OG vs. Team Yandex Prediction on December 5, 2025

Match info

BLAST Slam V, a Dota 2 LAN tournament in Chengdu, China, is positioned as one of the final tier-1 events of the 2025 season. Filipino OG and Russia’s Team Yandex both finished a congested mid-table of the group stage on 6–5, then survived the play-in (OG by knocking out HEROIC, Yandex by edging Xtreme Gaming) to reach this quarterfinal.

Everything from this stage onward is played as single-elimination. So this bo3 is basically a “gatekeeper” match: win, and you’re in the top four (qualifying to BLAST Slam VI) with a deep playoff run + big ranking points and prize money; lose, and all that grinding through groups and play-in ends in 5-8th. For OG’s new roster, it’s a chance to stamp itself as a real tier-one threat; for Team Yandex, backed by a giant brand and already top-10 in the world, it’s about proving they’re more than a one-patch wonder.

OG vs Team Yandex will start on Friday, December 5, 2025, at 13:00 CST (China Standard Time, local time in Chengdu). The Wuliangye Culture & Sports Center, a modern multi-purpose arena BLAST is using as its flagship Chinese stop, is where this match and also BLAST Slam V’s offline portion is staged.

Meeting statistics

Current form and & playstyle: OG

OG arrives in the playoffs as one of the most watchable teams in the field. The organization rebuilt around an all-Filipino core earlier in 2025 – with “Natsumi,” “Yopaj-,” “Nikko,” “TIMS” and “skem” – and this Slam is the first long LAN where the project really feels road-tested against the full tier-1 circuit

Their group stage was streaky. OG opened with wins over Yakult Brothers and Execration but hit a brutal mid-tournament stretch where they dropped three in a row to Falcons, MOUZ, and Tidebound. They recovered late with clutch victories against Xtreme Gaming and Tearlaments to finish 6–5 and sneak into the play-in. There, they looked much sharper, 2-0ing HEROIC in a series where “Yopaj-“ completely dictated the tempo and OG never really looked in danger.

Stylistically, this OG leans hard into high-tempo, skirmish-heavy Dota. “Yopaj-“ is still the heartbeat of the team, frequently on gap-closing mids like Ember, Tiny, or tempo-controlling spirits, while “Natsumi” often plays scaling but active carries – heroes that come online around one or two items and are happy to join fights rather than five-man AFK farm. Supports “TIMS” and “skem” are very rotation-oriented; you see them smoking early, contesting runes, and hunting kills rather than sitting in lanes. That makes OG explosive when they hit their timings, but when their lanes go badly or their early moves whiff, they can look disjointed and run out of tools if they fall behind on vision and map control.

Current form & playstyle: Team Yandex

Team Yandex, by contrast, comes in as the more structured, CIS-flavored macro team. The lineup built around ex-member “TA2000,” “watson,” “Noticed,” “CHIRA_JUNIOR,” and “Malady,” with coach “Accell,” is relatively new but has already logged almost all of its 59 official matches in 2025 and sits in the global top-10 by several ranking systems Their 6–5 group record hides just how swingy the run was: they started 0–2 after losses to Tundra and NAVI, then rattled off a five-match win streak over HEROIC, Tearlaments, MOUZ, Yakult, and Tidebound to climb into the top half, only to cool off again late. In the play-in, they were tested: they beat Xtreme Gaming 2–1 in a long, scrappy series where the 48-minute decider showcased their comfort in drawn-out macro games – patience around Roshan, tight high-ground defense, and very disciplined retreat/reattempt sequences.

In-game, Yandex trend towards timing-based, five-man Dota. While “TA2000” (while on the roster) and “Watson” give them flexibility in the carry role: one can play hard-farmers like Naga, Terrorblade, or Slark, while the other can shift into more tempo-oriented or even space-creating roles, making their drafts hard to read in the first phase. “Noticed” usually anchors the offlane on auras and teamfight initiators, while “CHIRA_JUNIOR” is the stable mid who ensures they have strong wave-clear and tower defense. With “Malady” holding the team together on hard-five and often shot-calling, they’re happy to give up some early map in exchange for clean triangle control and then explode out of the map around key item + Roshan timings. When they lose, it’s often because they get dragged into chaotic skirmishes before their line-up is ready, or their lanes collapse so hard they never reach those timings.

Head-to-head

The teams have only met once officially so far, and that was earlier in this very tournament: on Nov 28, when Team Yandex prevailed 1–0 OG. Yandex out-executed OG in that game, winning a mid-game timing fight and never really giving OG a way back. So while the sample is tiny, Yandex do come into this quarterfinal with the psychological (and prep) edge of having already beaten this exact OG lineup on LAN this week. This is visibly embodied in the odds of every reputable online sportsbook from the eSports betting list.

Match analytics

Yandex have the stronger macro structure, better recent bo3 proof, and a 1–0 H2H edge from groups. However, given OG’s early-game volatility and high-tempo style, this should be good for at least one snowball map, but over a full bo3, the more disciplined Yandex macro still has the edge.

Tip: Correct score, 1:2 at 3.30 odds on Mystake.