After dominating the Dota 2 professional scene for six months in a row and winning four S-tier trophies out of six, Team Falcons had a sudden and unexplainable meltdown on the first competitive day of the second-most important tournament of the year, Riyadh Masters 2024.
It’s completely unexplainable how a team that used to dismantle every opponent and obtain flawless victories in best-of-five Grand Finals went from their usual level to what we saw on day 1 of this event.
To be fair, Falcons encountered two very strong teams: Team Spirit and Gaimin Gladiators. But neither of these teams won all of their games in the first two matches. Spirit lost a game against OG and Gladiators lost a whole match against HEROIC. These results indicate that there is no excuse for Falcons.
The Matches
Not the start we wanted, we will get them next time
أول خسارة في دور مجموعات بطولة دوتا. قدامكم الكثير يا أبطال تقدرون تعوضون 💚#EsportsWorldCup – #شجع_الأخضر pic.twitter.com/FieHKE1PSq
— Falcons Esports (@FalconsEsport) July 10, 2024
In the first match, against Spirit, Falcons went from having an 11.000 gold lead at minute 20 to losing 25 minutes later against Yatoro’s Morphling. Game 2 was a complete disappointment, largely due to the fact that Spirit picked an unorthodox set of heroes and then, through clever tactics, destroyed Falcons in under 15 minutes.
The game lasted for 35 minutes but everyone knew that nothing could be done to change the result.
In the second match, Falcons were clearly demoralized after losing the first. This caused them to lose game 1 in 44 minutes but the reality is that it was over in 10.
In game 2, skiter and his crew had a huge opportunity to finally win their first battle of the tournament. But despite having a solid performance during the first several minutes, they lost the laning phase and then the mid game as well.
Gladiators’ Broodmother ruined all of their lanes and stole as much farm as she could. This led to a state of chaos and nothing could be done to turn things around.
What Happened?
We still don’t know what happened to Team Falcons between the end of May, when they won DreamLeague S23, and now. Was their performance caused by a lack of form? Was it just bad luck? Was it caused by stress and the pressure felt by the players?
Another explanation could be the release of Dota 2 patch 7.36c, which definitely changed a lot of heroes and the meta quite a bit. Whatever the cause may be, Falcons don’t have much time to fix their errors. On day 2, they must win at least two games to stay in the race.
Header: ESL, Esports World Cup Foundation
