How ALAWAYSWANNAFLY helped Talon Esports reach TI
What's inside
A month later, in February 2022, Talon Esports will announce their new roster along with 23savage and Q. It was also decided to take Forev as a coach. With this squad, the team continues to play in the second division of the South-East. According to the results of the second tour, they successfully reached the first division, losing only one match against RSG.
Games boom
In the third tour, Talon Esports also continued to show satisfactory results in the first division. They took second place in the list of teams, losing only a match against Fnatic. After that, in July, 23savage and the company are calmly selected for ESL One Malaysia 2022.
Before the start of the tournament in Malaysia, on July 18, the guys are invited to GAMERS GALAXY. It was a small tournament for two days among eight teams from Southeast Asia, and this was the first precedent of the first problems in the team because they took 5-6th place.
On August 23, a major international tournament of the 1st tier begins. Talon Esports are holding the group stage with a score of 3-7 by maps and are eliminated from the tournament, taking 9-10th places. The changes were not long in coming because on August 28, the coach of the Forev team will leave the team.
Thus, on September 13, Talon Esports started playing qualifiers for The International 2022. Let's take a closer look at their success. In the upper bracket, the first opponent was the Lilgun team. This is a Mongolian team from the second division, which could not resist the new Talon Esports in any way, the expected result is 2:0 for 23savage.
Polaris Esports
The first map lasted 65 minutes, and 23savage was able to pull it off with his signature Faceless Void. In the second map, the draft trends were preserved, because they also take Void in the first stage, complementing the concept with supports Dazzle and Marci. The result of the meeting is 2:0.
The next opponent in the bracket is T1 with an updated roster and the legendary Topson and Ana, who are back to win their third TI victory. Fans had a lot of expectations for this T1 roster. Talon Esports did not disappoint, and they showed they beat the enemy in the drafts. On the first map, 23savage played Slark against Pudge and Morphling, who are fieldless against him. Also, on the second map, a good combination was taken in the form of the usual Faceless Void on the opening pick. Then Ancient Apparition was added, which completely countered the T1 pick with Lone Druid, Marci, and Dazzle. Regular 2:0 for Talon Esports.
In the grand final, they fought Polaris Esports, who made it through the lower bracket. On the first map, Polaris was heavily dominated after lanes with Pudge, so Talon lost in 30 minutes. The second map was already more accessible, as Polaris got too bright, and Talon leveled the score. In the third, Polaris surprised by taking Doom in the first position, which helped them to win the map. The fourth and fifth maps were taken by Talon, having an advantage in the draft. Thus, Talon took the win in bo5.
At the end of the qualifiers and entering The International, on September 19, Talon Esports announced a new coach, he became ALWAYSWANNAFLY. On one of the public podcasts, AWF shared information that 23savage wrote to him on Instagram with an invitation to a coaching slot in their team. According to the team, forev wasn't doing his job well, and they lost drafts. Also, according to AWF, the players thanked him for the results of joint work in the qualifiers, in which AWF was responsible for the draft stage.
