Wishing for an upset: Will MOUZ and Aurora shake up the BLAST Slam IV playoffs?

BLAST Slam IV has finally reached the playoffs stage, and we are once again in for a real treat.

The one-million-dollar tournament began on October 14th, as it had to push its first two stages earlier than initially announced due to a schedule conflict with FISSURE PLAYGROUND 2. Yes, over the past couple of weeks, there were two tier one tournaments taking turns. BLAST Slam IV was setting up the stage for the playoffs in Singapore, while FISSURE PLAYGROUND 2 had almost the exact same teams competing on LAN in Serbia. That forced BLAST to also hold the first two stages of the competition online.

The elite six: Falcons and Tundra secure semifinal seeds

A total of 12 teams entered the battle at BLAST Slam IV, but only six remained after the group stage and play-in matches. Team Falcons, who arrived in Singapore as fresh champions of FISSURE PLAYGROUND 2, and Tundra Esports made a remarkable run through the BLAST Slam IV group stage, finishing top 2 with a tied 9-2 game record. That awarded them a seed straight into the playoffs semi-finals. Moreover, they have also secured a direct invite to BLAST Slam VI, which is scheduled to unfold early next year.

Falcons and Tundra will step onto the Singapore Indoor Stadium stage on Saturday, November 8. The playoffs, however, begin on Friday, with the quarterfinals.

Quarterfinals preview: The “home crowd” factor

MOUZ versus Team Spirit will kick off the playoffs at 08:00 CET/15:00 PST with a best-of-three series with elimination on the line, as the playoffs are held in a single-elimination bracket. It’s a particularly interesting series to watch, as MOUZ managed to deliver quite the upset last week at FISSURE when they sent Team Falcons to the lower bracket. They also already hold a 1-0 victory over Team Spirit from the BLAST Slam IV group stage. That was the only encounter MOUZ and Spirit had so far this season. The quarterfinals at BLAST Slam IV will mark their first battle in a bo3 series, and it will be interesting to see how they really match up. The winner will face Tundra in the semifinals, a team that neither MOUZ nor Spirit has defeated this season.

The other quarterfinal scheduled on the first day of the playoffs is Aurora Gaming versus HEROIC. These two teams have already faced each other twice this season, with HEROIC holding a 100% win rate. The South American outfit bested Aurora 2-0 at FISSURE Universe: Episode 7 and 1-0 in the BLAST Slam IV group stage.

It is worth noting that all these matches were held online, whereas the BLAST quarterfinals will be played on Friday evening local time, on stage, with a live audience. HEROIC might be a team that thrives when playing in a packed stadium, but this time, Aurora is likely to be the crowd favourite as they step onto the Singapore Indoor Stadium stage with two Southeast Asian players on their roster.

Aurora Gaming and MOUZ are the only teams in the playoffs stage that have SEA representatives on their rosters. That alone might give them a sense of home soil advantage in Singapore, although neither of them is representing the region. If Aurora manage to put a stop to HEROIC’s win streak, they will be facing Falcons in the semifinals. That’s an uphill battle for sure, but in Dota, everything is possible, so make sure to tune in starting Friday, November 7, to catch all the action live with rdy.gg.