Division II champions Talon Esports and RSG face off once again to potentially secure a spot at Arlington Major.
Talon lost their last fight with RSG during the second tour DPC SEA Division II. That lost costed Talon their first place spot. Nonetheless, the two teams advanced to Division I this season and crossed paths once again for another high stakes game.
What the stakes look like for Talon and RSG?
This series is more important than ever for both teams because it could mean securing a spot in the upcoming Arlington Major. If Talon wins, they are guaranteed a seat at the Major whereas RSG will need to pray that T1 beats Fnatic for a three-way tie between RSG, T1 and Fnatic to grab the last Major slot.
On the other hand, if RSG wins, both teams will head to the Major only if T1 beats Fnatic. Otherwise, Talon, RSG and Fnatic will be fighting over the last two spots for the Major.
In any case, incredible games of Dota will ensue.
Talon went fast and hard in game one
Both teams drafted heavy hitters for game one expecting to escalate team fights as rapidly as possible. Aside from one messy team fight for Talon and RSG in the early game, both teams were comfortable in executing their abilities and coordinating fights to one another when ultimates are off cooldown.
However, Talon had the slight edge that allowed them to snowball RSG in the long run. The threat of kpii Enigma Black Hole coupled with the combo coming out of 23savage Faceless Void Chronosphere and Hyde Snapfire Mortimer Kisses.
Even though RSG put up a good fight, it was just not enough to stop the Faceless Void. As usual, 23savage picked up a shard on his Void to ramp up his mobility. He was able to dance his way through RSG with Time Walk and Reverse Time Walk. More importantly, he managed to time his skills and prioritize the proper targets to give his team the best return out of every team fight.
After acquiring a Refresher Orb, Faceless Void was able to close out the game fashionably by dropping two Chronospheres that trapped both mks Monkey King and X1aOyU Marci.
A meme build leads to a meme result
Talon seemed a little too overconfident in game two by selecting an Alchemist for their offlaner kpii. However, the Alchemist did not build any of the typical items a core would. Instead, he became the purveyor of Aghanim's Scepter.
Throughout the whole game, the Alchemist gave out two scepters for the Mikoto Void Spirit and 23savage Faceless Void. He only kept a Power Treads to himself. Consequently, he was absolutely useless in team fights.
RSG capitalized on Talon's lack of a proper strategy and steamrolled them mercilessly. Xsilearn's Puck achieved a Rampage after only 13 minutes into the game, wiping Talon clean.
Xiaobonbon played like an absolute champion with his Dark Willow. He had great positioning and incredible skill usage. After successfully landing a three-man Terrorize combined with the Puck's Dream Coil, Talon collapsed under RSG's dominance in game two.
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No more messing around
Talon learned their lesson from game two and decided to unleash everything they have in game three--and it was not even close. Within five minutes, Talon was already ahead by 2k gold. That advantage grew considerably every five minutes. By the 18-minute mark, Talon had a 12k net worth advantage and secured their first team wipe.
RSG tried to fight back and even though they looked like they had a chance at one point, they were still derailed when the kpii Enigma stepped in to thwart any chance RSG hoped for to win that team fight.
Talon brought down RSG in one last team fight, finishing them off one-by-one and ended the game in just 24 minutes with a 25k net worth lead with a final score of 32-6.
Talon will be going to the Arlington Major
With that series win, Talon successfully secured their place in the Arlington Major. However, they still have one last match against none other than Boom Esports to compete for the first place position and claim the $30,000 prize as well as 500 DPC points.
Meanwhile, RSG needs T1 to win against Fnatic to even have a chance in getting the last spot for the Major through a three-way tiebreaker. Otherwise, it will be Fnatic who is guaranteed to go to the major.
As of now, only Boom Esports, Tundra and OG are guaranteed to go to the major.
Stay tuned to esports.gg for the latest Dota 2 news and updates.
