The Esports powerhouse, Team Falcons are out of the PGL Wallachia S4 after they fumbled their group stage run. This is by far the worst performance we have witnessed from the MENA Dota 2 team since its formation and could be a sign of Falcons’ flaws.
Team Falcons eliminated from PGL Wallachia S4 (Image credit: PGL)
PGL Wallachia S4 Group Stage recap
The PGL Wallachia S4 features a brutal and unforgiving group stage format that truly tests subpar teams’ endurance. Particularly, the single swiss-system means that if a team isn’t dominant enough to win three straight best-of-three series consecutively, they have to play additional matches to decide their scores.
Team Falcons at PGL Wallachia S4
Unfortunately, that was exactly Team Falcons’ fate at this group stage of PGL Wallachia S4. After convincingly winning two series against Talon Esports and Team Liquid, Falcons weren’t able to secure one more victory to advance into top-eight finish. Instead, they experienced three back-to-back losses that baffled both casters and fans alike, as they watched their downfall.
Taking a deeper dive on Falcons’ games, there seems to be a lack of trust by Falcons players on their own hard carry player, Oliver “skiter” Lepko. The unusual hard carry picks that Falcons drafted for him, such as Gyrocopter, Tiny and a Tidehunter at one point, were questionable decisions from captain Jingjun “Sneyking” Wu. To add insult to injury, Falcons have seemingly left their hard carry player to fend for himself, often alone in the safelane, where he gets bullied by the opponents’ offlane player.
Furthermore, it’s clear that the powerhouse’s prodigy, Ammar “ATF” Al-Assaf’s performance has been greatly diminished, perhaps from PGL’s new ban on toxic all chat messages. Jokes aside, these actions show that Falcons is not confident in their late-game potential, where skiter is expected to dominate. Of course, these criticisms were not meant to target skiter’s skills. He’s the International 11 Champion, when he formerly played for Tundra Esports, and still remained as one of the best Dota 2 players.
Oliver “skiter” Lepko at PGL Wallachia S4 (Image credit: PGL)
What’s next for Team Falcons?
However, it’s evident that Falcons need to return to the drawing board on what went wrong and reconsider their strategy going into upcoming PGL tournaments. Hopefully, this isn’t their trigger to consider a roster shuffle mid-season and the last time we see this founding roster of Team Falcons. This team’s players have played together since late 2023 and won countless Dota 2 tournaments, so it would be a shame to see them go out that way.
On a different note, kudos to NAVI Junior for dealing the finishing blow on Falcons’ elimination at PGL Wallachia S4 and successfully advancing to the playoffs. This squad of young blood under the leadership of Baqyt “Zayac” Emiljanov, has proven their strengths with their first major tournament debut.