Team Falcons came out on top in a hard fought series against Team Liquid that ended 2-1 in their favor in the lower bracket of ESL One Birmingham 2024.
It was a bit of a surprise when Team Falcons dropped to the lower bracket of ESL One Birmingham 2024, succumbing to Tundra Esports in the upper bracket. But they seem to have found their groove again as the MENA team took down Team Liquid 2-1 in the lower bracket to send them packing.
This was the first day of the tournament in front of a crowd and the Resorts World Arena was packed to the rafters. Team Liquid had a bit of momentum going into this series, having eliminated HEROIC 2-1 earlier in the day, and also had a lion’s share of the crowd support. But there is a reason Team Falcons is growing into the team of the season, as Team Liquid soon found out.
Team Falcons
vs
Team Liquid
The last time these two teams met was in the grand final of BetBoom Dacha Dubai 2024, where Falcons demolished Liquid 3-0. So along with a place in the top 4, revenge was on the line as well for the Western European outfit.
In game 1, Falcons tried to outpace Liquid’s Luna lineup with their own Huskar and Dragon Knight lineup. They even got the fastest Roshan of the game. But the saviour for Liquid was the Io, who kept them alive in fights when they were on the back foot. Liquid were trailing by 6000 gold after just 13 minutes, but the Io’s sustain bought them enough time for the Luna to be able to take over the game and win it in a little over 33 minutes.
Game 2 was the most back and forth game of the series. Lasting for nearly an hour, it was a valiant effort by Team Liquid to stretch out the game and try to get their Templar Assassin to reach critical mass. They managed to do a great job of bringing the net worth and win probability to neutral ground around the 45th minute.
But it all went south in the last team fight when Falcons successfully dodged two Black Holes from Enigma, and were able to win the fight and finish the game.
In the final game, Falcons let Liquid have Luna again, but this time, countered it with Shadow Demon and Weaver. Like game 1, Falcons were able to get an early lead, but this time they didn’t let it slip. This was the most one sided game of the series, ending with a kill score of 43-10 in Falcons’ favor.
Team Falcons move on, and will play the winner of OG and G2 x IG. They are still probably the favourites to win it all, considering how dominant they have been this season.
Team Liquid will have to settle for 5th/6th place with a prize pool of $57,500. This is unlike the Team Liquid the Dota 2 community has been used to seeing for the last year and a half, and they will have to go back to the drawing board to figure out what needs to change. They changed offlaners from Ludgwin “Zai” Wahlberg to Neta “33” Shapira in the offseason, and the two have very different playstyles. Zai was often a sacrificial position 3, while 33 is used to being the position 2 from his days with Tundra Esports. They will have a chance to redeem themselves in PGL Wallachia, which begins on the 10th of May in Bucharest.
