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The PGL Wallachia Season 1 playoffs are heating up. We are watching the second game day of the main stage of a major tournament with a prize pool of $1,000,000.
Closing out the game day will be Falcons and Team Liquid. This is probably the central match of the day, where we will see high quality Dota 2 played by at least one of the teams.
We are trying to figure out which team will be stronger in this confrontation and make it to the top 3 of PGL Wallachia Season 1, and who will have to continue their march through the play-offs in the lower grid.
Let's go.
Falcons Form
Let's open the match with an analysis of the Falcons' form. In this match, the best team in the world will play the number one with odds to win at around 1.3.
The tag is not new, but they have not been able to achieve much fame since coming to Dota 2 a few years ago. All they did was to play in the local Saudi eLeague. They played there in 2020, with the top 6 and in 2021, with the top 3 and top 1 respectively.
After a pause of a year, decided to return to the professional scene after Valve cancelled the DPC system. Breaking in with a leg.
- Falcons roster: skiter, SumaiL, ATF, Cr1t, Sneyking.
When collecting the roster, we went by the principle of "golden lineup". We managed to get two players from Tundra Esports, and at the same time champions of The International 2023 Skiter and Sneyking, Cr1t, who previously played for Shopify Rebellion and previously for EG, ATF, who showed a good performance last season in PSG Quest and before that in Nigma with OG, and closed everything with a promising mid laner Marl1ne.
In the MENA region, where Falcons are based, this squad has no competition even at the skilla level. As it happens, the Falcons have already clinched their ticket to Kuala Lumpur 2023.
First, they passed the open qualification without any difficulty, and then, again without much trouble, slammed the closed part of the qualifiers. In the final, by the way, they beat PSG Quest by a score of 3-1. What one and two are doing in the MENA region is not entirely clear, but come on.
At Pinnacle: 25 Year Anniversary Show Falcons look very confident so far, which is to be expected. They have already earned their place in the play-offs by coming out of Group B in first place without losing a single game in three matches.
The Falcons started their appearance in the Pinnacle play-offs: 25 Year Anniversary Show with a first round match against Level Up. An easy win took the Falcons to The dudley boys and there the Falcons got their first and only loss of the tournament. They were beaten by The dudley boys, who were given a rematch by the Falcons in the grand final.
In the end, the Pinnacle: 25 Year Anniversary Show Falcons took first place and earned $50,000. The triumph at the local championship was the Falcons' first win in the discipline. But not the last.
After winning at Pinnacle, Falcons finished top 6 at ESL One Kuala Lumpur 2023 and then started to dominate. In 2024, they won 3 qualifiers: at BB Dacha, at DreamLeague Season 22 and ESL One Birmingham at their home in the MENA region.
Just before competing at DL Season 22, Falcons became BB Dacha champions, earning $400,000.
After the Falcons played at DreamLeague Season 22. They showed the highest level of play and pocketed another trophy by beating BB 3-0 in the grand finals. They made it to the Elite League finals, but they couldn't win there: Xtreme Gaming were stronger and won the finals with a score of 3-1.
Before the PGL Wallachia Season 1 Falcons visited ESL One Birmingham 2024, where they triumphed again. After falling to the bottom set of the play-offs in the early stages, Falcons went on a roller-coaster ride and sealed ESL One Birmingham 2024 with a super confident 3-0 win in the final.
In the PGL Wallachia Season 1 play-offs, Falcons went 3-0 up, although they gave away two games. But in the first match of the main stage they defeated BOOM by a dry score.
The most popular Falcons heroes
Io (6 matches, 66% wins), Death Prophet (5 matches, 60% wins), Chen (5 matches, 60% wins), Dawnbreaker (4 matches, 75% wins), Earth Spirit (4 matches, 75% wins) appeared most often in spades.
Form Liquid
We continue the match analysis with an analysis of Liquid's match form. Here, Liquid are playing in the underdog position with odds to win around 2.9.
At DPC 2023: WEU Division 1 Tour 1 Liquid did not lose a single match, 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, 33, 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 "Mypognye" 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.
At the end of the biggest tournament of the year, Team Liquid finished in the top 2, which can't be called a bad result. Unlike the top-10 at DreamLeague Season 21, which was after the Riyadh Masters 2023 and before Longsong The International 2023.
Team Liquid made it to the next round of the group stage pretty confidently from Group B. "Liquid" took the top 1 by taking a 3-1-0 lead in the series.
In the play-offs seeding match, Liquid faced Evil Geniuses. The Peruvians are not happy at this The International 2023, from which they expectedly lost 0-2 against Liquid.
In the first round of play-offs LIquid met Talon Esports. They won on class, taking two maps. What is true, further went not according to plan: a loss from Spirit and then Gaimin Gladiators, already at the bottom of the table. At the end of the main event of the year Team Liquid took the top 6.
The new season began with a performance at Kuala Lumpur 2023, where they reached TOP-2. In 2024 they played everywhere they could. They also went to BB Dacha and made it to the TOP-2 (lost in the final to Falcons), played on DL Season 22. DreamLeague Season 22 was definitely not a priority, as Liquid were so out of shape that they didn't make it out of the group stage.
There was the 1win series tournament, where Ledge or Spirit went 1-2 in the grand finals and Elite League, where they finished top 4.
At ESL One Birmingham 2024, Team Liquid finished in the top 6, with Ledge beating future champions Falcons. PGL Wallachia Season 1 the team started with a win over G2.IG, then lost 2 series to Xtreme and Shopify Rebellion before beating MOUZ. Finally, they defeated their counterparts from Secret, thus advancing to the playoffs with a score of 3-2.
In the PGL Wallachia Season 1 play-offs, they debuted with a match against GG, where they were stronger. The result was 2-1 in favour of Liquid.
Team Liquid's most popular heroes
Team Liquid has Crystal Maiden in the top picks with 7 games and 6 wins.
In addition to Crystal Maiden, Doom (4 matches, 100% wins), Sven (4 matches, 75% wins), Skywrath Mage (4 matches, 75% wins) are the picks.
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.
History of head-to-head meetings between Falcons and Liquid
This season the teams have already played each other 5 times. Falcons have won three times, while Liquid have won 1 series.
Predicted result of the match Falcons - Liquid on PGL Wallachia Season 1
In this match I expect a beautiful Dota 2. Obviously Falcons are stronger and favoured, however I wouldn't write Liquid off. We've seen Falcons give away Nouns and GG in the group stage, so they are definitely a force to be reckoned with.
Bottom line: +1.5 on Liquid.
