23savage celebrates too early before an unforeseen defeat in Riyadh Masters

Carry player of Talon Esports, Nuengnara "23savage" Teeramahanon, is going viral not only in Dota 2 but also in the world of esports following his premature celebration to an unexpected defeat.

In the ongoing $15 million Riyadh Masters championship, Talon Esports squared off against Team Liquid. Talon was on the brink of victory in the third game. This also means that they were inches away from entering the top 3, which would have secured them $1.7 million.

At minute 59 in game three, two cores were dead without buyback on Liquid's side and all of Talon knocked on their throne. It seemed like victory was already in the grasp of Talon and 23savage celebrated by jumping and taunting in front of the crowd.

But the highs in his emotions would soon drop when he realized what was about to happen. Ludwig "zai" Wåhlberg's Broodmother had Teleported into Talon's base. Talon's throne exposed. With no glyph and his Teleport just canceled, 23savage and Talon couldn't do anything but watch Zai single-handedly destroy their Ancient.

With Liquid's unexpected victory, the spectators went wild and the casters jumped in disbelief. While Team Liquid all rushed to hug an unfazed Zai, Talon Esports froze in shock. 23savage could be seen resting his head on the shoulders of his team captain Anucha "Jabz" Jirawong after the loss.

In the post-match interview, Zai stated that "at multiple points in this game, I felt like my team was a bit lost and I try to instill an attitude that they are all muted, and I'm just trying to win the game. Seemed like a good idea, worked out."

Riyadh Masters, the grand tier 1 tournament, has witnessed tons of shocking upsets and miraculous comebacks. But the ending to this Team Liquid vs Talon Esports match will go down in history as one of the most unbelievable moments in competitive Dota 2.

Liquid's coach, William "Blitz" Lee, shared his excitement to his team's victory. But he also gave props to 23savage's spectacular performance and voiced against "dumb comments" attacking 23savage. "Have some empathy, [23savage] cooked us."

Talon Esports' coach, Kim Do-hoon, tweeted after the game ending, "I can't even process this loss yet."

Midlaner for Entity, Daniel "Stormstormer" Schoetzau, shows his respect for 23savage for showing his emotions on a Main Stage.

Popular streamer, Wehsing "SingSing" Yuen, stated, "Crazy comebacks today, these Riyadh Masters teams make 30K gold leads feel like they are nothing." In the comments, he also said, "Despite the ending (to Talon vs Liquid), they really did outplay Liquid today which is already quite impressive."

The CEO of BOOM Esports, Gary Ongko, reacted to the ending of Game 3 with praises for Dota 2: "Dota is an unreal game nothing will EVER come close to Dota."

Despite the heartbreaking loss, Talon Esports' journey in Riyadh Masters is far from over. The final Southeast Asian team drops to the Lower Bracket with more chances to redeem themselves. Their next opponent will be either China's Team Aster or Eastern Europe's 9Pandas.

Check out the Riyadh Masters schedule and results here.

Stay tuned to esports.gg for more Dota 2 news and updates!