(Photo credit: Shawn Dowd/Rochester Democrat and Chronicle / USA TODAY NETWORK)
Team Yandex downed BetBoom Team to advance to Sunday's grand final at the BLAST Slam VII playoffs in Copenhagen, Denmark.BetBoom Team, after losing 2-1 in the upper-bracket final on Saturday, can earn another shot at Team Yandex and the $300,000 top prize if they can get past LGD Gaming in the lower-bracket final earlier Sunday. LGD Gaming eliminated Aurora Gaming 2-1 in the lower-bracket semifinal on Saturday.
The $1 million event began with a 12-team group stage last month. Group play was a round-robin, best-of-one format. The top two teams advanced to the upper-bracket semifinals of the playoffs, while the third- and fourth-place teams started in the upper-bracket quarters.
The fifth- and sixth-place teams proceeded to Round 2 of the last-chance qualifier, while teams 7-10 in the standings began in Round 1 of that stage. The bottom two teams were eliminated.
On Saturday, Team Yandex dropped the opening match of the upper-bracket final in 30 minutes to BetBoom Team, which was on green. Yandex drew even with a victory in 42 minutes on green, then closed out the match with a 64-minute triumph on red.
Alimzhan 'watson' Islambekov of Kazakhstan had a 20-2-10 kill-death-assist ratio to lead Team Yandex in the second game, as well as pacing the team with a 10-3-9 K-D-A in the decisive third game. Danil 'gpk' Skutin of Russia led BetBoom with a 12-2-11 K-D-A in the first game.
LGD Gaming followed a similar pattern in the lower-bracket semifinal, losing the first game in 51 minutes to Aurora Gaming, which was on red. LGD rallied with 50-minute victory on red, and a marathon 111-minute win, also on red.
Yuma 'Yuma' Langlet -- who is from Nicaragua, resides in Germany and has competed for Belgium -- led LGD in Game 2 with a 20-2-13 K-D-A. Langlet also came up big in the third game with a 13-13-26 K-D-A.
Egor 'Nightfall' Grigorenko of Russia posted a 14-0-13 K-D-A in Game 1 for Aurora Gaming, and teammate Rafli 'Mikoto' Fathur Rahman of Indonesia had a 15-1-25 ratio.
Sunday's schedule
Lower-bracket final: BetBoom Team vs. LGD Gaming
Grand final: Winner vs. Team Yandex
BLAST Slam VII payouts (prize money, team earnings)
1. $300,000, $100,000
2. $150,000, $45,000
3. $70,000, $23,000
4. $50,000, $17,000 - Aurora Gaming
5-6. $40,000, $15,000 -- Team Falcons, Team Liquid
7-8. $25,000, $10,000 -- Team Spirit, PARIVISION
9-10. $15,000, $5,000 -- OG, Tundra Esports
11-12. $10,000, $2,500 -- Xtreme Gaming, GLYPH
--Field Level Media
