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Nine Returns from Hiatus to Save Team Falcons
Team Falcons is having Visa issues again. The team had to attend the first day of ESL Birmingham with Sumail "SumaiL" Hassan and now the team has to bring in another International winning mid, Leon "Nine" Kirilin.
This is the second time the team had to bring in a stand-in for Stanislav "Malr1ne" Potorak. Unlike Birmingham, it isn't known if Nine will join just for the first day or the entire event.
Nine will be returning after a seven-month break
The previous year wasn't a highlight for Tundra Esports. After lifting the Aegis in 2022, the squad hit a slump. The team did well in the regional DPC league yet their best result at International events was a top-six finish at ESL One Berlin Major 2023.
At the two biggest events of the year, Tundra placed top 12th at Riyadh Masters and top 16th at The International. With relatively disappointing results for the team, Tundra released most of their players.
Since his dismissal, Nine hasn't played a professional game or indicated interest in joining a team. His rank has also slipped, going from top five in Europe to rank 500.
How will Nine fit in with Team Falcons?
Nine is a pioneer in Dota 2, regularly introducing new heroes into the mid-lane and doing an incredible job with them. He made Keeper of the Light a staple mid and showed great success with Spirit Breaker and Winter Wyvern in the past.
Team Falcons tend to pick durable mid-laners for Malr1ne and have him run around making space. Heroes such as Timbersaw, Primal Beast, and Doom are regulars for them.
It will be interesting to see if Falcons tries to use Nine the same way they played with Malr1ne or if the rest of the team adapts to their stand-in's unique hero pool.
Either way, we expect Falcons to have some growing pains at PGL Wallachia, but Dota 2 is a game full of surprises.
Multiple teams suffer from Visa issues at PGL Wallachia
Bringing in a stand-in isn't ideal but Team Falcons can thank their lucky stars things aren't worse.
Shopify Rebellion had to replace two of their players for Wallachia. Interestingly enough, one of them is Sumail "SumaiL" Hassan, who helped out Falcons at ESL Birmingham.
In the case of Blacklist International and Tundra Esports, the two organizations will miss out on the tournament completely. Most of the players on Blacklist are from the Philipines and SEA players generally struggle to get Visas to Western countries on such a tight deadline.
Tundra Esports has two players from Russia, and with the ongoing war in Ukraine, most countries have sanctions against Russia, which makes traveling for them significantly more difficult than before.
The two teams will be replaced by Mouz and Azure Ray respectively. This will be the biggest tournament for Mouz, who apart from winning the Dota 2 World Invitationals, has yet to make their mark on the scene.
Azure Ray has been getting stronger in each appearance, and their third-place finish at Elite League has helped establish them as one of the best teams in China.
PGL Wallachia begins on March 10th. Fans can catch all the action live on Twitch and YouTube.
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Featured Image Source: Team Falcons
