Tournament organizer BLAST has officially announced BLAST Slam VIII for Dota 2, which will take place in October 2026. Details about the event were published on the tournament operator's official website.
The tournament will feature 16 teams, up from previous editions. The online stage has been completely revamped and will now be played entirely in a best-of-three (BO3) format, while the playoffs will be held on LAN in Malta. The total prize pool is $750,000.
Slot distribution
Open qualifiers will be held on August 26–27, followed by closed qualifiers on August 29–30, where the top eight teams from each region will compete for places in the main event.
The online stage will run from September 29 to October 3 on European servers. The biggest format change is the complete removal of best-of-one (BO1) matches. Every series will now be played as a best-of-three (BO3), with two matches running simultaneously.
All 16 teams will be divided into four GSL groups. At the end of the group stage, the top six teams will advance.
Group winners will compete in seeding matches. The two winners will advance directly to the upper-bracket semifinals of the LAN Finals, while the two losing teams will begin in the quarterfinals.
The teams that finish second in their groups will enter the Last Chance Stage, where they will battle for the final two quarterfinal spots.
The top six teams will travel to Malta, where the LAN Finals will be held at BLAST Arena Studios from October 8–11. The final stage will be played in front of a live audience.
As a reminder, Valve recently released a small update for Dota 2, focusing on bug fixes for both the game and the Dark Carnival event.
