Yandex Beat Spirit to Win BLAST Slam VIII

Published October 13, 2026

Team Yandex are BLAST Slam VIII champions after beating Team Spirit 3–1 in the grand final in Malta. The result settles the rematch set up when Yandex won the upper-bracket final and Spirit returned through the lower bracket. Yandex take the $270,000 winner's prize, while Spirit finish second with $135,000. Unlike the earlier report about Spirit reaching the final, this story concerns a completed title series and the competitive outcome of the event.

Yandex entered the last match with a direct route from the upper bracket. They had beaten Spirit 2–0 the previous day, whereas Spirit had to defeat PARIVISION 2–1 in an elimination series before getting another chance. The grand final was a new best-of-five contest, not a continuation of those results. Yandex won three maps and Spirit one. Official BLAST results record both the upper-bracket 2–0 and the grand-final 3–1, making the difference between the two meetings easy to verify. The title also adds another major trophy to Yandex's strong opening to the new competitive season after its PGL Wallachia Season 9 win.

The route from upper bracket to trophy

Yandex's path was not completely unbeaten across the whole event: Spirit had beaten them during an earlier seeding meeting. That detail makes the final more interesting than a simple claim that one team dominated every encounter. The decisive sequence was later in the bracket. Yandex won the upper final against Spirit, then won the title series when Spirit returned. A best-of-five final asks for three map wins; the 3–1 score means the champion finished the series before a deciding fifth game was needed. It is the final score, rather than a prediction based on seeding, that awards the championship.

The first-place prize is $270,000 from the tournament's $750,000 pool, according to BLAST and the event result coverage. Spirit receive $135,000 for second. Those are team placement awards, not claims about each player's personal payout. Yandex's current five include watson, Chira JUNIOR, ATF, Saksa and Malady. The tournament result belongs to the full team; reducing it to one viral clip or one draft would overstate what the verified score proves. Individual performances can still be analyzed separately, but the bracket outcome is already clear without inventing a single deciding moment.

What the second title changes

Winning PGL Wallachia Season 9 and now BLAST Slam VIII gives Yandex two major event wins in the opening stretch after The International 2026. That is a substantial competitive marker for a lineup that added ATF. It does not make the team unbeatable, nor does it erase Spirit's own run to the final. Spirit recovered from the upper-bracket defeat to eliminate PARIVISION, then took a map from Yandex in the title series. The runner-up finish remains a concrete result. For Yandex, the repeat success is stronger evidence of current form than any one best-of-three would be, although future tournaments will test whether that form persists against changing opponents and patches. A useful final recap should also avoid treating the winner's second major trophy as proof that every map was one-sided. The official score says Spirit secured one game and Yandex secured three. That is enough to establish the series result, but not the specific turning points inside each game. The tournament's earlier seeding meeting went Spirit's way, while the later upper-final and grand final went Yandex's way. Those results show how a rivalry can change across one event. They are stronger and more precise than a generic claim of revenge, which might imply motives the players never stated. The present article records the sequence and leaves finer tactical judgments to match-specific evidence.

• Upper-bracket final: Team Yandex beat Team Spirit 2–0 to take the direct final berth.
• Grand final: Team Yandex beat Team Spirit 3–1 to win BLAST Slam VIII.

Final placement	Result and award
Team Yandex	Champion; $270,000
Team Spirit	Runner-up; $135,000

The completed result is a Yandex title, not merely a place in the final. Spirit's lower-bracket comeback supplied the rematch, but Yandex closed the best-of-five 3–1. The two organizations leave Malta with different placements and a clear new reference point for the next stage of the Dota 2 season.