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Talon Esports had to settle for a last-minute roster change coming into Elite League. During the third-day broadcast of the tournament, Johan "pieliedie" Åström, coach for Talon, revealed the reason behind the team's frantic substitution while giving an interview.
Right before the tournament, Talon Esports had reasoned that it would not be able to compete with Eljohn "Akashi" Andales due to "unforeseen travel complications" and would be replaced by Alik "V-Tune" Vorobey.
Pieliedie finally unveiled how the whole situation unfolded during their 30-hour flight, as they had to scamper to find a fifth player to complete their Dota 2 lineup.
Pieliedie Reveals How Talon Was Able to Complete Dota 2 Lineup for Elite League
On 2nd April, pieliedie said that Eldjone "Akashi" Canonigo Andales, the carry for Talon Esports had passport issues, which prevented him from attending the tournament.
Due to this, they had to find a replacement in the middle of a 30-hour flight and ultimately ended up going forward with V-Tune as its carry.
Elite League is an online tournament hosted on the European Dota 2 servers. This means that teams from all around the world can join and play from the comfort of their base. However, due to the scale of this tournament and the high level of competition present, teams from other far away regions travel to Europe to increase their odds.
If they were to play from their home region, say SEA (South East Asia) in this case, Talon Esports would suffer a disadvantage from playing at around 150 ms - 200 ms latency while its competitors would enjoy a much more seamless 5 ms - 30 ms latency.
Despite the unforeseen circumstances standing in front of Talon’s way, it has fought resiliently against all odds to secure favorable results for itself.
Talon won its first series of the tournament against Rest Farmers in a cool 2-1 series and went on to defeat Nigma Galaxy in another 2-1 series. Talon, however, was not able to defeat BOOM Esports, who outpaced Talon and took the series win.
Due to its stellar run at the ongoing Elite League, Talon Esports is in the green zone and safe from elimination.
Talon is now gearing up to fight against PSG Quest in a best-of-three showdown. Both teams with similar records in the tournament, it is hard to say which team will emerge victorious, it will be a test of strategy, team synergy, wit, and skill.
