Well, that ship sank before it even set sail. Talon Esports’ announced that Tal “Fly” Aizik and Kim “Gabbi” Villafuerte are parting ways with the team after a single DPC Tour. Now there have been many speculations as to what caused this, but one thing’s for certain. It’s probably because Talon Esports is a massive letdown.
We are heading into a mini-offseason in Dota 2, and we wonder where both players could land before Tour 2, and which replacements can Talon look to going forward.
He simply can’t catch a break
Why did Fly and Gabbi leave Talon Esports?
Talon Esports debut in the Dota Pro Circuit 2022 season with high hopes and expectations. Yet, they concluded the DPC2021-22 with only a fifth-place to show. Bravo for not getting eliminated from Division 2.
Anyways, digging deeper into this, it’s evident that Talon Esports didn’t perform as well as they hoped. Many pointed out that Fly and Gabbi played exceptionally for the most part, but the rest of the team just couldn’t deliver the same level of gameplay. Unfortunately, the blame seemingly fell onto Damien “kpii” Chok, Talon’s offlane player. To kpii’s justice, the offlane role is plausibly the toughest to play in, considering the opposing team will drive you out.
The other carry player, Rafli Fathur “Mikoto” Rahman also takes the brunt of the blame for his underwhelming performance. What’s contradicting is that Mikoto has been phenomenal last season, but this significant dip in not just his performance but playstyle raised quite the debate among fans.
Yet, Fly and Gabbi were the ones to leave, as they couldn’t really relocate fully and synergize with the team in the long run.
A draft not fit for the Talons
Let’s be frank here, Fly is a seasoned veteran player in his own right. After all, he captained notable teams in his career but even Fly would agree that he wasn’t much of a leader himself. As for drafting expertise, it goes without saying that Fly wasn’t able to make his mastermind plans work as intended. We see unorthodox offlane and mid hero picks that may look good on paper, but didn’t work as intended. Worse yet, the drafts were easily halted by opponents, who merely prolong the match until Talon’s drafts were obsolete.
In hindsight, many fans assumed that Fly had a culture shock when he first play in the Southeast Asia region. A new region at that, where he had little to no experience in SEA’s unique playstyle, besides the occasional Major or The International tournament.
There were two options for Talon, either something magical happens or something horrible happens. Sadly, it was the latter.
What’s next for Fly and Gabbi?
There’s no point in crying over split milk now that the verdict has been decide
Esports.net
