Image: Team Falcons
Team Zero may have blindsided them in their first encounter, but Team Falcons were well prepared for their rematch.
Western European Dota 2 juggernauts 
Team Falcons bounced back from a mixed performance in Day 1 of The International 2024 (TI 2024) Group Stage by securing the top seed of Group C in Day 2 of the preliminary stage by exacting revenge over China's 
Team Zero in the group's best-of-three tiebreaker match.
Falcons entered TI 2024 as arguably the biggest favourites to claim this year's Aegis of Champions. However, Falcons' campaign didn't have the best start as they were forced to a 1-1 draw by Zero – an opponent many expected them to easily sweep aside – in their opening match of the Group Stage.
Falcons' woes continued as they were forced to another 1-1 draw by North America's nouns, which gave them a disappointing 2-2 record by the end of Day 1. Meanwhile, Zero produced another surprising result in the form of a 2-0 sweep over Eastern Europe's BetBoom Team to end the day at the top of the standings of Group C with a 3-1 record.
Day two of the Group Stage then saw Falcons right the ship, as they also swept BetBoom to improve their record to 4-2. And with Zero being forced to a 1-1 draw by Nouns and also ending up with a 4-2 record, a Falcons-Zero rematch was set for the top seed of Group C and the right to select a favourable matchup in the Seeding Decider.
Falcons' players admitted they knew very little about Zero in preliminary interviews ahead of the Group Stage, which very likely contributed to the surprising 1-1 draw in their previous encounter. But now with more data on their opponents, Falcons made short work of Zero in their rematch.
Falcons sweep Zero to secure the top seed of Group C
Game one looked like a classic Falcons win as they ran over Zero with a fast-paced draft anchored by Oliver “skiter” Lepko's hard carry Luna while Stanislav “Malr1ne” Potorak on Sand King and Ammar “ATF” Al-Assaf on Kunkka provided crowd control. Andreas “Cr1t-” Nielsen on a support Sniper and Wu “Sneyking” Jingjun on Tusk provided long-range damage and saves, respectively.
Falcons were aggressive from the get-go and dominated the laning stage, with early rotations from skiter notably catching Zero off-guard multiple times. While the Chinese squad did their best to hold out in the hopes of a late game comeback, Falcons looked nigh-unstoppable as they took the first game of the series in just under 30 minutes of action and with a 31-11 kill lead.
Skiter, Malr1ne, and Cr1t topped the kill charts for Falcons, notching seven kills apiece and combining for 42 assists with six deaths between the three of them.
Game two was another one-sided affair as Falcons countered Zero's decision to pick Luna for themselves with another aggressive tri-core of Monkey King for skiter, Puck for Malr1ne, and Doom for ATF. Once again, a dominant laning stage for Falcons allowed them to simply snowball to another victory. And while Zero managed to last past the 30-minute mark this time around, the kill score was even more lopsided at 32-9 in favour of Falcons.
ATF led the way for Falcons in securing the sweep, notching a series-high 10 kills and 10 assists on three deaths. Malr1ne also pitched in with nine kills and 11 assists on one death while Cr1t on Rubick added six kills and 17 assists on one death.
With their victory, Falcons claimed the top seed of Group C while Zero settled for second place. BetBoom and nouns rounded out the standings in third and fourth place, respectively.
As the Top 2 seeds of their group, Falcons and Zero will be facing the third and fourth-placed teams from Group D in the Seeding Decider, with Falcons also earning the right to select their opponents. The winners of the Seeding Decider will advance to the upper bracket of the Playoffs while the losers will have to start in the lower bracket.
TI 2024 is this year's iteration of Dota 2's annual world championship tournament and features 16 of the best teams in the world fighting for their cut of the growing $2.36 million prize pool and the Aegis of Champions.
The event is being hosted from September 4 to 15 in Copenhagen, Denmark and is split into two distinct phases: the Group stage (September 4 to 5) and the Seeding Deciders (September 6 to 7). The first two rounds of the Playoffs (September 8 to 10) are branded as part of The Road to The International, while the remaining portion of the Playoffs for the remaining eight teams (September 13 to 15) are branded as The International itself.
For more of everything you need to know about TI 2024, check here.
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