TaiLung Shines as HEROIC Dota 2 Make BLAST Slam Playoffs

HEROIC Dota 2 have pulled off a stunning comeback at BLAST Slam VI, going from the Last Chance bracket all the way through to the LAN playoffs in Malta! 

It was a tumultuous start to the season for the squad leading into the BLAST Slam tournament. Dealing with 2 roster changes and reintegrating Wisper back into his old role caused enough difficulty that the team failed to qualify for DreamLeague S28 and ESL One Birmingham. The pressure was compounded by the fact our squad was facing off against former teammates in Scofield and Parker’s Peru Rejects (now paiN gaming) in the decider matches of these qualifiers whilst being subjected to some heated criticisms from the LATAM Dota community.

However, things turned around in the qualifier for PGL Wallachia S7 as HEROIC stomped the Peru Rejects 3-0, with TaiLung really making a name for himself in the process despite his inexperience. The young Peruvian’s incredible form would continue into the BLAST Slam VI group stage where the team as a whole looked like the best at the entire event… until their endgames.

There is no exaggeration when we say HEROIC could have finished the group with a clean-sheet. They won every early and mid-game scenario, but just couldn’t stop choking their endgames which resulted in them only winning 5 of their 11 matches, crashing down into the bottom 4 teams and subsequently, the Last Chance bracket. But things turned around again in the rematch with REKONIX. The squad played with more patience towards the end of each match and overcame their choking habit to close out 2-0.

This set HEROIC up for a match against the winners of BLAST Slam V, Tundra. And what a performance HEROIC put on! Spearheaded by TaiLung getting 30 kills, 26 assists and only a single death across the series, a 2-0 victory was locked in along with our plane tickets to Malta for the quarter finals. To put the youngster’s performance into perspective, the highest kill count across both maps for Tundra was Pure on just 5 (and don’t get us started on the other metrics)! According to KJ, the secret to keeping TaiLung in top form is ‘giving him CocaCola and hamburgers’ so we’ll be sure to keep him well-supplied on LAN.

Our next match at the event will be against Team Yandex on February 13th at 19:00 CET. If you would like to come and watch the squad compete in person, then grab your tickets here. We wish the boys the best of luck out in Malta and can’t wait to see what they can do with the rest of the season!

Written by:

Tom