BLAST Slam IV: Last Chance Playoff & Play-In (October 19) Matches Discussions
BLAST Slam IV: Last Chance Playoff & Play-In (October 19), all matches are Bo3
Coverage: Liquipedia | GosuGamers | BLAST.tv
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
\~ Starting time - 13:00 CEST / 19:00 SGT / 07:00 EDT (Rolling Schedule)
# Last Chance Playoffs
|Team A|vs|Team B|
|:-|:-|:-|
|Team Liquid|\-|Yakult Brothers|
|BetBoom Team|\-|Execration|
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
# Play-In
|Team A|vs|Team B|
|:-|:-|:-|
|MOUZ|\-|Team Aureus|
|Aurora Gaming|\-|Natus Vincere|
|HEROIC|\-|Liquid/Yakult|
|Team Spirit|\-|BB/Xctn|
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
# Streams
Twitch: Primary | Second
Kick: Primary | Second
YouTube
https://redd.it/1oads4r
@r_dota2
BLAST Slam IV: Last Chance Playoff & Play-In (October 19), all matches are Bo3
Coverage: Liquipedia | GosuGamers | BLAST.tv
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
\~ Starting time - 13:00 CEST / 19:00 SGT / 07:00 EDT (Rolling Schedule)
# Last Chance Playoffs
|Team A|vs|Team B|
|:-|:-|:-|
|Team Liquid|\-|Yakult Brothers|
|BetBoom Team|\-|Execration|
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
# Play-In
|Team A|vs|Team B|
|:-|:-|:-|
|MOUZ|\-|Team Aureus|
|Aurora Gaming|\-|Natus Vincere|
|HEROIC|\-|Liquid/Yakult|
|Team Spirit|\-|BB/Xctn|
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
# Streams
Twitch: Primary | Second
Kick: Primary | Second
YouTube
https://redd.it/1oads4r
@r_dota2
Liquipedia Dota 2 Wiki
BLAST Slam IV - Liquipedia Dota 2 Wiki
BLAST Slam IV is an online & offline European Dota 2 tournament organized by BLAST. This Tier 1 tournament takes place from Oct 14 to Nov 09 2025 featuring 12 teams competing over a total prize pool of $1,000,000 USD.
For those who miss the 'figuring out the game' days of old Dota, I made a custom mode.
My old workspace, i'm a little bit of a scientist myself.
Like some of you, I'm playin Dota since the All-Stars days. And while I still care for modern Dota, there's one thing I deeply miss, which is the sense of discovery.
Remember when knowledge sometimes mattered more than pure skill, when you could win a game just because you figured that PL illusions work with diffusial blade? These days, the game is largely solved. We follow pro builds, we know the optimal timings - it's become a game of execution, not exploration. The magic of figuring it all out from scratch is gone.
But I wanted to bring at least some of that feeling back.
So, I created a custom mode called Dota for Science: Rotating Rules.
The idea is simple and not original: every couple of weeks, the rules of Dota will change. Not enough to break the game completely, but just enough to force us all back to square one, where we have to re-figure out what works.
Season 1 is live now, and the question is: What's better, Gold or XP?
It's an asymmetric matchup:
Gold Diggers: Your team starts with +10,000 bonus gold per player.
XP Hackers: Your team starts at Level 18.
Suddenly, the game have to be figured out again. Will the instant Radiance be OP or the early-game dominance of high level heroes will left nothing to the 1st levelers? Will the gold diggers be able to catch up by killing a couple of high level heroes? Which heroes are broken? Which items are traps? What's the winning strategy for each side? These are the questions we get to solve together.
The "Science" and Community Part
This isn't just about random rules. My plan is to collect data from our games and, at the end of each short season, publish a "season report." We'll look at win rates, hero picks, item builds, and try to definitively answer that season's question.
We don't need thousands of matches to do this. Even just 50-100 games per season would give us enough data to create a fascinating report and have a real discussion. I'll also be taking community predictions at the start of each season to see who can guess the meta best.
All the announcements, predictions, and season reports will be posted in a Telegram channel I made for this: dotaforscience
The Only Thing Missing is a Player Base
The biggest challenge for any custom game is finding people to play it. I'm hoping to find a small community of players who, like me, are hungry for that feeling of discovery. To recognize the pioneers, I'm also planning a custom leaderboard that will freeze at the end of each season, cementing the top players in the "history" of that ruleset. If the community will be active enough (and if there will be a community) it will be possible to vote for the rules, suggest your own, or port some rules from existing games.
