Team Falcons won the ESL One Birmingham 2024 in a clean 3-0 victory against the BetBoom Team. As the winners got out of their booths, fans took note of how Team Falcons did not go to BetBoom’s players for a handshake, a custom in esports sportsmanship.
Team Falcons the lifts trophy at ESL One Birmingham 2024 (Image Credits: ESL)
BetBoom Team clarifies on the “beef” with Team Falcons
After constant nagging from fans, Luka “Lukawa” Nasuashvili, the manager of BetBoom Team, addressed the concerns regarding the missing handshake after the grand finals. He explained that the event organizers instructed Team Falcons players to proceed directly to the trophy section after their victory, hence skipping the handshake.
This was the message clarified by Falcons player, Oliver “skiter” Lepko, who shared that the whole incident was not meant to be disrespectful to any party. Additionally, Stanislav “Malr1ne” Potorak, also from Falcons, reached out to BetBoom personally to clarify the misunderstanding later.
Oddly enough, Lukawa was the one who initially suspected the disrespectful move from Falcons, especially given their history of prior trash-talking. Hence, Lukawa seems like a hypocrite for being annoyed when fans kept bothering him for answers on whether the players of Team Falcons were being disrespectful.
TORONTOTOKYO’s Trash talks
Frankly, even if Falcons did somehow mean to disrespect BetBoom on stage, they certainly had it coming. Alexander “TORONTOTOKYO” Khertek, the captain of BetBoom, is infamous for his provocative remarks towards opponents, notably calling Falcons’ player Ammar “ATF” Al-Assaf derogatory names. Furthermore, he also referred to Malr1ne in a disrespectful manner, calling him a “crying b!tch” during the event.
If that wasn’t enough, let’s not forget that BetBoom had actual beef with Azure Ray‘s former line-up last year when it was Lu “Somnus” Yao leading the Chinese squad. The beef started from Bali Major 2023’s drama and continued at the International 2023 (TI12) when AR finally got their rematch against BetBoom. After defeating BetBoom, AR players gave the disrespectful “?” in the all-chat as an homage to defeating their rival, BetBoom.
Alexander “TORONTOTOKYO” Khertek (Image Credits: ESL)
Learning from the trash-talking experts
TORONTOKYO’s behavior is very reminiscent of a certain pro player, who considers his trash-talk and tipping culture as mind games. In all his glory, that player is Sébastien “Ceb” Debs, the two-time International Champion himself.
Ceb is currently active on Team OG’s roster and even made it into the fourth-place finish at the ESL One Birmingham 2024. However, as Malr1ne has shared in a post-match interview, he didn’t see the trash-talk messages from Ceb during their match. He muted the French player even before that game.
As such, TORONTOTOKYO clearly has been taking a page out of Ceb’s book in his Dota 2 strategy to gain an emotional advantage over the opponents. If anything, he’s at least been successful at fooling fans that he does have beef with Falcons.
Has TORONTOTOKYO’s trash talks gone too far?
Frankly, TORONTOTOKYO’s trash talks may have crossed the line, considering the words he uses are often vulgar, which were not just a bunch of question marks and emojis. It certainly leaves a bad impression on the TI10 Champion, who seems to be trying too hard to create unnecessary drama at the expense of disrespecting his rivals.
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