In DOTA 2 (Steam), there has been a scandal in e-sports. A dispute between a 27-year-old Russian and a 19-year-old player from Jordan escalated in a hotel lobby on the outskirts of a professional match. The teams and the league have commented on this. In hindsight, no one really wants to take responsibility.
Here are the two young men:
- The Jordanian Ammar “ATF” Al-Assaf (19) is an offlaner and carry for Team Falcons. He has earned $824,000 with DOTA 2. At the Riyadh Masters 2024 alone, he took home $120,000.
- The 27-year-old Russian Akbar “SoNNeikO” Butaev is a support and captain of Team AVULUS. He has earned about $415,000 with DOTA 2. His greatest achievement was 13th place in The International 2019 – which secured him nearly $103,000.
The two obviously do not like each other, as the story reveals.
19-Year-Old Calls the Russian “Braindead” in a Standard Match
This is how the dispute arose: Three months ago, both played against each other in a normal match in DOTA 2. It was really just about reaching a certain rating.
The 19-year-old ATF won the match and called the Russian “braindead”.
The Russian is said to have threatened him, but ATF did not take it seriously.
For the Russian, being called “braindead” by a much younger player apparently felt like a severe insult that wounded his honor, and he did not forget it but wanted to address the issue.
Jordanian Feels Threatened Before the Match
This is how the dispute escalated: Both teams were now participating in a match of the “PGL Wallachia Season 2” and were staying at the same hotel. The teams were supposed to play against each other.
But before the match, the Russian approached the younger Jordanian in the lobby, put his arm around him, and threatened to “hit him and send him to the ground.” At least, that is the Jordanian’s account.
ATF responded: “Please, hit me.”
The Russian reportedly challenged him to go outside, apparently to resolve the conflict with fists.
But that did not happen, as the dispute was interrupted when managers, coaches, and players of the Russian team intervened.
League Condemns Behavior and Imposes Minor Penalty
What are the consequences? The league itself, the PLG, has imposed a minor penalty on the Russian and his team, a so-called “third-degree draft penalty.” This ultimately means that they have less time to select champions. Moreover, the league condemned the behavior and stated that it expects more professionalism.
Team Falcon stands behind their player ATF. They expect that an older player like SoNNeiko should not react to trash talk with threats of violence. They also called for harsher penalties from the league – the draft penalty is not enough.
Russian Says: He Just Wanted to Politely Ask How It’s Going
This is how the Russian sees the situation: From the Russian’s perspective, the situation was different (via x). He just wanted to confront the young Jordanian and address that he had insulted him three months ago. He probably thought that face-to-face, the young man would back down and apologize.
He intended to be friendly and just wanted to place his hand on his shoulder. SoNNeiko says he expected an apology, but was shocked when everyone immediately intervened.
He also wants to clarify what he meant by “going outside”: He just wanted to suggest that they have a private conversation to calmly clarify things. The Jordanian suddenly responded, “Go ahead and hit me.” SoNNeiko feels completely misunderstood.
By the way, the match between both teams was won clearly by Team Falcons, the Jordanian’s team, with a score of 2-0. But somehow, that didn’t really matter anymore. In e-sports, there are always scandals and problems: CS:GO – A successful professional caster (33) apparently ruins his 8-year career with a wild night in Rio
The moral of the story: Don’t call strangers braindead, you don’t know how they will react.
