Ammar “ATF” Al-Assaf won’t be joining Quest Esports due to disagreement in their offered contract. This came as a shock, considering how phenomenal ATF and Quest Esports performed at the Bali Major 2023.

ATF parts way with Quest Esports

Unfortunately, ATF confirmed that he won’t be playing for Quest Esports at the upcoming Riyadh Masters 2023. The reason was that he found that the contract offered by Quest was “unacceptable”, which prompted ATF not to sign it.

On Quest’s side of the story, they shared that they fulfilled their agreement for a planned buyout after Bali Major. However, the other party wanted to re-negotiate the contract terms, prompting Quest to decline since it was against their values. Anyways, ATF’s loan in Quest already ended after the Bali Major, so Quest will be playing with a stand-in at Riyadh Masters 2023.

After our great results at Bali Major, it was disappointing when the others wanted to renegotiate the contract terms, a few days before Riyadh Masters. This is against our values, we had to say no

— Quest Esports (@questesports_) July 15, 2023

ATF expresses his disappointment in Quest’s decision to get a stand-in instead of extending the loan despite his contribution in assisting Quest to qualify for Riyadh Masters. Considering the $15M prize pool up for grabs, it’s definitely heart-wrenching.

Nigma Galaxy’s assistance

Nigma Galaxy evidently played a massive part in the outcomes of this disagreement with many fans even accusing Nigma of attempting to weaken the competition in the upcoming TI12 WEU qualifiers.

However, in ATF’s words, Nigma helped with everything in the loan/buyout, but Quest’s contract is not acceptable for me.

Despite ATF’s decision to leave Nigma Galaxy, the org deserves praise for supporting their players in such unfortunate circumstances. Such that, it gave ATF the luxury of not getting into a contract that he doesn’t agree on. Even if it means likely missing out on the biggest championship in Dota 2, TI12, and Riyadh Masters 2023.

Quest Esports and TI12 plans

Quest Esports was the talk of the town at the Bali Major 2023 for all the good reasons. They were phenomenal not only for placing fourth but also overwhelmed every opponent besides the big trio of Western Europe.

As such, since the Big Trio (Gaimin Gladiators, Team Liquid, and Tundra Esports) already secured direct invites to the International 12 (TI12). Quest Esports is deemed the most favorable team to qualify for TI12 via the regional qualifiers of WEU. There’s plausibly no other team that can stand against Quest Esports with ATF as their power-forward.

Quest Esports welcomes Abdimalik “Malik” Sailau

There’s no doubt that Quest is the strongest WEU team in TI12 WEU regional qualifier. They already proven their strength and potential to stand on equal ground alongside the Big Trio. Even without ATF on their side, Quest has a strong chance of qualifying for TI12.

As an alternative, Quest has officially announced Abdimalik “Malik” Sailau as their offlaner at Riyadh Masters. Malik has his roots way back in PuckChamp’s glory days, occasionally placing top seeds in the Eastern Europe Division 1 League.

Note that TI12 WEU Qualifier has two qualifying slots up for grabs, so Quest will surely be uncontested in securing either one of these slots. There will be several formidable candidates that could give Quest a run for their money, notably team OG and Entity.

Regardless, we would be baffled if Quest didn’t make the cut after such a great season.

Read next: Dota 2 The International 2023 – Event Guide & History