FISSURE Playground Finals: Team Falcons Takes Down BetBoom in 4 Map Series

The first event of the new Dota season has come to a close with Team Falcons taking down BetBoom Team in the grand finals of FISSURE Playground in Belgrade. Falcons are one of the only teams that didn’t make any post TI roster changes, which isn’t exactly surprising following their TI14 win and now they get to continue their winning ways while others are still getting used to new players.

That being said, it was still a long day for Falcons as they came into the finals after beating Team Yandex 2-0 in the lower bracket final earlier. Despite topping the table during the group stage, they were sent down to the lower bracket by MOUZ and then had to knock out Tundra, Spirit and Liquid on their way to the final.

Game 1 had Falcons on the back foot

Virtually every team going through the playoffs has managed to take 1 map off Falcons and they’re nothing if not consistent. BetBoom were definitely ready for the Skywrath pick in this game, a hero that Falcons have had a decent amount of success with at this tournament. Picking up the Shadow Demon was a game changer for BB here with the disruptions proving to be a real thorn in Falcons’ side.

Downhill from there

It’s hard to call exactly what happened for BetBoom in the rest of this series. They certainly used to be a team that would tilt off the face of the Earth the moment they lost a map and then throw the rest of the series but it didn’t feel that way this time round. Their drafts were pretty solid and it seems like they were simply outplayed. Malr1ne’s mid lane shenanigans, pulling creeps to far more advantageous positions, certainly didn’t help BB get off to a good start and while fights sometimes looked close, Falcons were able to turn pick offs round more often than not.

Usually at this level of play, vision isn’t a point of discussion unless someone has a particularly game changing positioning. But this time round, BetBoom were really struggling for vision. At one point during game 3, they didn’t have a single ward on the map while Falcons had deep wards throughout.

What does this mean for BLAST Slam?

Starting the season off with a W should be a confidence boost for even the most recent TI champions. We haven’t exactly had a huge patch since TI but being able to hold the throne for any length of time in Dota is huge. Next weekend, Falcons will be heading to Singapore to play out the rest of BLAST Slam 4, which started back in mid-October.

They’ve landed themselves directly into the BLAST Slam 4 semi finals there and will need to face off with the winner of Aurora v HEROIC to make it to the final. At this stage, I’m having a hard time figuring out who would be able to beat them but there’s a good chance they’ll meet MOUZ again in the grand finals. If they can work a little magic, we might have a real final on our hands.