Team Liquid Player 33 Refused To Shake Hands With The Gaimin Gladiators

After a 0-2 defeat in the BetBoom DACHA Dubai 2024 tournament, Team Liquid’s Off Laner, Neta “33” Shapira, avoided shaking the hands of the Gaimin Gladiators players. This lack of gesture shocked the Dota 2 community and left fans wondering why. 

Team Liquid and the Gaimin Gladiators have a long history, starting in 2023. These two Western Europe teams were within the top three best teams in the world in the previous year, meeting in three Major Grand Finals. 

The players from both rosters were shown to be really good friends with each other, constantly showing love and respect after every match. The two teams met for the first time in 2024 at the BetBoom DACHA Dubai 2024 Group Stage with Team Liquid’s new iteration of the roster, including Neta “33” Shapira.

The Best-of-2 series ended in the favor of the Gladiators after a very convincing stomp. The series’ first map ended 28 minutes after Ace devastated Liquid with an uncountered Broodmother pick in the late portions of the draft. 

Team Liquid had a more sophisticated draft in the second map, but the Gaimin Gladiators showed why they were the better team. The Gladiators outclassed and outplayed Team Liquid to complete a clean sweep in the series.

Since the BetBoom DACHA participants were playing in the same LAN studio, the players could walk over and shake hands with one another after every match. The Gaimin Gladiators headed to Team Liquid’s booth and shook hands with the players.

In a clip that surfaced of the handshakes, Nisha, miCKe, and Boxi happily shook the hands of the incoming Gladiators and even showed smiles on their faces. Shaking the players’ hands from one end of the booth to the other, the Gladiators were on their way to shake 33’s hand, who was sitting furthest away. 

At first, 33 seemed busy packing his peripherals, looking away from the direction of the incoming players. In the clip, the BetBoom referee took 33’s attention and signalled him to shake hands. However, 33 shrugged it off. The Off Laner even made eye contact with Quinn, standing right next to him, and still did not shake his hands.

The denial of a handshake with Quinn stirred a chain reaction among the Gaimin Gladiators players, and none of them ended up shaking hands with 33. Support player tOfu seemed bewildered and even looked back at 33 twice. 

The Dota community is confused and slightly outraged that 33 did not show sportsmanship after the series. With the history of Team Liquid and the Gladiators being good friends and competitors throughout last year, it was odd that 33, the new addition to the roster, could not show just a tad bit of respect.