A family business: YapzOr explains how OG’s ATF started playing Dota 2

OG might be out of TI this year, but the memories of their plays live on. They put together one of the best performances of any new squad we have seen as of late before going out in a blaze of glory, falling finally to Team Liquid after several close games through the playoffs. The five-man squad of Misha, Taiga, ATF, bzm, and Yuragi led by retired OG original and their current coach, Ceb, made a strong impression on teams everywhere through the main stage.

The youngest and most aggressive player on the side of OG would undoubtedly be their star offlaner, Ammar Al-Assaf, better known today as ATF. Even though his hero pool is quite limited when compared to most offlane players today, his mastery over his signature heroes such as Timbersaw, Mars, and Huskar makes him a force to be reckoned with. This scale of aggression is matched by his teammates who exist to play around him while he carries them to victory from the third position.

In one of Gorgc’s co-TI streams, fellow pro player YapzOr mentioned the story of Ammar and how he got noticed in the pro scene. Way before Ammar was even a name in the pro scene, YapzOr remembers playing with his older brother during the old days of DotA Allstars when it used to be a modded map for Warcraft III.

His older brother used the ATF name back in those days and eventually passed it down to his younger brother Ammar who carries down the family legacy through two generations of Dota, from DotA Allstars to Dota 2. Years later, this was picked up by YapzOr, when he was in Team Secret watching high-level games with his fellow teammate Zai. He noticed the ATF name in these games and brought it to the limelight once again, as the legacy continued through Dota 2.

Initially, YapzOr thought it was the older ATF brother that he used to play DotA Allstars with, but once he realized it was his younger brother, he started to research more about him. This was probably the first time Ammar was noticed by a pro player, following which he played with Creepwave before finally settling with the new squad of OG as of date.

Often considered by many players as a rising star in the Dota 2 scene, BMW had an interview with ATF and his family in conjunction with the rest of OG. The interview goes into great detail about his background and how his siblings pushed him to be the best Dota player he can be, while also making him immune to tilting. For viewers interested in knowing more about Ammar, it works as a perfect window into his life and thought process going into the game.