Spirit, Aurora Gaming advance in playoffs at BLAST Slam III

Team Spirit and Aurora Gaming won their respective first-round playoff matches at the BLAST Slam III event on Wednesday in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The $1 million Dota 2 tournament began with a single-day group stage featuring two round-robin groups of five teams apiece. All matches were best-of-one. The top teams received byes into the semifinals, the second-place finishers were seeded into the quarterfinals, the third-place teams were seeded into Round 2 and the fourth- and fifth-place teams were placed into Round 1.

The playoff stage will run through Sunday in a single-elimination bracket. All matches are best-of-three until Sunday's best-of-five grand final.

On Wednesday, Aurora Gaming swept BetBoom Team 2-0, posting a 35-minute victory on green and a 33-minute win on red.

Team Spirit had to work a little harder, opening with a 47-minute triumph on green before Team Liquid squared the match with a 23-minute win on green. In the end, Team Spirit advanced with a 36-minute victory on red.

The tournament continues Thursday with two best-of-three Round 2 matches:

--PARIVISION vs. Team Spirit

--Xtreme Gaming vs. Aurora Gaming