Talon Esports Gives Behind The Scenes Look at its TI11 SEA Regional Qualifier Run

Talon Esports had an impressive run of form on its debut season, from qualifying to Division II of the Southeast Asian (SEA) DPC to qualifying to the PGL Arlington Major at the end of the season. Despite having to change its initial roster, Talon Esports managed to run the gauntlet in the TI11 SEA regional qualifier to qualify for the biggest tournament of Dota.

With its TI11 spot secured, Talon Esports released its latest vlog on Youtube as it shows the team’s journey during the TI11 SEA Qualifiers.

From Division II to TI11 invite, Talon Esports continues to impress

The start of Talon’s vlog showed the aftermath of its journey during ESL One Malaysia 2022, where it finished bottom four of the tournament. However despite the underwhelming performances, the team were motivated to do well in the TI11 SEA Qualifiers as Rafli "Mikoto" Rahman said that “everyone’s dream was to attend TI as a Dota player”.

When describing its series against Lilgun in the Upper Bracket Quarterfinals of the TI11 SEA Regional Qualifiers, Brizio "Hyde" Budiana noted that the team had only 2 week to prepare for the qualifiers after attending ESL One Malaysia 2022, as well talking to the new coach of the team Andrii "ALWAYSWANNAFLY" Bondarenko about the team’s strategy before the match against Lilgun.

“We talked a lot about the team with our new coach, as well as what heroes we normally prioritize during the match. We are confident against everyone, especially Lilgun from what I know. I know that they like to pick Broodmother and Lycan so that we just make them uncomfortable with their draft.”

When talking about its match with Polaris Esports in the Semifinals, Nuengnara "23savage" Teeramahanon noted that he was a bit nervous about the match because their opponents also had very good players, so it made the series a bit harder. ALWAYSWANNAFLY also gave his own insight of Talon Esports by saying that the team was very motivated to play Dota.

“From the first day, I watched that the boys are very fond of the game and they really want to play Dota. They have very good thoughts of the game as well as their movements during the game. I think the most impactful thing that I had on the team during my short time with them is on the morale side of things, as the spirit within the team is very good.” said ALWAYSWANNAFLY.

Moving forward into their series against T1 in the Upper Bracket Finals, Mikoto stated the team was feeling more confident after ESL One Malaysia 2022, before saying that T1 needed more time to adapt to its newest roster after picking up Anathan "ana" Pham and Topias "Topson" Taavitsainen.

Finally going into the Grand Final series against Polaris Esports, Damien "kpii" chok noted that he had expected Polaris Esports to make it to the Grand Finals. After that, the vlog switched to 23savage giving his team a prep talk before the Grand Finals, as he had been in the same situation before in The International 2019 (TI9) Regional Qualifiers with Team Jinesbrus.

“During my game against Mineski at TI9 [Regional Qualifiers], I won the game already but I keep thinking about TI. Then I went for the throne, I lost the game [game 5 of the finals]. So when we play this series against Polaris, don’t think about winning or TI. Just think about the fun in the series.” said 23savage during his prep talk.

Following the win in the Grand Finals, Talon Esports now joined their SEA brethren of Fnatic & Boom Esports at TI11’s Group Stage. However, could Talon continue its journey by winning the most prestigious tournament of Dota 2?