Zai Rats Out Talon To Bring Team Liquid To Top 3

Our first Top 3 match of the Riyadh Masters featured Team Liquid against Southeast Asia’s last hope Talon Esports. Though Liquid was the favorite to take the series, Talon certainly put up a great fight and probably should have won this series.

Game 1

Game 1 was a close affair until the 27-minute mark, where Team Liquid won a team fight outside of Talon’s Top Tier 2 tower, allowing them to take a lane of Barracks quickly. Ten minutes later, Liquid could claim Mega Creeps and forced Talon to concede the game.

Game 2

In the second game, Liquid looked good in the early game, building up a 5,000 net worth lead in the 14th minute. However, the game started to get shaky for Liquid, and even though they were still in the lead, it wasn’t by much. 

The game started going back and forth, with both teams trading blows. The game was decided in the 46th minute when Talon took a team fight outside Liquid’s base. Jabz’s Mars managed to get a four-man Arena of Blood which allowed 23savage’s Terrorblade to dish in the damage and kill off miCKe’s Sven, who had no buyback. 

Despite the rest of Liquid’s best efforts to defend without miCKe, Talon’s five-man was too strong and could end the game after winning the team fight.

Game 3

Game 3 of the series was one of the greatest games in all of Riyadh Masters 2023. In the post-game interview, zai mentioned that Talon slapped them in the lanes, so Liquid had to start playing dirty.

Zai’s Broodmother was constantly being an annoyance by ratting Talon’s Bottom Barracks. When Talon members had to teleport back to defend, Team Liquid would look for a fight and outnumber Talon when they were missing members. This strategy worked out incredibly well, allowing Liquid to take control of the game. 

Despite being two lanes of Barracks down, Talon had something going for them: they made it to the late game, and we all know how fierce SEA teams can be in the later stages of the game. 23savage displayed one of the most outstanding Morphling performances in this tournament so far, allowing Talon to win crucial team fights to bring them to start hitting Tier 4 Towers in the Liquid base.

Nisha and miCKe were dead without buyback, but zai teleported to Talon’s base for a base race. At this point of the gane, 23savage had already begun standing up to taunt the Liquid players who were seated across him.

Though Talon had five heroes alive to hit the base while zai was alone, Team Liquid still had Glyph of Fortification, which bought the Liquid base some much-needed time. 23savage tried to teleport back to defend but got his TP canceled by Boxi’s Rubick. All this stalling allowed zai to win the base race and rob Talon of their Top 3 spot. 

Check out this video of 23savage celebrating too early.

Zai’s heroic play has secured Team Liquid an extra $900,000 and a date with the winner of Team Spirit versus BetBoom. Talon isn’t eliminated yet and will be sent to the Lower Bracket to play against 9 Pandas or Team Aster.