Talon Esports put a stop to the Gladiators' year-long reign at Riyadh Masters

Dota 2

30 Jul

Ryan Antony Bernard

The Riyadh Masters has seen some spectacular Dota in the past few days. With the tournament coming to an end, we might see some new faces at the Grand Finals. Gaimin Gladiators and Liquid have dominated this year non-stop. The closest we ever saw another team be their equal was BetBoom Team at DreamLeague Season 20. However, that is not the case at Riyadh Master 2023. Talon Esports has not taken kindly to the European teams, finally slaying the giants, Gaimin Gladiators.

Talon Esports Vs. Gaimin Gladiators

Both the teams met at the Lower Bracket to face each other. It was going to be a hyped series even before it even started. Because if Gaimin Gladiators lost, Talon would be the first to knock out arguably the best team in the world this year.

Game 1

With an aggressive start to game 1, both teams were at each other's throats. But it was Talon that was coming on top with the kills. With 23savage and Oli~ diving past the Tier-1 tower and Mikoto winning mid, Talon had a good start. This resulted in successful early rotations from Talon and controlling the pace. But GG finally stopped Mikoto's 10 Kill streak going to tOfu which turned into an early Aghanim's for his Disruptor. Combining that with Ace's Blink Ravage, GG was able to slow down Talon. But the Talon cores were already too strong for GG to take back the game, resulting in a loss at 50 minutes.

Game 2

In this game, the Gladiators had the upper hand. Quinn won mid on Leshrac this time. But he went into farm mode, resulting in Mikoto rotating along with the rest of Talon and getting kills. However, in the mid-game, with both Bristleback and Lesh getting Hex, they were able to turn a crucial team fight and get two lanes of barracks. With Dyrachyo's Bristleback barging into Talon's base backed up by IO and Lesh, Talon had no answer. Talon finally tapped out at 47 minutes.

Game 3

In game 3, Mikoto got ahead on his Snapfire in the midlane. And again, it was Talon getting ahead in kills early in the game. 23savage rotated to the enemy safelane using the Portal at 7 minutes and ganked Dyrachyo. Following that, Quinn had no game, with the stun-heavy draft from Talon constantly shutting him down. However, GG was able to bait Talon into wasting the aegis and their ultimates, turning the midgame in their favor.

But, a team fight near the Roshan Pit won Talon the game. Morphling getting bashed by Roshan into a hex from Jabz helped Talon secure the aegis. With the Gladiators having no answer they called 'gg'.

Talon's loss to Liquid

Though Talon achieved the incredible of taking down GG, they were not fortunate on the final day of Riyadh Masters. With a 2-0 loss to Liquid, they get placed 3rd and a prize of 1.7 million US. Talon's run at the Riyadh Masters will be a big confidence booster for the upcoming TI12.