BLAST has locked in the rest of its 2026 Dota 2 calendar. The organiser confirmed on 6 August that the BLAST SLAM qualifiers for both SLAM VIII and SLAM IX will run through late August and September, with Europe, Southeast Asia and China each getting their own path to the main event.

The announcement follows SLAM VII, where Team Yandex beat LGD Gaming in the final and took home $400,000. Qualified teams now have three weeks to prepare before the first open bracket opens.

When Do the BLAST SLAM VIII Qualifiers Start?

Open qualifiers for SLAM VIII run on 26 and 27 August across all three regions. Closed qualifiers follow on 29 and 30 August.

BLAST is running two open qualifiers per region in single elimination. Eight teams from each region then advance into the closed bracket, which is also single elimination.

Four spots are available through this route:

• Europe: 2 places
• China: 1 place
• Southeast Asia: 1 place

The rest of the field arrives by invitation. BLAST sent direct invites to main event teams on 4 August, with 11 general invites plus a dedicated Americas invite. Roster lock lands on 14 September.

When Do the BLAST SLAM IX Qualifiers Start?

SLAM IX splits its schedule by region, which is new. Europe and Southeast Asia go first with open qualifiers on 9 and 10 September, followed by closed qualifiers on 12 and 13 September.

China runs a week later. Open qualifiers there take place on 17 and 18 September, with closed qualifiers on 19 and 20 September.

BLAST has not published the SLAM IX format or prize pool yet, so treat the qualifier dates as the only confirmed detail for now.

All BLAST SLAM qualifier dates

Tournament	Region	Open qualifiers	Closed qualifiers
SLAM VIII	EU / SEA / CN	26 to 27 August	29 to 30 August
SLAM IX	EU / SEA	9 to 10 September	12 to 13 September
SLAM IX	CN	17 to 18 September	19 to 20 September

What Changed in the SLAM VIII Format?

This is the biggest structural change BLAST has made to the series. The field grows from 12 teams to 16, and best-of-one series are gone from the online stage entirely.

The group stage runs online from 29 September to 3 October, using four GSL groups of four teams on European servers. Every series is a best-of-three, and BLAST is running a dual stream so viewers can follow more than one group at a time.

Progression works differently too. The four group winners play seeding matches, and the two winners of those matches go straight to the upper bracket semi-finals at the LAN. The two teams that lose their seeding match drop to the quarter-finals. Meanwhile the four second-place teams fight through a Last Chance stage, with two of them claiming the final quarter-final spots.

Where Are the SLAM VIII Finals?

Six teams travel to BLAST Arena Studios in Malta for the LAN Finals, running 8 to 11 October in front of a live crowd. The bracket is six-team double elimination, the top two seeds start in the upper bracket semi-finals, and the event closes with a best-of-five grand final on the Sunday.

The combined prize pool sits at $750,000, split into $550,000 in prize money and $200,000 in team earnings.

Why Do These Dates Matter?

Timing is the story here. The qualifiers sit between the Esports World Cup and The International 2026, so rosters that missed a direct invite have a narrow window to build form. For teams outside the invited 12, open qualifiers on 26 August are the first real chance to reach a $750,000 event this autumn.

Follow the rest of our Dota 2 coverage on the Dota 2 news hub, and check the BLAST SLAM VIII tournament page for bracket updates as teams lock in.