Following his spectacular performance during the Dota 2 tournament Riyadh Masters 2023, which concluded at the end of July in Saudi Arabia, Talon Esports’ carry, Rafli “Mikoto,” has been enjoying newfound fame and garnering a lot of viewership from his team’s miraculous run against heavyweights.
Mikoto has proved his worth by helping Talon reach a new high by defeating crowd favorites such as Gaimin Gladiators, Quest Esports, and 9Pandas at the Riyadh Masters. However, this record fell short of perfection as they were eliminated in the quarter-finals of the lower bracket by Team Liquid. Since then, the community has raised questions regarding that blunder.
Their curiosity was ultimately answered a few days ago when a fan asked a question on Mikoto’s livestream about that specific moment, which has been attributed to Nuengnara “23savage” Teeramahanon‘s gesture, who celebrated too soon. The Indonesian then said that 23 had done his best, and he shared some of the blame for their loss.
“That GG blunder? Actually, it’s not the fault of just one player. Like, Me and Jabz made a lot of mistakes. I think 23 has played really well. He’s the one who carried the team in that game,” Mikoto replied to the viewer’s question.
That defeat was subsequently linked to Talon’s next game, where they played Liquid again in the lower bracket final. In a surprising turn of events, they lost that match quickly and were suspected of playing with an unstable mental state after their previous defeat. Mikoto, on the other hand, refuted this and said they lost due to a lack of proper rest time and the readiness of Liquid, who may have studied their game.
“I think the reason why we lost that badly is that before that, we played until 1 am (Riyadh time) against the Gaimin Gladiators and only had 8-10 hours of rest,” he explained. “This included the time spent preparing for our game versus Liquid. And Liquid appeared to be more than ready to face us. They deployed a strong heroes lineup in both games. I think we were outdrafted.”
Mikoto and his team’s journey at 2023 Riyadh Masters, however, was far from dismal. In addition to helping his team finish third with a $1,700,000 prize pool, he has been recognized as one of the best with the prestigious MVP award at that tournament. This achievement has surely raised his worth as a world-class carry and may make him a transfer target for top dogs in the next season.
