Q Joins Talon Esports Dota 2 Roster

Worawit “Q” Mekchai has been announced as the newest member of the Talon Esports Dota 2 roster on Thursday, February 24. The 23-year-old joins Talon as a part of the roster rebuild process, which began in January.

Talon Esports made some serious noise when the Philippine-Hong Kongian esports organization first announced its intention of joining the Dota 2 esports scene. But unfortunately, the team got off to a rocky start.

Talon announced its Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) roster in November 2021, unveiling Rafli Fathur “Mikoto” Rahman, Kim “Gabbi” Villafuerte Santos, Damien “kpii” Chok, Brizio Adi “Hyde” Putra Budiana, and Tal “Fly” Aizik as the five members of its inaugural Dota 2 roster. Filled with young talent and seasoned veterans, the expectations put on Talon were high, but success was hard to come by.

After failing to make it through the first DPC Sea Tour 1 Open Qualifier, Talon Esports found their stride in the second qualifiers, which they won without dropping a map and secured a spot in the DPC Division II. Unfortunately, Talon could not achieve much in their first DPC tournament.

Talon Esports started DPC Tour 1 Division II with back-to-back losses against Polaris and Nigma Galaxy SEA before they secured their first win against Army Geniuses. From then, Talon looked stronger and picked up two more wins against InterActive Philippines and 496 but lost the remaining two bouts against Ragdoll and Lilgung.

With a 3-4 record, Talon Esports finished the first DPC Tour in fifth place, which was good for a fifth-place finish in the standings. Unfortunately, although they avoided elimination, Talon Esports failed to secure promotion, ushering in much-needed roster changes.

Shortly after the DPC SEA Tour 1 Division II concluded, Talon Esports started exploring options to rebuild its roster. On January 19, Talon parted ways with Gabbi and Fly, leaving two empty spots on the roster.

Gabbi found a new home at T1 earlier this month, while Fly has yet to be signed to a new team. Meanwhile, Esports Talon needed more than a month to sign Q as a replacement for Fly.

Q joins Talon Esports after spending the last two years at Motivate.Trust Gaming. The 23-year-old no.5 started his Dota 2 esports career in 2017 and signed his first professional contract in September 2018 when he joined Hashtag?.DOTA.

He has been since jumping around several stacks and teams, including 2Be Continued Esports and RRQ.Trust, who would rebrand to Motivate.Trust Gaming in December 2019.

Over the two years Q has spent with Motivate.Trust, he has achieved reasonable success, including five tournament titles and four runner-up finishes in 2021. He was also a part of the Philippine team, which won SEAEF Dota2 Championship 2021 in November.

But despite all the success Q achieved with MG.Trust in 2021, the team couldn’t show up early into the 2022 season. Motivate.Trust Gaming kicked off the 2022 season in the DPC SEA Tour 1 Division I, where they struggled to achieve much.

The team ended the first DPC Tour with a 2-5 record and finished in seventh place, which saw them eliminated into the lower division. In a bid to find more success in the next stage of the season, the team started making roster changes.

First Motivate.Trust Gaming parted ways with Souliya “JaCkky” Khoomphetsavong, who left for BOOM Esports on Tuesday. Now, just three days later, MG.Trust also waved goodbye to Q, who quickly found a new home at Talon Esports.

It remains to be seen who will join Talon Esports as the fifth member, but some reports suggest it could be Nuengnara “23savage” Teeramahanon. The 19-year-old was recently replaced by Gabbiu on T1’s roster and was seen travelling to the Philippines, where Talon will hold bootcamp.

If 23savage joins, Talon Esports would essentially swap Gabbi for 23savage, which looks like a good deal. However, whether the signing will happen and whether it will help Talon improve their chances to make it into the first division remains a mystery.

Talon Esports’ will debut its new roster in the DPC SEA Tour 2 Division II, slated to kick off on March 14. There they’ll compete with Motivate.Trust Gaming, TNC Predator, Team Orca, Lilgun, Army Geniuses and two teams from the open qualifiers for one of the two tickets leading into the upper division.