2023 has proven to be a rather disappointing competitive season for Boom Esports. Throughout three major competitions this season, namely PUBGM, Valorant, and Dota 2, they failed to clinch any championship titles and lost many key players who had been with them for quite some time.
This setback was in stark contrast to their remarkable performance the previous year, where all their divisions excelled in local and international competitions, including their impressive run in Dota 2 Pro Circuit 2022, Gamers Galaxy, and their entry to Valorant Champions 2022. Consequently, the CEO, Gary “Natshuba” Ongko, expressed his regret over the team’s performance, acknowledging the fans’ high expectations.
Reflecting on the challenges, Gary emphasized that this was the first time they had encountered such difficulties since the establishment of BOOM. However, he found a silver lining in the situation, recognizing the opportunity to learn from their mistakes.
“It just hit me that the 2023 competitive year is pretty much over for me and Boom Esports. This has been a tough year to say the least, especially after the great 2022 we had.” he said. “Since I founded Boom, we never really had a down year; it was always better year by year, and this was the first time I had to deal with a down year.”
“The good thing about year’s like this especially after such a great year like 2022 is we get to learn a lot about what we did wrong and what we did right. I just want to apologize to our fans who, like everyone in Boom, are probably disappointed with our performances this year.”
He also recognized that some changes inside the club revealed to the public proved difficult to accept, particularly for their ardent fans. However, he promised that these plans were not fully concluded yet.
“The changes we’ve made in Valorant are now public, and while I’ve heard and read many disappointments with our decisions, I can tell you internally we have full confidence that it is a stronger roster and we will compete better. With PUBGM we will be cooking something, I guess just stay tuned with what will happen with them. And don’t worry Kent has extended we just loan him.”
“And finally as most of you have personally asked me “What is happening with Boom Dota 2?”. I can’t say much but what I will say is we will have a team for the upcoming year. Who will stay who will leave? I really don’t know the answer, but I ask for you guys to trust me and Mushi and believe that we learnt the hard way this year, and we will cook real good for next year.“
Going forward, they will be competing against the best in PUBGM Pro League and Valorant Challengers, and they will be aiming for a spot in the international competition. However, with the current condition of Dota 2 competition, there is still ambiguity regarding its professional scene everywhere, making it difficult to predict how they will deal with the transfer window next season.
