Talon Esports Take Down Shopify Rebellion To Reach Top 3 At Lima Major

Republished By Plato

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Talon Esports continue to wreak havoc in the Lima Major lower bracket and eliminate NA’s last hope, Shopify Rebellion, to make it to the finals day.

Not many had Talon Esports as a favourite for a deep run at the Lima Major when the tournament began on the 22nd of March. The SEA representative came to Peru as the third placed team in their regional league after winning a tiebreaker series with Blacklist International. But once they arrived at the Major, Talon were more than prepared to show the world that they are in fact the best from their region by starting the group stage run with a 2-0 victory over Execration, the top seed from SEA.

From the three SEA teams that qualified for the Lima Major, Talon were the only ones to advance to the playoffs, and they did it by securing an upper bracket start, while Execration and Geek Slate were sent packing early. They had a rocky start in the playoffs, losing to Team Liquid, who at that time was the main favourite at the title.

Dropped to the lower bracket, Talon began an incredible underdog run. They eliminated both EEU representatives, HellRaisers and Team Spirit, they ended Entity’s run and now they have guaranteed a top 3 finish by also taking down Shopify Rebellion.

The series started with Shopify allowing Talon to have both Lina and Nature’s Prophet and they were severely punished for it. However, RTZ and co struck back hard in game two with a draft that featured global presence on the map, burst and catch that stopped Talon’s early aggression.

Talon returned to the stage for the decisive game with a global strategy of their own. They went with a Spectre – Storm Spirit killer combo and played extremely aggressively. Nuengnara “23savage” Teeramahanon rushed Aghanim’s Scepter, which he completed around the 15-minute mark and along with Rafli “Mikoto” Rahman, they hunted down Shopify continuously, one-shotting the supports and establishing total dominance.

One series keeps Talon away from a spot in the grand finals where Gaimin Gladiators are waiting. Team Liquid, who sent them to the lower bracket in the first place, are Talon’s final obstacle in the lower bracket rounds. However, TL are missing Samuel “Boxi” Svahn due to a medical emergency and in their upper bracket finals against GG they looked weakened.

Even so, Talon’s coach Lee “SunBhie” Jeong-jae doesn’t want that to get into his players’ heads.

“I think Liquid is in an unfortunate position. However, if we allow that to get to us I think we will find ourselves in trouble,” he said in the winner’s interview after eliminating Shopify Rebellion from the Major. “I’m sure they are very capable still. I think that is one of the weaknesses of SEA, where we kind of relax. I want to make sure I yell at the guys enough to make sure they’re prepared.”

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Lima Major has reached the culminating point. Three teams are left to battle for the first major of the year trophy. Talon Esports and Team Liquid will open the final day in Arena 1 from Lima, Peru at 17:00 CET/11:00 PET with the winner joining Gaimin Gladiators in the best-of-five grand finals scheduled to commence at 21:00 CET/15:00 PET.