Talon Esports take the final SEA spot to Lima Major

Southeast Asia Division I of the Winter Tour has come to an end with a tiebreaker series between Blacklist International and Talon Esports for the final ticket up for grabs in the region to the Lima Major.

Both Talon and Blacklist closed the league play tied in the third place with a 4-3 overall series score. Although Talon lost the direct confrontation with Blacklist on the 16 of January, the new DPC rules brought back tiebreakers for any tie that might result at the end of the regular season.

2023 DPC tiebreaker rules

• Two-way tie: Bo3
• Three-way or more tie: Bo1

There was only one tiebreaker in SEA after Geek Slate were able to close their league run with a 5-2 score and place second in the region, which secured them a spot at the upcoming major. The battle for the third and final slot pitted the new entry organization in the Dota 2 field, Blacklist International, and the TI11 attendee Talon Esports.

This Winter Tour marked the debut for Blacklist, who put together a well-seasoned veteran line-up in hopes of making their entrance with a bang. They won four of the seven series in the league schedule, but that wasn’t enough for a clean cut to the Lima Major. Unfortunately for them, when it mattered the most, in the tiebreaker with Talon, the roster fell flat and got dismantled in a quick 2-0 series.

Talon took game one with 19 kills to 5 courtesy of a quick tempo game set up with a Keeper of the Light core, but played from the offlane by Anucha “Jabz” Jirawong and went for the same concept in game two, but with different team fight combos. They ran an offlane Marci, mid lane Batrider, and a position 5 Undying, which were all too much for Blacklist to handle from the early stages of the game.

Southeast Asia qualified teams for Lima Major

With the Winter Tour Division I coming to a close, the next pit stop in the long road to The International 2023 is Lima Major. The event is expected to take place at Arena 1 from Peru’s capital city from February 22 to March 5, with a total of 18 teams fighting for a shot at the title and a share of the $500,000 prize pool and 1,900 DPC points.