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Falcons.Malr1ne: "People need to start using their brain a bit"
The playoffs for the Riyadh Masters 2024 have begun. Aside from some technical difficulties, there were some exciting series. One of which was between Xtreme Gaming and Team Falcons. The Chinese powerhouse has shown strong potential. They won the grand final against Falcons at Elite League Season 1. However, WBG.XG has been inconsistent in their performance, and it came into play in the series.
Team Falcons has been one of the most dominant teams this season. Stanislav "Malr1ne" Potorak, Team Falcons' midlaner, had a quick interview after the series. He discussed how he sees things differently and what his team has been cooking up for the tournament.
Malr1ne: "I knew Sand King can work"
The first game was a one-sided affair going in the way of Falcons. Xtreme's safelane Sven had no success in bringing down the Falcons' heroes. Snapfire, one of the supports of Team Falcons, did not even die once. The midlane Sand King draft from them had so much success that Xtreme's kill score did not even get to ten during the first game. After the series, Malr1ne reflected on the decision to pick a midlane Sand King.
"At the start of the patch, I was looking at Sand King, and every person was typing me – this hero is real trash. I was trying to figure out how the hero works. I was playing like thirty pubs and another fifty pubs to see what's happening. Now, every guy is just playing Sand King. It feels wrong, they just have like ten games and trying to copy me. It's not fair; just let me play this hero."
Sand King has been picking up steam at Riyadh Masters 2024. The hero had a massive glow-up in Patch 7.36 due to one of his facets, Dust Devil. However, Valve sent some minor nerfs at him in the later letter patches. While this action was enough to discourage most players from playing the hero, it was a different story for the midlaner of Team Falcon. Malr1ne trusted his gut feeling and went along with it.
"Something inside of me – I knew this hero can work; Just need to figure out how to build items on this hero. Usually, people without using their brains, building the same. Now, a bunch of people saying Tinker is dead and now everyone was saying – it's more broken than it's before. People need to start using their brain a bit."
Malr1ne on the second game: "It was hard to deal with"
Xtreme Gaming hits back hard in the second. The tri-core of Morphling, Beastmaster, and Slardar was too much for Team Falcons to handle.
In this match, WBG.XG had a midlane Slardar, but they switched his roles with Beastmaster. It worked out for them and forced a deciding game. Malr1ne admitted Team Falcons was caught off guard by this unorthodox strategy.
" I got surprised that they actually swapped the heroes. This can be a problem in the future games. At the point, we was playing Monkey King, I was about to crush the Slardar at mid and gonna snowball it. I think game still was playable; it was good, but we shoot to do perfectly. Our timing arise and just dived them as much as possible, ends up causing a free kill. They just get their items better than our heroes. It was hard to deal with it."
The deciding game was a bit slow, in contrast to the first and second ones. However, in the end, Falcons overcame the four-protect-one draft, coming out from Xtreme Gaming. As a result, they advanced to the upper-bracket semifinals.
Malr1ne: "We will try to show our best Dota"
Team Falcons showed some cracks during the first day of the group stage at the Riyadh Masters 2024.
Credits: ESL One
The team lost two series of the tournament during their group stage. Malr1ne reveals what Team Falcons has been cooking up since then.
"Compared to first day, we probably will play Dota like humans. It's gonna the first thing we gonna do. The main point of us is good communication. We was working it for all this year for this tournament. We will try to show our best Dota."
Team Falcons is among the favourites to win The Riyadh Masters 2024. Their upcoming series is against Gaimin Gladiators, a team that took a clean victory off them in the group stage. Stay tuned to our website for the latest coverage of all the action unfolding at the tournament.
Featured Image Source: ESL
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