ATF spoke out after being eliminated from the Esports World Cup 2026 for Dota 2

Team Falcons offlaner Ammar ATF Assaf commented on the team’s departure from the Esports World Cup 2026 in Dota 2. In an interview on the official broadcast, he shared his emotions after the decisive match and also expressed dissatisfaction with the format of the competition.

You probably always feel like shit when you're eliminated from a tournament. But shit happens. Somewhere you win, somewhere you lose. [Question: “You work really hard, you prepare, you do a lot of training, and then you have this unexpected loss. How do you feel?”] The format of the tournament is just crap. You win the group, you get the top seed, then you play just one match - you lose and are immediately eliminated. We waited six days - it seemed like an eternity. In fact, the opponents are even better off in this situation: they continue to play and get match practice. And all this time you are just training and don’t even really understand how effective it is.

Assaf also reviewed the match with Vici Gaming, the defeat of which led to the Falcons' elimination.

I think on the first map it all came down to the fact that their heroes just had to mash buttons to win the game. If we don't snowball our heroes, it becomes very difficult. It seems to me that by the 20th minute we needed to lead by about 10 thousand gold - then their heroes would not be able to do anything at all. But the problem is that we did not have such an advantage. That's why we had a hard time against Dark Seer, Mirana and Specter. [Question: “What about the second map? They unexpectedly took Slark at the end of the draft. You yourself play well on this hero. Did you understand the pressure you would have to face?”] No. To be honest, I thought he was useless. I'm not really sure that he had any influence on the game. I think the main problem was Beastmaster and Keeper of the Light. They got a lot. Their heroes were simply impossible to kill in this game. [Question: “Why was Beastmaster so good?”] He had about two thousand health, a lot of farm, and he calmly took the “dead” lane. When a hero is so rich, it is very difficult to play against him.

Team Falcons exited EWC 2026, losing to Vici Gaming in the first round of the playoffs. The meeting ended with a score of 2:0 in favor of the team from China. Team Falcons took 5th-8th place and earned $70 thousand.