Heroic has defeated Team Falcons in the Grand Finals of PGL Wallachia Season 2, becoming the first South American team to win an International LAN in Dota 2 history. The Norwegian organization with an SA roster made its way into the record books today (Oct. 13), finishing off their Saudi-backed opponents in decisive style in a 3-1 victory.
Heroic’s stack of South American superstars had made it to the grand finals after initially falling to Team Falcons in the Upper Bracket. Then earlier today, the squad pushed past Tundra, defeating the European powerhouse a second time this tournament.
Image Credit: PGL
With Team Falcons in the finals, however, fans and analysts alike assumed we’d see the same thing we’ve seen all year – a dominant Falcons lineup win yet another tournament. It was a pretty safe choice if you were going to bet on Dota 2. After all, they’d already defeated Heroic earlier in the event.
But a glimmer of hope emerged in game one after Team Falcons were pushed to the limit in a base-race finish that barely saw the team secure the first win. Unfortunately for Falcons, this would be the closest they got to victory for the rest of the series.
This was in part to the incredible play of David “Parker” Nicho Flores. His play alternated between insanity and one of the most technically impressive performances we’ve seen in years. There was definitely a method to the madness, and Heroic play style was as methodical as it was chaotic – a perfect fusion of South American-style Dota.
Parkers’ three dominant performances, on Morphling, Shadow Fiend, and Monkey King, put Team Falcons to bed in decisive fashion. His team, similarly perfect, facilitated a full Falcons collapse. By game four, it was clear there was no cohesion left in Team Falcons, and Heroic claimed victory.
For Heroic, they’ve etched their names in history – the first SA team to win a Dota 2 LAN event, and one of the best rosters ever from that region. Heroic take home $300,000 from PGL Wallachia S2 and bragging rights over Team Falcons. An ideal conclusion to a LAN that saw four Americas teams make it to the playoffs.
In many ways, this is a perfect lineup to secure this accolade – the Heroic roster is made up of players who’ve spent years grinding in iconic SA rosters, such as beastcoast, Hokori, Keys Stars, and others. The lone non-SA import on the roster, Belgian-American polyglot Cedric “Davai Lama” Deckmyn, has advanced from a Tier 2 grinder on D2 Hustlers to a top-tier competitor with Heroic.
For Falcons it’s the end to a tournament which has unfortunately not focused on their performance. After the distraction of Ammar “ATF” Al-Assaf’s issues earlier this event, the team’s decision to stick with its roster with no changes may soon be called into question. After all, it was expected this tournament would be easy pickings for the fourth place TI13 team.
PGL concluded its broadcast with the announcement of three new PGL Wallachia events next year.
