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The Riyadh Masters 2023 is heating up. That's what happens when there's a whopping $15,000,000 at stake.
In the tournament's play-offs, the tension is heating up. The event's semifinals are underway at the Saudi Long Championship.
Team Liquid and Talon Esports will open the semifinals stage of the Riyadh Masters 2023. In general, the match can hardly be called a surprise, because both teams know how to play Dota, however, such a pair in the semifinals still causes The International heresy.
The format of the meeting, as before, is bo3. The winner goes to the final of the upper grid, which is a minimum of 1,700,000 to the account.
We are trying to figure out which team will be stronger and earn $1,700,000, and who will have to fall to the lower grid and play with no margin for error.
Let's get started.
Team Liquid uniforms
Let's open the match with an analysis of Team Liquid's form. In this match the team will play in the status of favourite.
Bookmakers are confident in the stability of "liquid". The odds on the victory of Liquid in this match is estimated by a figure in the region of 1.5.
Quite an average figure. Kind of a clear favourite, but doubts about Liquid remain.
Liquid didn't lose a single match at DPC 2023: WEU Division 1 Tour 1, and then took the top 2 at The Lima Major 2023 while playing with substitutes. More than decent.
The second round of the DPC was as similar to the previous round as possible. Liquid again took the Top 1, but now with only one loss in the table. On the international stage, Liquid shone again, but were still overshadowed by Gaimin Gladiators, who took their second Major a Champions Cup of the season.
In their third season, Liquid were no longer able to cement their supremacy. "Liquid" fell to fourth place, but it was good enough to pass at Bali Major 2023, which in the case of the past at The International 2023 Team Liquid does not play any role.
- Liquid lineup: miCKe, Nisha, zai, Boxi, Insania .
After the disappointing result at DreamLeague Season 20, where Team Liquid fell out of the first group stage, there was a feeling that Bali Major 2023 would be held for Liquid on the "liquid" on Minor notes. However, Liquid decided to switch on and play to the full.
And they almost succeeded: they took the top 2, losing in the grand finals to Gaimin Glaidators! Again. Third time at a Major tournament in a year.
Riyadh Masters 2023 Team Liquid started at the Play-In stage, as they surprisingly didn't collect enough ESL ranking points. They finished the Play-In with a 3-1-1 score and second place in Basket A, and then played the group stage with a 3-3-1 statistic, advancing to the top set of play-offs.
In the first match of the Riyadh Masters 2023, Liquid played Gaimin Gladiators. A 2-1 win should have been a huge morale boost for Liquid.
Team Liquid's most popular heroes
In the top picks for Team Liquid is Crystal Maiden with 7 games and 6 wins.
In addition to Crystal Maiden picks Doom (4 matches, 100% wins), Sven (4 matches, 75% wins), Skywrath Mage (4 matches, 75% wins).
Rubick (4 matches, 25% wins), Void Spirit (3 matches, 100% wins) appear in spades, Underlord, Pangolier, Storm Spirit have 3 matches each and all have 2 wins.
Talon Esports uniforms
We continue the match analysis with the analysis of Talon Esports form. In this match the team will play in the status of catching up.
Bookmakers do not really believe in Talon Esports, but they are not in a hurry to put nails in the coffin. The chance of victory for the Southeast Asian residents is estimated at odds around 2.6.
As far as I'm concerned, that's a pretty close score. However, Talon Esports remain a rather unstable team, so it is easy to believe in their backlog.
The team made it to the top 1 of the region, and also reached the heights at Lima Major 2023: in the first round of SEA the team took the 3rd place, at The Lima Major 2023 the same top 3, and in the next round they won the home league.
However, what followed was chaos. The first signs of Talon's fickleness were at DreamLeague S19, when after a solid The Lima Major 2023, the team finished top-12 at a major international event.
At the next Major, The Bali Major 2023, Talon finished in the top 8 before a very mediocre performance at DPC SEA 2023 Tour 3: Division 1, finishing in 4th place in their home league.
The last tournament before the Riyadh Masters 2023 was DreamLeague Season 20. There the team finished in the top 4.
- Talon Esports roster: 23savage, Mikoto, Jabz, Q, Oli .
At the Riyadh Masters 2023 Talon Esports got straight into the group stage, and all thanks to the rating from ESL. They did well in the group stage: they finished in the top 4 and made it to the top play-offs.
In the first match Talon Esports played against Quest Esports. In a very difficult match, being an outsider on paper, Talon Esports managed to win with a score of 2-1.
Most popular Talon Esports characters
The most popular Talon Esports character is Tiny. The team swaps his positions, but most often he is sent to position 4. The character has 8 matches and 87% wins.
Next are Natures Phophet (7 games, 100% wins) and Io with Leshrac, who was also picked 7 times and won 6 matches.
Clockwerk (100% wins) and Morphing (60% wins) appeared 5 times each.
History of head-to-head meetings
The teams have previously played each other five times over the course of the 2023 season. The statistics are not in favour of Talon: three times Liquid won, one draw and once Talon.
Team Liquid - Talon Esports match result
In this match we can expect a high speed dota. Talon can clinch the match if they don't make up a wheel like they did on the second map against Quest. However, after Liquid's win over Gladiators, I'm confident in Liquid's morale and their further passage through the winner's bracket.
Bottom line: victory for Team Liquid.
