Team Liquid’s captain and PO5 support, Aydin “Insania” Sarkohi, led his squad to victory at The International 2024 (TI13). He is regarded as one of the great tactical minds, and his opinion carries considerable weight – but his thoughts on Team Falcons’ chances of winning The International 2025 (TI14) certainly didn’t turn out to be all that accurate.
Instead of aging like a fine wine, Insania’s comment less than one year ago about who might win The International 14 has aged like full-cream milk left out in the sun.
Insania Didn’t Believe in Team Falcons?
In case you missed it, ahead of TI14, Insania called Team Spirit the team to beat following the win at EWC 2025. At TI14, Team Falcons smashed Team Spirit 2-0 in the Elimination Round, sending them packing before the Playoffs Stage.
In November 2024, on the All Chat podcast hosted by caster Austin “Cap” Walsh, the host asked who people thought the top dog was, and he assumed it was Team Falcons.
Insania quickly said, “No, no, there is no way,” resulting in laughter from Cap and Quinn. He continued by explaining that Team Falcons was strong during the 2024 offseason, but didn’t show up when it mattered most.
Insania further explained that:
“It will be one of the good teams. Like, I think whatever teams end up looking good after Christmas, it will probably be one of them that wins TI. But I don’t think it will be Falcons. We’ll see. Not a believer.”
At the time, the comment wasn’t exactly insane, but it did surprise some fans. After all, following Team Liquid’s win at TI13, it was Team Falcons who didn’t make a single roster change in the post-TI shuffle. Team Falcons also won the first two S-Tier tournaments after TI13 in a row: BetBoom Dacha Belgrade 2024 and DreamLeague Season 24.
Team Falcons crowned themselves TI champions. Image Credit: Valve
Fast forward a year later, as the dust is still settling over the Barclays Arena in Hamburg, Germany, and Team Falcons have lifted the Aegis of Champions, defeating Chinese powerhouse Xtreme Gaming 3-2 in the Grand Final.
Evidently, Insania’s year-old comment about Team Falcons is the epitome of “aged poorly.”