Dota 2: Team Falcons sweep Team Liquid 3-0 to be crowned as champions of BetBoom Dacha Dubai 2024

Team Falcons have been crowned as champions of BetBoom Dacha Dubai 2024, the first big Dota 2 tournament of the year, after they soundly swept Team Liquid, 3-0, in the best-of-five Grand Finals on Saturday (17 February).

With their victory, Falcons claimed the grand prize of US$400,000 out of the tournament's US$1 million prize pool. Meanwhile, Liquid settled for second place and US$200,000 in consolation.

And most fittingly for Falcons, the Saudi Arabia-based organisation with an international roster claimed its first Dota 2 trophy on home soil.

Falcons had a solid start to the tournament and finished the Group Stage with a 6-4 record, though it only earned them the fourth seed of Group A after three other teams ended up with that standing.

Falcons hit the ground running in the Playoffs and pulled off a 2-0 sweep over China's Xtreme Gaming, who had the best record of the Group Stage at 8-2. Falcons then defeated another Chinese team in Azure Ray in the upper bracket semifinals.

Up next was the upper bracket finals against Eastern Europe's BetBoom Team. While Falcons lost the first game of that match, they stomped the next two to claim the 2-1 series victory and the first spot in the Grand Finals.

Meanwhile, Liquid entered the Playoffs as the second seed of Group A with the same 6-4 record that Falcons had. However, they stumbled to start the Playoffs and lost to Azure Ray in the upper bracket quarterfinals to get knocked down to the lower bracket.

Liquid then flipped the switch and went on a rampage through the lower bracket to reach the Grand Finals. They first swept Xtreme Gaming, defeated rivals Gaimin Gladiators, then got their revenge on Azure Ray before defeating BetBoom in the lower bracket finals.

Despite all of Liquid's momentum from their lower bracket run, Falcons looked like they were a level above in the championship match.

Game one saw Oliver "skiter" Lepko on Gyrocopter lead Falcons to a dominant 42-minute statement win to kick off the Grand Finals. Skiter had a series-high 15 kills and nine assists on four deaths to pace his team's 32-17 kill lead in the opener.

Liquid put up a much better fight in a back-and-forth game two, where skiter shined on Gyrocopter once again to help give Falcons a commanding 2-0 series lead. While Falcons took the win down 28-32 in kills, skiter stuffed the stat sheet once again with 14 kills and seven assists on six deaths. Liquid's Michael "miCKe" Vu on Luna notably had 13 kills and 11 assists on four deaths in the loss.

In game three, Falcons simply routed what looked like a spent Liquid squad to secure the 3-0 series sweep and the championship. Skiter was on Gyrcopter for the third-straight game and put on another masterclass performance, notching a clean nine kills and nine assists to pace Falcons' 33-7 kill lead in the closeout game.

Stanislav "Malr1ne" Potorak on Dragon Knight, Ammar "ATF" Al-Assaf on an offlane Kunkka, and Andreas "Cr1t-" Nielsen on Hoodwink also pitched in with seven kills apiece and a combined 59 assists. Malr1ne notably had no deaths while ATF and Cr1t had two and one, respectively.

With the dissolution of the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) last year, the 2024 Dota 2 esports season will see a return to third-party tournaments being the main form of competition across the title.

BetBoom Dacha Dubai 2024 kicked off the 2024 season from 4 to 16 February in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates and featured 12 of the best Dota 2 teams from across the world fight for the lion's share of a US$1 million prize pool.

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