The last several weeks have been difficult for Boom Esports. As a result of their poor showing at the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) Division 1 Winter Tour 2023, they were demoted to Division 2 and some of their players were subjected to online abuse for their dismal performances. One of them is Kenny “Xepher” Deo.
Xepher was added as the final addition to Boom Esports in November 2022, when he came to the team as a free transfer from T1. He took the position 4 from Tims as the latter joined the newcomer, Blacklist Rivalry.
Together with Natsumi and Xnova, Boom ardent supporters hoped that these new recruits would help the team retain its strong performance from the previous year. Despite this, Xepher and his mates failed to show up at the recent Winter Tour. They only managed two victories in seven games.
Their disastrous outcome made them the butt of jokes on social media. Their fans have questioned Mushi’s choice of tactics, which are considered irrelevant for the current meta. The majority of them, however, directed their anger at Natsumi and Xepher, which have been deemed as nothing more than liabilities to the team.
Xepher then responded to the backlash during a livestream session on his personal Youtube channel last Sunday.
“Mushi is a very good coach. Unfortunately, we, the players, were too slow to get a grasp on his tactics,” Xepher said. Additionally, he stated that he needs time to adjust from his previous team.
Apart from that, Xepher admitted that some underdog teams are currently performing better than Boom. He even praised Talon as one to beat for DPC SEA in this season. He believed they would make it to the top four in the upcoming Lima Major.
And speaking of team performance, Xepher said that he can’t wait to play in the BTS Season 14 tournament on February 9th/10th. Though he said that he did not expect to be the best in that tournament, he believed that the opportunity to play against good teams in BTS would inspire his team to improve.
“Boom will play in BTS Season 14 and it would be exciting to play against good teams like Spawn, Ehome, and Polaris.” he said. “But the most important thing to do at the moment is how we focus on improving our gameplay first and think about the results later. I believe if we play well, we’ll get some good outcomes.”
Xepher also noted that many DPC viewers are comparing him to Tims and singled him out as a burden when Boom failed to secure their spot in Division 1 last week. But it seems he couldn’t be bothered by the negative comments which being swirled around in social media.
“This is nothing new to pro player. When a team is on the decline, it’s always easy to pick a player and put the blame on him,” he casually responded.
