Talon Esports have been on a resurgence since the return of Thai star carry player 23savage.
Southeast Asian Dota 2 powerhouse 
Talon Esports has officially qualified for the Esports World Cup (EWC) 2025's Dota 2 tournament after securing a Top 4 placement at the ongoing DreamLeague Season 26. This placement earned them enough ESL Pro Tour (EPT) points to reach the Top 8 of the EPT leaderboard, securing a direct invite to the prestigious annual event.
Talon had a strong showing at DreamLeague Season 26, starting with a third place finish in Group B during the first Group Stage ahead of top teams like 
Gaimin Gladiators and 
Team Falcons.
In the second round-robin stage, Talon continued to perform well. They scored best-of-three wins against 
BetBoom Team, Gaimin Gladiators, 
Yakult Brothers, and 
Nigma Galaxy. Despite losing to 
PARIVISION and 
Aurora Gaming, their overall results were enough to advance to the Playoffs and lock in a Top 4 finish.
This placement gave Talon enough EPT points to climb to 7th place on the EPT leaderboard. They now join other directly invited teams in the Top 8, including PARIVISION, 
Team Spirit, BetBoom Team, Team Falcons, Team Liquid, and 
Tundra Esports.
Two more teams qualified for the EWC through other routes: Gaimin Gladiators as the defending champions, and 
Xtreme Gaming through the Asian Champions League.
A new dawn for Talon Esports
Talon’s guaranteed Top 4 placement in DreamLeague Season 26 is the best result achieved by a Southeast Asian team this year, thanks in large part to the squad’s recent roster changes. Southeast Asia's top carry player, 
Nuengnara “23savage” Teeramahanon, returned to Talon on 10 May after spending the first half of the season playing with 
OG and struggled to yield any results with them.
His return also reunited him with mid laner 
Rafli Fathur “Mikoto” Rahman. The two were a key part of Talon’s successful 2023 run, which saw the team place in the Top 3 at both the Lima Major and Riyadh Masters 2023. Since that lineup disbanded at the end of the year and the players went their separate ways, Talon had not been able to repeat that level of success.
With 23savage alongside Mikoto, and joined by standouts 
Chung “Ws`” Wei Shen and Tri “Jhocam” Kuncoro as well as veteran captain 
Carlo “KuKu” Palad, Talon looks back on track to bring Southeast Asia back into the global spotlight.
DreamLeague Season 26 is still underway, and while Talon Esports has already exceeded expectations, there's still room to make an even bigger statement.
The second group stage concludes today (30 May), with the Playoffs set to run through to 1 June. Talon now faces some of the tournament’s toughest opponents in the final stage: PARIVISION, BetBoom Team, Gaimin Gladiators, and Aurora Gaming.
But with an EWC qualification already in the bag, we can expect a confident Talon to surf through the final tournament days.
The Dota 2 Esports World Cup will take place from 8-19 July in front of a live audience at Boulevard Riyadh City in Saudi Arabia. The tournament will feature 16 of the world’s top teams, with the winner claiming the lion’s share of the USD$3 million prize pool.
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