Most Pointless Esports Drama of 2024

Another entry in the "say that to my face at LAN" hall of shame

Past Winners

🥇 2011: Naniwa Probe Rush

🥇 2012: The cruel and savage banning of HLTV from Prague FOREVER

🥇 2013: No Award

🥇 2014: DeMuslim Vs Major

🥇 2015: Rahim Gets Bullied

🥇 2016: No Award

🥇 2023: Doublelift fans harass LeTigress

And The Winner Is…

🥇 2024: Sonneiko vs ATF

Ammar "ATF" Al-Assaf is exactly the kind of icon the game deserves. A phenomenally talented prodigy who has already achieved so much it is easy to forget that he is still only 19, he is also someone who seems to have a complete inability to control his temper or employ basic tact when interacting with other human beings. Down the years this has seen him at the centre of multiple controversies that all revolve around the same thing… Al-Assaf gets frustrated in a game that could be used by the CIA to break the toughest interrogation suspects and lashes out verbally at his fellow professionals.

One such professional was Akbar "SoNNeikO" Butaev that Al-Assaf played against in a ranked pub. In one of the milder insults that get bandied around on Dota servers every day Al-Assaf called his opponent “brain dead,” which prompted an angry response off the server from Butaev via messages on X.com. It would likely have stayed there but both players were heading to the second season of PGL Wallachia and would be staying at the same hotel. When they invariably crossed paths Butaev confronted Al-Assaf in the lobby and put his arm around him in fake friendship while confused onlookers tried to make sense of the situation. Al-Assaf under no illusions as to the threatening nature of the confrontation invited his colleague to punch him or fuck off, which resulted in the embarrassing “let’s step outside then” line of aggression that always means the person’s heart really isn’t committed to a violent altercation. The incident fizzled out, nothing happened but because most esports professionals don’t think about much beyond their own reputations and needs, the whole cringeworthy incident spilled all over social media with tit for tat accounts of what happened.

Sonneiko posted his version of events in such a hilariously misguided way people wondered if he was trolling. Not only did the DMs he published show that he was clearly the aggressor and the interaction was clearly premeditated. For instance, the day before both players were due to be at the PGL Wallachia event, Butaev posted a thumbs up emoji on his threats from months ago, a reminder that he indeed would be acting on what he said he would. The lengthy justification for his behaviour also included an inadvertently hilarious invocation of Sharia law as a reasoning why Falcons should be disciplining their player for the words he said in a video game.

“I’m genuinely surprised that an organization from a country where people’s rights are protected under Sharia law would ignore or even condone inappropriate behavior from their player, the only Muslim on the team. Personally, I don’t think this sets a good example. Maybe it’s time we rethink how we treat each other in esports and what that says about us as professionals.”

Whatever Sharia law says about being an asshole if there’s one thing I’ve learned about esports events it’s that you can’t get involved in physical altercations under any circumstances, even self defence. Even though the altercation ended with Butaev being hilarious alpha’d by a teenager PGL had to issue a penalty and therefore issued a draft time penalty and a warning about their conduct.

Falcons, relishing the opportunity to throw their weight around in the one scene they’ve managed to have any other impact besides failure, deemed this not to be good enough and published a complaint. Crafting a hilarious narrative that Al-Assaf was in danger, when he’d already stared down the worst of the threat which didn’t even amount to what Brits would call “handbags,” they demanded a security guard for the rest of the event and considered withdrawal from the tournament.

Hilariously the team got to play Butaev’s team AVULUS and absolutely roasted them including a 21 minute 23-6 where Sonneiko was relentlessly tipped much to amusement of the viewers. That really should have been the end of it all. Two individuals talked shit to each other outside of the server, settled it in-game and in that moment you can probably realise just how silly the whole thing had gotten. Alas, the wider Dota community were not satisfied with everyone adopting a position as to who was really to blame for it all. Some believed that actually it was Al-Assaf that should have been punished because of his constant provocation of players he knows he is going to interact with. Others said that Butaev’s behaviour, whatever the provocation, has no place at esports events. Like what are we? The FGC?

As the debate raged on with tensions still simmering the legend Kuro "KuroKy" Salehi Takhasom was deployed like the ghost of Kofi Annan to negotiate peace talks. Whatever was said in this meeting of minds it resulted in Butaev declaring they had “resolved problem” and resulted in one of the most hilarious photographs imaginable in the aftermath.

This being esports the story doesn’t end there. You see, this time around Al-Assaf was easy to portray as a victim and as such he had gained some rare support from Dota fans who would usually criticise his antics. Of course, in keeping with his personality, he learned absolutely nothing and immediately engaged in the behaviour that his organisation caught the vapours over. In a match with Team Bet Boom the following month Al-Assaf threatened to “break the face in real life” of Gleb "kiyotaka" Zyryanov, which led to some half-assed apologies from himself and his management who had postured about how unacceptable that type of behaviour was when it was done to them. They didn’t see fit to issue a penalty to their own player, proving that there’s one thing you can always rely on esports for besides dumb drama and that is rank hypocrisy.