This marks Team Falcons’ third-straight DreamLeague title dating back to Season 22 in March.
Dota 2 powerhouse Team Falcons claimed the championship of DreamLeague Season 24 after they defeated BetBoom Team, 3-1, in the grand finals on Monday (November 11) to cap off an intense two weeks of competition.
With this victory, Falcons bagged the $300,000 grand prize out of the tournament’s $1 million prize pool as well as their third straight DreamLeague title dating back to Season 22 back in March. Meanwhile, BetBoom settled for second place and $175,000 in consolation.
While Falcons looked nigh-unstoppable in the championship round, it was a bit of rollercoaster journey for them to get to this point.
In DreamLeague Season 24’s Group Stage 1, Falcons topped the standings in Group B with a 12-2 game record, with their only losses coming in as 1-1 ties with Tundra Esports and Team Waska. That allowed Falcons to advance to Group Stage 2 alongside Waska, Tundra, Team Spirit, PARIVISION, Team Liquid, Xtreme Gaming, and BetBoom.
It was in Group Stage 2 where Falcons encountered some difficulty, as they barely qualified for the four-team Playoffs as the fourth seed with a 10-8 record. While Falcons scored victories over Liquid (2-0), Tundra (2-1), Xtreme (2-1), and Waska (2-0), they looked shaken in their losses to the Top 3 seeds in BetBoom (0-2), Spirit (1-2), and PARIVISION (1-2).
As the third and fourth seeds in the Playoffs, Falcons and PARIVISION started in the lower bracket semifinals. Falcons decisively defeated PARIVISION in two games to advance to the lower bracket finals against Spirit, who were knocked down here by BetBoom. Falcons then scored another 2-0 sweep over Spirit to face off against BetBoom in the grand finals.
BetBoom Team1-3Team Falcons
Falcons came out swinging to start the grand finals, as they took their first win of the series in a 37-minute game one stomp behind their core trio of Oliver “skiter” Lepko, Stanislav “Malr1ne” Potorak, and Ammar “ATF” Al-Assaf. ATF led the way on Bristleback by racking up 10 kills and seven assists, skiter on Alchemist recorded nine kills and 13 assists, while Malr1ne added seven kills and 17 assists – with all three players only having one death each.
Game two looked like it would go the way of Falcons once again, but BetBoom managed to weather the storm and came back to win in the late game after a 42-minute bloodbath where both sides racked up 99 total kills. Gleb “kiyotaka” Zyryanov on Shadow Fiend had 13 kills and 14 assists on seven deaths while Ivan “Pure” Moskalenko on a carry Nature’s Prophet pitched in with 11 kills and 21 assists on seven deaths to spark the comeback for BetBoom.
Falcons were quick to bounce back from their game two loss by dominating the pivotal third game of the series to the tune of a 30-9 kill lead in 32 minutes of action. Malr1ne spearheaded the win with a perfect 11-kill, 17-assist performance on Dragon Knight to help put Falcons up 2-1 in the series.
BetBoom seemed shaken by their loss in game three, as Falcons looked like they had all the momentum in the world as they secured the DreamLeague Season 24 championship in a 32-minute rout. Falcons’ core trio showed out in the closeout game, with ATF on Bristleback leading the way with 11 kills and 18 assists on two deaths, skiter on Alchemist added eight kills and 24 assists on just one death, while Malr1ne on Sand King pitched in with seven kills and 26 assists on two deaths.
