"If opponents ban Bristleback and Tidehunter, I will lose", — Falcons offlaner on his hero pool

Ammar ATF Al-Assaf, after reaching the playoffs, gave an interview at PGL Wallachia Season 8, where he stated that the changes in the latest major patch negatively affected his hero pool, which is reflected in the team’s results.

In the patch, they killed Mars, Timbersaw, and Razor. They are now among the top 3 worst heroes. That is just insane.

[Do you have any secret heroes?] No, I only play two heroes — Bristleback and Tidehunter. If opponents ban them, I will lose.

It is worth noting that all three heroes are part of ATF’s pool, and without them, finding a suitable pick becomes a difficult task, while other offlane heroes require time to master at a proper level.

At recent tournaments, this trio has almost never appeared in drafts and has a very low win rate.

In patch 7.41 and subsequent balance updates, they were significantly nerfed due to the removal of facets, while the new innate abilities turned out to be rather weak.

Ammar also commented on Pangolier. According to him, at the start of the patch the hero was almost unplayable, but over time returned to the meta.

At the beginning of the patch, the hero felt like it was completely removed from the game, but now it has become very strong again. My team loves this hero. We literally won The International twice when it was a grand final hero.

I personally do not even play it. We just first-pick it for mid, and opponents ban Primal Beast and Beastmaster in the last phase. I think they should just ban Bristleback and Tidehunter. They do not know that I do not play Pangolier.

In conclusion, the offlaner answered a question about the possible removal of the item Consecrated Wraps and which heroes would suffer the most without it.

According to Ammar, Bristleback will barely be affected, while Tidehunter will feel a noticeable nerf and become less effective in the current meta. You can find detailed item statistics in our article.

The recent results of Team Falcons have declined, and many analysts claim that the weakening of the team’s heroes after the latest update has impacted their form.

PGL Wallachia Season 8 takes place from 18.04.2026 to 26.04.2026 in Bucharest, Romania, where 16 teams are competing for a $1,000,000 prize pool. You can follow the tournament in detail in our report.

Earlier, Cyberscore reported on the reasons behind Team Yandex struggles, according to their position five support Arman Malady Orazbayev.