PARIVISION, Team Spirit, Team Yandex, and Aurora Gaming advanced from the BLAST Slam VIII group stage as top seeds in their respective GSL brackets, each posting strong Bo3 records against a 16-team field that included roster adjustments after The International 2026. PARIVISION continued its dominant early-season form with a clean 2-0 seeding win over Aurora, while Team Spirit edged Team Yandex 2-1 in another seeding match despite lineup changes at offlane and coaching. The double-elimination LAN playoffs in Malta, featuring Bo3 series until the Bo5 grand final, create narrow margins where map pool execution, draft adaptability, and momentum shifts among the remaining contenders—including LGD Gaming and 1w Team—keep implied probabilities tightly clustered and highly sensitive to any single series outcome.