BLAST Slam IV Participants Announced: First LAN in Singapore Since TI11
Tournament organizer BLAST has announced the first list of invited teams to play in BLAST SLAM IV. Typically, such events are held in the BLAST Studios in Denmark without a crowd. However, the fourth season will take place in the famous Singapore Indoor Stadium, the same arena used for The International 11.
The first round of participants have been revealed:
Five teams were directly invited by the organizers. Heroic managed to qualify for the event through the South American qualifiers, while Talon Esports were given a slot to represent the host region.
However, the list of participants is yet to be finalized. BLAST will announce one more directly-invited team, and there are still four open slots which will be determined through qualifiers across Europe, China, and Southeast Asia. The qualifiers are set to run from September 29 to October 5.
BLAST SLAM IV will follow an unconventional format. The two-week-long tournament is scheduled for October 28 to September 11. An online stage will take place a week before the LAN, determining the teams that will show up to the playoffs. The actual offline stage will be played in the Singapore Indoor Stadium, with the matches lasting only three days.
However, it is worth mentioning that some teams may face scheduling difficulties, as FISSURE Playground 2 is scheduled for the period from October 24 to November 2, which creates a risk of overlap for participants of both tournaments.
Blast Slam IV will be held from October 28 to November 9 in Singapore. The tournament prize pool will be $1 million.