Tundra Esports CRUSH Gaimin Gladiators in BLAST Slam II Victory
Tundra Esports ‘s second straight tournament win since the additions of Dyrachyo and bzm.
Tundra Esports continue to stake their claim as the best Dota 2 team in the world. They claimed the championship of BLAST Slam II by utterly dominating Gaimin Gladiators in a 3-0 sweep in the tournament’s grand finals on Monday (10 February).
Tundra took home the grand prize of $300,000, plus $100,000 in team earnings out of the tournament’s $1 million prize pool. This also marks their second straight tournament win since the additions of Anton “dyrachyo” Shkredov and Bozhidar “bzm” Bogdanov, following their victory in FISSURE PLAYGROUND Belgrade 2025 last week.
Tundra’s sweep of the BLAST Slam II grand finals notably extends their winning streak over Gaimin Gladiators to 10 games dating back to November 2024, with nine of those victories coming since Dyrachyo joined Tundra after getting kicked by Gaimin Gladiators.
While Gaimin Gladiators fall short of their first tournament win of 2025, this runner-up finish in BLAST Slam II is still their best result since they replaced Dyrachyo with Alimzhan “Watson” Islambekov and subsequently struggled to start the year. Gaimin Gladiators earned $200,000 for their effort.
TUNDRA ESPORTS ARE THE BLAST SLAM II CHAMPIONS! 🎉🏆
— BLAST Slam (@BLASTDota) February 9, 2025
Pls don't break the trophy, @TundraEsports 🙂 pic.twitter.com/JgrwTYPOOx
Tundra dominate BLAST Slam II for second straight tournament win
Before they clashed once again in the BLAST Slam II grand finals, Tundra and Gaimin Gladiators topped the tournament’s Group Stage with 3-1 records apiece to earn direct berths to the semifinals in the Playoffs. Tundra earned their spot in the grand finals after taking down a surging Nigma Galaxy in three games, while Gaimin Gladiators soundly swept Team Falcons.
Bzm put forth one superstar performance after another to lead Tundra. The team utterly routed Gaimin Gladiators, with all three games in the grand finals ending before they could hit the 40-minute mark.
Game one saw Tundra run a heavy burst damage lineup with Dyrachyo on Gyrocopter, bzm on Tiny, and Neta “33” Shapira on an offlane Lycan. Martin “Saksa” Sazdov set up his cores for success by providing vision and bonus gold on kills with his support Bounty Hunter, while Matthew “Whitemon” Filemon on Pugna sustained his team from the backlines.
Both teams were on relatively even ground throughout the early game until Tundra blew things wide open with a massive teamwipe around the 17-minute mark. While Gaimin Gladiators still managed to score a couple of pickoffs in the ensuing fights, they could do little to stop a snowballing Tundra squad from taking their first win of the grand finals in 33 minutes and with a 33,000 net worth lead.
Bzm paced his team’s 28-12 kill lead in the series opener with nine kills and 16 assists on two deaths. Dyrachyo added six kills and nine assists on two deaths. 33 also pitched in with five kills and 20 assists on just one death.
In game two, Tundra had Dyrachyo and 33 present a formidable frontline as Dragon Knight and Doom, respectively, while bzm’s Invoker and Whitemon’s Phoenix dished out damage from long range. Meanwhile, Saksa was given Batrider to force Gaimin Gladiators’ heroes out of position to further boost his team’s teamfight prowess.
Tundra made good use of a strong laning stage to build an early gold lead and never looked back, though Gaimin Gladiators still managed to somewhat keep up in terms of kills despite their constant gold disadvantage. However, the Doom and Batrider duo’s ability to essentially guarantee a numbers advantage for Tundra in teamfights proved too much for Gaimin Gladiators, who were forced to call GG in just under 40 minutes of action.
Bzm once again led the way for Tundra, this time recording nine kills and 14 assists on two deaths. 33 added eight kills and 14 assists on four deaths, while Whitemon had six kills and 11 assists on eight deaths.
While the first two games of the grand finals saw Gaimin Gladiators manage to put on a good fight, Tundra utterly dominated them in game three following a lopsided 37-7 kill lead in just 25 minutes to close out the grand finals sweep. Bzm saved his best performance for last to help secure his team’s second tournament win of 2025, racking up 13 kills and 11 assists on just one death as Ember Spirit. 33 on Sand King and Saksa on Clockwerk also combined for 15 kills and 34 assists with zero deaths between the two of them.
Having won the first two tournaments of the year, Tundra will now be looking to add a third straight championship to their 2025 trophy case in DreamLeague Season 25. Taking place online from 16 February to 2 March, DreamLeague Season 25 will see 16 teams from all across the world battle it out for their share of a $1 million prize pool.
Will Tundra secure a third straight tournament victory or can another team challenge them for the title of Dota 2’s top dogs this year? The Dota 2 action will resume this weekend.
