Talon Esports secure an upper bracket slot at TI12; banish Gaimin Gladiators to the lower bracket

Talon Esports turned around a horrid start to their TI12 campaign by defeating Gaimin Gladiators 2-1 and securing an upper bracket slot in the playoffs.

Just a couple of days ago, it seemed like Talon Esports might be eliminated from Group D of the TI12 group stage phase one. They lost their first two series and had their backs against the wall with a score of 0-4. But instead of crumbling, the team showed resolve to end with a score of 4-4 by winning their next two series. That set them up against one of the strongest teams of the season, Gaimin Gladiators, in phase two of the group stage.

Gaimin Gladiators came second in Group C behind LGD, and had no say in picking their opponents. Talon defeated and eliminated GG a few weeks ago at the Riyadh Masters, so they knew what they had to do to succeed.
 

Gaimin GladiatorsvsTalon Esports

The first game was a rather easy one for Gaimin Gladiators. They seemed in control of the game for the majority of it, and managed to take it in just under 40 minutes. It seemed like GG had learned from their mistakes in Riyadh and knew exactly what to do against Talon.

Game 2 is where it got exciting. The game was extremely close, until GG won a fight, got the tier 4 towers down and had the throne at half HP. But Talon put up an amazing defense and turned the game around from the brink of defeat to win it in a little over 65 minutes. This is definitely the best game The International 2023 (TI12) has thrown at us till now.

Gaimin Gladiators seemed to have put the loss behind them as they were cruising in game 3 with the win probability heavily favouring them. But Talon Esports were just waiting for their Morphling to come online, and once he did, the game changed pretty rapidly. At the 18th minute, Talon trailed by a kill score of 6-15 and had a 8000 net worth deficit. By the 30^th minute, the score was 14-17 with a 4000 net worth lead in Talon’s favor. After that, the Southeast Asian team did not take their foot off the pedal and went on to secure the win. They will play Team Liquid in the upper bracket, while Gaimin Gladiators will begin their lower bracket journey against Evil
Geniuses.

Team LiquidvsEvil Geniuses

The penultimate series of the day saw Team Liquid take on Evil Geniuses, and it wasn’t an exciting series by any stretch of the imagination. Team Liquid showed EG who was boss, and secured a rather easy passage into the upper bracket. Evil Geniuses, who have had a below average season, will now have to defeat Gaimin Gladiators if they want to progress at The International 2023.

There are still four games to go in phase two of the group stage. Once those series are played out, the bracket will be clear. The playoffs will begin on the 20th of October.