OG eliminated BetBoom Team from BLAST SLAM 8, winning the group stage's decider series 2-1 after dropping the opening game. Esports.gg reported the reverse sweep ended BetBoom's tournament.
OG reached the decider from a survival series against MOUZ, which they won to earn another meeting with BetBoom. BetBoom arrived there after a heavy defeat to Team Yandex, the PGL Wallachia Season 9 champions, which left a win over OG as their only route to the playoffs' last chance round. BetBoom had taken the two teams' first meeting at the event, in a series narrowly decided in their favor.
A Sven answered the Lone Druid
Game 1 followed BetBoom's established pattern. They moved into a gold lead in the late game and neutralized Topias "Topson" Taavitsainen's unconventional Troll mid with an Enigma, then looked to close the series behind Ilya "Kiritych" Ulyanov's Lone Druid, a pick that had overpowered OG at previous tournaments.
OG's answer was to put John "Natsumi-" Vargas on Sven. Natsumi- played the carry role dominantly in game 2 and dismantled the Lone Druid. Game 3 went the same way: BetBoom's cores failed to scale against the Sven, and the Southeast Asian player killed them in a few hits using a Daedalus-amplified God's Strength.
Both rosters had changed in the weeks after The International 2026. BetBoom replaced Danil "gpk" Skutin with position four player Vitalie "Save-" Melnic and added Georgii "swedenstrong" Zainalabidov in Save-'s former role. OG rebuilt more extensively, bringing back Topson and recruiting Ivan "OneJey" Zhivitsky and Valery "SSS" Lazarev.
The group stage claimed several favorites
The defeat put BetBoom out of BLAST SLAM 8, and the win placed OG in a best-of-three against 1w Team for a playoff slot. The tournament's group stage ran in groups of four with only two teams advancing, leaving little room for dropped series.
Other established teams also failed to get through. Team Liquid and Xtreme Gaming finished near the bottom of their groups in 9th-12th place, and Natus Vincere exited the group stage despite having reached the grand final at PGL Wallachia Season 9.
PARIVISION, Team Spirit, Team Yandex and Aurora Gaming all reached the playoffs, each winning every series in their group. Esports.gg reported the four were scheduled to meet on October 3, with playoff seeding and upper-bracket positions to be decided.