The game is ready to play in the Arcade. I would be incredibly grateful for anyone willing to try it out and give some feedback.
And yes, I'm fully aware that the idea is not new, but I think its viable enough, and may consolidate some of the potential player base of the various dead "Dota but..." games. I am prepared for the most likely outcome of me, playing this mode alone against bots for the rest of time. But a man can dream.
You can find the game in the Arcade by searching for "Dota for Science: Rotating Rules".
Thanks for reading. Hope to see some of you in-game.
https://redd.it/1oa7zji
@r_dota2
My old workspace, i'm a little bit of a scientist myself.
Like some of you, I'm playin Dota since the All-Stars days. And while I still care for modern Dota, there's one thing I deeply miss, which is the sense of discovery.
Remember when knowledge sometimes mattered more than pure skill, when you could win a game just because you figured that PL illusions work with diffusial blade? These days, the game is largely solved. We follow pro builds, we know the optimal timings - it's become a game of execution, not exploration. The magic of figuring it all out from scratch is gone.
But I wanted to bring at least some of that feeling back.
So, I created a custom mode called Dota for Science: Rotating Rules.
The idea is simple and not original: every couple of weeks, the rules of Dota will change. Not enough to break the game completely, but just enough to force us all back to square one, where we have to re-figure out what works.
Season 1 is live now, and the question is: What's better, Gold or XP?
It's an asymmetric matchup:
Gold Diggers: Your team starts with +10,000 bonus gold per player.
XP Hackers: Your team starts at Level 18.
Suddenly, the game have to be figured out again. Will the instant Radiance be OP or the early-game dominance of high level heroes will left nothing to the 1st levelers? Will the gold diggers be able to catch up by killing a couple of high level heroes? Which heroes are broken? Which items are traps? What's the winning strategy for each side? These are the questions we get to solve together.
The "Science" and Community Part
This isn't just about random rules. My plan is to collect data from our games and, at the end of each short season, publish a "season report." We'll look at win rates, hero picks, item builds, and try to definitively answer that season's question.
We don't need thousands of matches to do this. Even just 50-100 games per season would give us enough data to create a fascinating report and have a real discussion. I'll also be taking community predictions at the start of each season to see who can guess the meta best.
All the announcements, predictions, and season reports will be posted in a Telegram channel I made for this: dotaforscience
The Only Thing Missing is a Player Base
The biggest challenge for any custom game is finding people to play it. I'm hoping to find a small community of players who, like me, are hungry for that feeling of discovery. To recognize the pioneers, I'm also planning a custom leaderboard that will freeze at the end of each season, cementing the top players in the "history" of that ruleset. If the community will be active enough (and if there will be a community) it will be possible to vote for the rules, suggest your own, or port some rules from existing games.
The game is ready to play in the Arcade. I would be incredibly grateful for anyone willing to try it out and give some feedback.
And yes, I'm fully aware that the idea is not new, but I think its viable enough, and may consolidate some of the potential player base of the various dead "Dota but..." games. I am prepared for the most likely outcome of me, playing this mode alone against bots for the rest of time. But a man can dream.
You can find the game in the Arcade by searching for "Dota for Science: Rotating Rules".
Thanks for reading. Hope to see some of you in-game.
https://redd.it/1oa7zji
@r_dota2
not a flex but im sure im the highest curious level in all continents, prove me wrong
https://redd.it/1oahony
@r_dota2
https://redd.it/1oahony
@r_dota2
icefrog should secretly bring back the secret shop with randomized secret location everygame
thanks for coming to my ted talk
https://redd.it/1oajk36
@r_dota2
thanks for coming to my ted talk
https://redd.it/1oajk36
@r_dota2
Reddit
From the DotA2 community on Reddit
Explore this post and more from the DotA2 community
Media is too big
VIEW IN TELEGRAM
Roshan walks in and DESTROYS Betboom - BLAST True Sight like Animation
https://redd.it/1oaplpj
@r_dota2
https://redd.it/1oaplpj
@r_dota2
Please update Kaya
Should be able to shock with dispelling effect on user
https://redd.it/1oao1ku
@r_dota2
Should be able to shock with dispelling effect on user
https://redd.it/1oao1ku
@r_dota2
Reddit
From the DotA2 community on Reddit
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