Recap · 2026-10-11
BLAST Slam VIII Malta by the Numbers: Earth Spirit Everywhere, Bounty Hunter Nowhere
BLAST Slam VIII Malta playoffs by the numbers: patch 7.41f, 27 games, the most contested heroes, standout players and the full Bo5 grand final.
Six teams reached the BLAST Slam VIII playoffs at BLAST Arena Studios in Malta. From October 8 to 11, they played 10 series and 27 games on patch 7.41f.
The first half has no spoilers. Results come after the warning.
The Spoiler-Free Part: How Malta Was Played
The basics
| Stat | Malta playoffs |
|---|---|
| Patch | 7.41f |
| Series / games | 10 series, 27 games |
| Average game length | 49:08 (median 49:32) |
| Games over 60 minutes | 4 |
| Games under 35 minutes | 2 |
| Average kills per game | 64.6 |
| Radiant / Dire wins | 12 / 15 (44.4% / 55.6%) |
| Heroes picked / contested | 70 / 78 |
These were long games. Fourteen of the 27 went past 49 minutes, and four went past an hour. Dire won 15 of 27, a slight edge but too few games to call it a map imbalance.
Most contested heroes
| Hero | Picks | Bans | Contest rate | Win rate when picked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Earth Spirit | 12 | 15 | 100% | 66.7% (8-4) |
| Bounty Hunter | 0 | 27 | 100% | — |
| Nature's Prophet | 10 | 16 | 96.3% | 70.0% (7-3) |
| Lone Druid | 3 | 23 | 96.3% | 0% (0-3) |
| Techies | 14 | 11 | 92.6% | 57.1% (8-6) |
| Hoodwink | 15 | 7 | 81.5% | 46.7% (7-8) |
| Brewmaster | 7 | 14 | 77.8% | 42.9% (3-4) |
| Doom | 6 | 14 | 74.1% | 66.7% (4-2) |
| Winter Wyvern | 14 | 5 | 70.4% | 50.0% (7-7) |
| Ember Spirit | 7 | 12 | 70.4% | 28.6% (2-5) |
Bounty Hunter was banned in all 27 games. Nobody ever picked him. He was a permaban in Malta.
Earth Spirit was the other 100% hero, and teams picked him almost as often as they banned him: 12 picks, 15 bans. All 12 picks went to mid players, and 11 of them came in the first pick phase, more than any other hero. He was the very first pick of the draft eight times. Teams that got him won two games out of three.
Nature's Prophet had the best win rate of any hero picked at least five times, at 7-3, with 16 bans on top. He was played as a carry in nine of his 10 games.
Lone Druid is the odd one out. He drew 23 bans but went 0-3 in the three games he got through. Teams clearly respected him, but in Malta he never paid off.
Most picked: the support pool
The five most picked heroes were all supports or flexible support picks: Hoodwink (15), Techies (14), Winter Wyvern (14), Dark Willow (13) and Rubick (13). Windranger (10) also made the top ten, often in a support role. With many cores banned out, the support pool is where the same heroes kept coming back.
Rubick went 8-5 and was banned only once, which made him one of the best-value picks in Malta. Windranger went 6-4.
Small samples that worked
- Slark: 4-0 on 4 picks, with 14 bans
- Necrophos: 2-0 on 2 picks, with 16 bans
- Viper: 3-0 on 3 picks, with 5 bans
- Shadow Demon: 2-0, never banned
- One pick, one win: Alchemist, Gyrocopter, Monkey King, Phoenix, Primal Beast, Skywrath Mage, Storm Spirit, Undying and Warlock
At the other end, Terrorblade went 1-4, and Ember Spirit went 2-5 despite drawing 12 bans.
Meta read (with a grain of salt)
It's only 27 games, but a few trends stood out:
- Mids went early. Earth Spirit was the top first-phase pick, and Pangolier (11 picks, mostly mid) and Ember Spirit (19 contests) were in the mix too. Teams often spent an early pick on their mid.
- The most-banned heroes rarely got through. Bounty Hunter, Lone Druid, Slark and Necrophos took 80 bans between them and were picked only nine times. Carry picks were spread out, and of the carries picked five or more times, only Nature's Prophet had a winning record.
- Universal heroes led by attribute. They made up 76 of 270 picks (28%), ahead of intelligence (68), strength (66) and agility (60).
- Long games were the norm. With a 49-minute average and 64.6 kills per game, late-game drafts had plenty of time to come online.
Final Standings
| Place | Team | Malta games (W-L) |
|---|---|---|
| 1st ($270,000) | Team Yandex | 9-3 |
| 2nd ($135,000) | Team Spirit | 5-7 |
| 3rd ($95,000) | PARIVISION | 6-5 |
| 4th ($65,000) | Aurora Gaming | 5-4 |
| 5th-6th ($35,500 each) | 1w Team, LGD Gaming | 1-4 each |
Yandex's Run: No Series Dropped in Malta
Team Yandex started in the upper bracket quarterfinals and won four series in a row:
- 2-1 over LGD Gaming. Game 3 lasted 31:54, the shortest game in Malta.
- 2-1 over PARIVISION, after losing Game 1.
- 2-0 over Team Spirit in the upper bracket final. They won Game 2 49-16 in 33:56.
- 3-1 over Spirit in the grand final.
Two Yandex players stood out. watson had the best KDA of any player in Malta: 147/35/150, an 8.49 KDA, with 847 GPM over 12 games. Malady went 5-0 on Techies.
The Lower Bracket
PARIVISION came closest to stopping a Yandex vs Spirit final. They beat 1w 2-1 and then swept Aurora 2-0. Satanic led the way in both series. He had the two highest-kill games in Malta: 24/1/14 on Nature's Prophet (1,068 GPM) in the deciding game against 1w, and 24/3/9 on Slark in a 65-minute game against Aurora. He also went 22/0/5 on Anti-Mage against 1w.
In the lower bracket final, PARIVISION took Game 1. Spirit then won the next two to reach the grand final.
Aurora finished fourth, but they played the longest game in Malta: a 77:18 upper bracket quarterfinal against 1w. Aurora won it despite losing the kill count 41-44. skiter dealt 175,046 hero damage on Nature's Prophet with 1,195 GPM. Both were the highest by any player in a single game in Malta.
The Grand Final: Spirit vs Yandex (Bo5)
- Game 1, Spirit win (40:41). Spirit were never seriously behind. Yatoro went 19/1/12 on Ursa, and Spirit won the kill count 48-19, with a lead that peaked around 21k.
- Game 2, Yandex win (52:49). The game stayed close through 20 minutes. Then ATF took over on Timbersaw, going 20/3/7, and Yandex's lead grew to about 17.5k.
- Game 3, Yandex win (48:24). watson went 14/0/14 on Nature's Prophet at 1,047 GPM, and Yandex led by as much as 29.5k.
- Game 4, Yandex win (56:40). Spirit got ahead by up to about 4.4k, but Yandex came back. watson went 19/5/14 on Anti-Mage, and CHIRA_JUNIOR posted 10/5/27 on Earth Spirit with 60,389 hero damage.
Watch the series on the Spectate grand final page.
Team Yandex are BLAST Slam VIII champions: 3-1 in the final, 9-3 across the Malta playoffs, and not a single series dropped.