Tundra Esports, Gaimin Gladiators advance to BLAST Slam II final

Tundra Esports and Gaimin Gladiators will play for the BLAST Slam II championship after winning in the semifinals of the Dota 2 event on Saturday in Copenhagen, Denmark -- albeit in different ways.

In the first semi, Tundra faced a stiff challenge from Nigma Galaxy, winning 2-1 after nearly two hours of play. In the second match, Gladiators breezed past Team Falcons with a 2-0 sweep.

The $1 million Dota 2 tournament began last week with two groups of five teams. A round robin of best-of-one matches in each group determined seeding for the playoff stage.

Sunday's grand final will be a best-of-five contest; all other playoff matches were best-of-three. The champion takes home $300,000 in prize money plus $100,000 in team earnings. The runner-up will pocket $150,000 and $50,000 in team earnings.

Tundra opened the day with a 44-minute win on red. Nigma responded with a 46-minute win on red, but Tundra put the match away with a 29-minute win, also on red.

Bulgarian Bozhidar "bzm" Bogdanov paced Tundra with a 9.0/3.7/13.7 kill-death-assist ratio while Daniel "Ghost" Chan of Malaysia led Nigma with an 8.0/4.7/5.3 mark.

Gaimin and Falcons opened with the longest map of the day, with Gaimin winning in 48 minutes on red. They followed that up with a 38-minute win on red.

Alimzhan "watson" Islambekov of Kazakhstan led Gaimin with a 12.0/1.5/10.0 mark while Russia's Stanislav "Malr1ne" Potorak posted a 6.0/4.5/7.0 line for Falcons.

BLAST Slam II prize pool, with prize money and team earnings

1. $300,000, $100,000

2. $150,000, $50,000

3-4. $60,000, $20,000 -- Nigma Galaxy, Team Falcons

5-6. $35,000, $15,000 -- PARIVISION, Yakult Brothers

7-8. $30,000, $10,000 -- Team Liquid, BetBoom Team

9-10. $25,000, $5,000 -- Talon Esports, Xtreme Gaming

--Field Level Media