The most talked-about free agent of the Dota 2 offseason has found a home. Ammar “ATF” Al-Assaf has signed with Team Yandex as the organisation’s new offlaner, the club announced on 17 September. The 21-year-old Jordanian replaces Dmitry “DM” Dorokhin, who was moved to the inactive roster shortly before the deal was confirmed. ATF will make his debut this weekend at PGL Wallachia Season 9, the first major LAN after The International 2026.
Why the move matters
Yandex were already one of the strongest teams in the world before this signing. They finished third at TI 2026, sweeping Team Liquid 2-0 and edging Nigma Galaxy 2-1 before losing 1-2 to TEAM VISION in the upper bracket final and 0-2 to eventual champions Team Spirit in the lower bracket final. Earlier in the year, the DM-era lineup lifted trophies at PGL Wallachia Season 7 and BLAST SLAM VII.
Swapping a title-winning offlaner for ATF is therefore not a rebuild but an upgrade attempt. ATF won The International 2025 with Team Falcons and has spent the past two years as arguably the most aggressive, lane-dominant position three player in the game. With Martin “Saksa” Sazdov, a TI 2022 champion, already in the squad, Yandex now field two International winners.
The new Team Yandex roster
- Alimzhan “watson” Islambekov – carry
- Ilya “CHIRA_JUNIOR” Chirtsov – midlane
- Ammar “ATF” Al-Assaf – offlane
- Martin “Saksa” Sazdov – position four
- Arman “Malady” Orazbayev – position five
- Alexander “Accell” Litvinenko – coach
The big tactical question is chemistry between ATF and watson. At Falcons, ATF thrived next to Oliver “skiter” Lepko, a carry comfortable playing a utility role while the offlane soaked up resources and tempo. Watson is a very different profile: a farm-heavy carry who wants the map built around his timings. Either Yandex find a new balance quickly, or one of the two stars has to adjust his game.
The Falcons diaspora and the Liquid twist
The signing also closes the book on a week of speculation. After Team Liquid parted ways with Marcus “Ace” Christensen, ATF was widely tipped as their next offlaner. Instead he heads to Yandex, and Liquid still have a hole to fill before Wallachia. ATF himself framed the move as a chance to prove that he was the right piece and his former team the wrong environment, complete with a nod to his long-running Burger King meme.
He is the second former Falcons player to land since the organisation withdrew from Dota 2 following a seventh-to-eighth finish at TI 2026. Two-time TI champion skiter has joined Aurora Gaming, who will also compete in Bucharest. Midlaner Stanislav “Malr1ne” Potorak and captain Wu “Sneyking” Jingjun remain unsigned, while veteran support Andreas “Cr1t-” Nielsen has announced an indefinite break. Notably, ATF had previously said he would not play alongside Malr1ne again, so a Falcons reunion was never on the cards.
DM, meanwhile, is rumoured to be forming a new stack with midlaner Artem “lorenof” Melnyk and coach Kuro “KuroKy” Salehi Takhasomi, which is also expected to appear at Wallachia.
What it means for PGL Wallachia Season 9
PGL Wallachia Season 9 begins on 19 September in Bucharest with a $1 million prize pool. It is the first competitive test of the new season and the first look at a wave of reshuffled rosters. Yandex will almost certainly open as one of the tournament favourites with esports bookmakers, but a two-day-old lineup carries obvious variance. Champions of the previous edition, a fresh superstar and a completely unproven carry-offlane dynamic make Yandex the single most interesting team to watch in week one, whether you are backing them or fading them.
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