“I Am Surprised By Our Results,” SoNNeikO Describes TI11 EEU Qualifier Grand Finals

Following a 3-0 stomp over Outsiders, Akbar "SoNNeikO" Butaev and BetBoom Team won The International 2022 (TI11) Eastern European Regional Qualifiers and secured a spot in Singapore for TI11. While the community expected the team to secure a high placing in the qualifiers, not many expected the team to triumph over Outsiders. BetBoom went on an undefeated streak in the final day of the qualifiers by winning 2-0 against NaVi and 3-0 against Outsiders in the Grand Finals to secure a direct invite to TI11’s Group Stage.

After the victory, BetBoom Team’s captain SoNNeikO gave his opinions about the series as well as his plans after the qualifiers.

SoNNeikO and BetBoom Team expected more of a challenge from Outsiders.

After its defeat against NaVi in the Upper Bracket Semifinals, the community expected BetBoom Team to still finish in the top three within the EEU qualifiers however the majority did not think that BetBoom Team would stomp Outsiders 3-0 in the Grand Finals to secure a direct invitation to TI11’s Group Stage.

Following the huge upset in the final day of the EEU qualifiers, Dota 2 caster duo Owen "ODPixel" Davies and Ioannis "Fogged" Loucas interviewed BetBoom’s captain, Akbar "SoNNeikO" Butaev on his thoughts following the victory.

“Actually, I am surprised by our results like 3-0 [in the Grand Finals]. I thought the series would go to a full 4 or 5 games at least, which would either mean we will win or they [Outsiders] would win. But after the 3-0, what I can say is that we had good drafts throughout the series and our plan on how to play against them.” said SoNNeikO when asked about the Grand Finals.

He later noted that Vladimir "RodjER" Nikogosian, the newest recruit of BetBoom who joined the team prior to the qualifiers had given his insight on Outsiders’s carry Roman "RAMZES666" Kushnarev’s playstyle during the series, having previously played with him in Virtus Pro from 2018 to 2019.

“For example, RodjER had some ideas against them [during the drafting phase and the game] because he played with Ramzes so he shared some of the ideas with us and our coach, who made a lot of effort to win this series [while applying RodjER’s ideas]. The chemistry between the players and the coach is strong enough to win us the series.”

Finally before ending the interview, Fogged asked the BetBoom captain about his plans after the team’s qualification to TI11’s Group Stage. SoNNeikO jokingly answered that he wanted to uninstall Dota 2 after the win before saying that the team would most likely take a short break before their journey to Singapore.

“No, I just want to sleep or walk around because it has been a hard year for us as we did not have any time for a break. I only took a week’s worth of break during the whole DPC season and I just needed to uninstall Dota to forget about the game for a while after this series. I had too much Dota on my mind for the whole year.”

Following BetBoom Team’s victory over Outsiders in the Grand Finals of the Eastern European qualifiers, it is safe to say that SoNNeikO and the team fully deserved their short break after its performance during the qualifiers.