II, which they won with Anton "dyrachyo" Shkredov, and BLAST Slam III, where they played with Remco "Crystallis" Arets, Tundra dominated from the group stage to the grand finals series.

Tundra got seeded straight into the playoff semifinals courtesy of their 3-1 group stage performance. But so did their grand finals adversaries, Team Falcons. Both teams had clean sweeps in the semifinals, making a clear case of why they are two of the best teams in the world. However, when pitted against each-other, Tundra seems to be one step above Falcons.

A one-sided affair

The best-of-five grand finals started with a brutal statement from Tundra, who dismantled Falcons in just 27 minutes. They had Crystallis preventing Ammar "ATF" Al-Assaf from doing what he likes the most, to bully the enemy carry out of the lane. More so, Crytallis did it with Razor, one of ATF’s signature heroes. Tundra ran a very aggressive line-up with Razor carry and Beastmaster in the mid lane to make sure they give no time to Falcons to adjust and drag the game to a late scenario.

Nonetheless, Falcons had their glimmer of hope in the second game of the night despite playing into the same Razor carry. They managed to stabilise the game by winning a couple of crucial tamfights past the 25-minute mark, but Tundra recognised their mistakes and played safe for the rest of the game. The battle went down for almost one hour with Tundra playing cautiously and very disciplined to make sure they take a two-game advantage in the bo5 grand finals.

Falcons avoided a clean sweep in game three with an overwhelmingly aggressive Nature’s Prophet-Ursa draft.

Furion got banned in the first phase of the draft in the next game, therefore, Falcons tried to play on the same aggressive stance with a different combo. They went for a Mirana Arrow set-up with Shadow Demon and a Tiny carry to destroy anyone who would get caught, but their plan was only good for the first 20 minutes. Tundra had Bozhidar "bzm" Bogdanov on his signature Invoker while Crystallis was able to carry them through the late game to win his first LAN tournament in the Tundra jersey.

BLAST Slam III marks Tundra’s third tournament win so far this year, while for Crystallis, this is the second LAN trophy, having claimed the ESL One Bangkok title with PARIVISION at the start of the season. Unfortunately for the Tundra fans, this was also the last time they got to see them in action before the pinnacle tournaments of the season. Tundra pulled out of the upcoming DreamLeague Season 26 to give time to their players to recharge their batteries and come in full swing at Esports World Cup and The International 2025.

What’s next?

With BLAST Slam III concluded, the Dota 2 action moves swiftly into FISSURE Universe Episode 5, an online tournament with $250,000 on the line taking place May 12-18 and the $1,000,000 DreamLeague Season 26 coming right after that, from May 19 to June 1.