Move aside, Team Spirit, there’s a new Eastern European powerhouse in town and it’s none other than BetBoom Team, who are making headlines after winning the BLAST Slam 1.
BetBoom Team wins BLAST Slam 1 Dota 2 (Image credit: BLAST Slam)
BetBoom Team wins BLAST Slam 1
Despite being one of the most promising Dota 2 teams this season, BetBoom has always finished third or second at best. Hence, this is a new record for BetBoom as far as accomplishments go, and very similar to Team Liquid breaking their own second-place curse at The International 2024.
Mind you, the BLAST Slam 1 featured no shortage of challenging rivals, featuring Team Falcons, Team Liquid, Gaimin Gladiators, Xtreme Gaming, Tundra Esports, and even PARIVISION, the rising stars in the EEU region since the post-TI13 roster shuffle.
Recap on grand finals between BetBoom Team and Tundra Esports
BLAST Slam 1’s group stage featured a King of the Hill placement format that seeded BetBoom in the Semifinals after they placed top in their group. With a short run in the bracket, the squad defeated PARIVISION, to face Tundra Esports in the Grand Finals.
The first game kicked off with BetBoom taking an all-rounder draft, featuring a hard carry Drow Ranger, with multiple teamfight-oriented picks. Heroes like Magnus and Pangolier offered counterplay in team fights, while Tundra was afraid to commit too heavily into any clash. This led to a relatively passive Game One, which eventually snowballed exponentially with the space Drow Ranger had created.
In Game Two, we saw BetBoom spice up their drafts with unusual picks across every position. The draft was so unorthodox that it was a surprise they managed to barely lose this round the game. But BetBoom stopped fooling around in Game Three and Four, with the more standard Alchemist and Morphling picks for Ivan “Pure” Moskalenko. The team played around the hard carry player, with Danil “gpk” Skutin offering some surprise picks in mid, such as Earth Spirit, that seemed to catch Tundra off-guard.
Wwe can’t believe Vitalie “Save-” Melnic got away with his pos-4 support Muerta in all three rounds. We have discussed about how powerful support Muerta is since DreamLeague S24 and BetBoom Dacha Belgrade 2024 meta, so Tundra clearly underestimated her potential here. That said, the hero had a dismal win-rate earlier in BLAST Slam 1.
“I hope to finally win something” -Pure
Overall, it was absolute cinema in the grand finals. We have to give a huge shout-out to Pure for his phenomenal yet consistent performance as BetBoom’s hard carry player.
Ivan “Pure” Moskalenko after winning BLAST Slam 1 (Image credit: BLAST Slam)
In a previous interview, Pure shared, “I hope to finally win something.” So this is truly a celebration for Pure and BetBoom Team for finally achieving this. Pure may not have the greatest reputation in Dota 2 Esports since the numerous incidents he was involved in. Nonetheless, this doesn’t change the fact that he always wants to win with his team, regardless of how toxic he is. The same can’t be said for David “Parker” Nicho Flores, former HEROIC hard carry player who has recently been kicked.
With BetBoom joining the ranks of championship winners, even Team Falcons, the two-time champions themselves, felt the heat of these rising rivals in the upcoming Dota 2 tournaments.