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The Western European reshuffles were some of the biggest and most unpredictable of the year. It was exciting to see how the OG team would change. A team tag has become legendary over the last three years and has made their mark as the only two-time champions of The International to take two tournaments in a row.
Indeed, OG players have forever written their names in the history of competitive Dota. They have made a lot of people fall in love with their game, even the haters who insist that OG is a weak team and that they are just lucky.
OG WINS TI8
After a few True Sight releases, the OGs began to gain more and more fans. Their cohesion, team spirit, and genuine true friendship became real magic for all fans.
However, times change, legends pass away, and new generations come to replace them. We’ve often seen the change of generations in teams, for example, in Na’Vi in 2014, and an entire era ended when Puppey and Kuroky left the team. Nevertheless, both of them have had stunning success with their own teams. We can remember the same in the sunset of Newbee’s championship roster when young players like Sccc replaced veterans.
Reasons for change
Now a generational change has come to the OG as well. Team supporter Jesse “JerAx” Vainikka announced the end of his professional career right after winning The International 2019. By the way, JerAx returned to the professional scene in time for the 2021-2022 season. It looks like Jesse missed his favorite game and will now play on the same team as Cr1t. Evil Geniuses has become JerAx’s new home.
OG AT TI10
Johan and Sebastian decided to play the next season and started looking for new players. We are used to OG not showing us a championship game in the middle of the season. They couldn’t fully form their roster. By the fall of 2021, the OG had this lineup:
- Sumail “SumaiL” Hassan
- Topias “Topson” Taavitsainen
- Sébastien “Ceb” Debs
- Martin “Saksa” Sazdov
- Johan “N0tail” Sundstein
Unfortunately, at TI10, the magic of OG disappeared. Team Secret immediately got knocked out and sent to the bottom net before losing to race champions Team Spirit in one round.
The end of an era
What could the future hold for OG? Is it all over, and the three-year-long story has come to an end? OG was one of the top 8 teams at The International 2021, but for a room of two-time champions, this result did not satisfy their expectations.
Ceb announced his retirement as a professional player right after his TI10 appearance. This decision was not an impulsive one for Sebastian. I think regardless of the OG result, Ceb would have ended his career after that TI anyway.
Sometime later, Team Secret announces the transfer of SumaiL. By that time, Sumail had already started training again at mid. This meant that King would be back in his element with the new team.
Saksa did not report any news related to his departure from OG, but community representatives said that Martin was unlikely to stay on the new OG team.
The Internet has become filled with rumors that Misha, who coached OG to TI10, will be the new team captain. This seemed to make sense. Misha had a reputation as a confident captain, although he hadn’t found a home in the CIS. Perhaps teams and players from the CIS region underestimated him, as was the case with iLTW. By the way, Misha comes from the same team as iLTW – Comanche. So, if the new team will be assembled around Misha, who will be part of it? Will Topson and N0tail stay?
And now, a few days later, Topias and Johan announce that they will miss the DPC season 2021-2022. No one said anything about ending their careers, just a temporary pause for rest.
As you can understand, even then, the OG decided to make drastic changes in the roster. On The Richard Lewis Show podcast, OG CEO Juan Luna explained that OG decided to make a complete roster change during a candid conversation.
Some of the guys wanted to compete, to win right here and right now. Others said, “Look, I need a year off at least.” N0tail with Topson found the fifth position and said he was burned out, needed a year off. Ceb said he’d had enough of the game. We realized we needed a new roster. I was surprised myself. I thought we could afford whoever we wanted. And they were like: “No, we need to build a new roster. We have to start over, we need young people who are energetic, who are in love with the game.
By the way, Luna noted that N0tail and Ceb would be involved in the team’s life as mentors. According to Luna, Sebastian plays too much Dota, so he will definitely help the team.
The new generation
If we look at the new OG roster, only two players will stand out for their prominence. When OG presented their lineup, they made a video with the nicknames of the new players. I guess they didn’t even have photos to make the announcement of the new team more personable.
“Winning is a consequence, not an objective”-@Ceb
A chapter closes, a new one is just starting.
We have chosen to bring fresh talent into the Dota scene for the new iteration of OG.Please welcome:
??@Yuragii1
??@bzmdota
??@AmmarAlassaf6
??@Taigadota
??@dota2misha#DreamOG pic.twitter.com/EO7zrCFd08— OG (@OGesports) November 21, 2021
The new generation of OG
- Artem “Yuragi” Golubiev
- Bozhidar “bzm” Bogdanov
- Ammar “ATF” Al-Assaf
- Tommy “Taiga” Le
- Mikhail “Misha” Agatov
Taiga is by far the most famous player in this roster. He’s earned respect and recognition on Team Liquid. He’s the only Norwegian player to play at tier 1 level. He is known for his extraordinary actions on signature characters like Earth Spirit.
Misha is the second most famous player. Mikhail is mostly known in Russian-speaking countries. He made a name for himself in Comanche, which gave a lot of talented players. Other players from the EEU region have always referred to Misha as a very talented captain. Misha played in Na’Vi as a substitute. However, Misha never stayed with teams for long, and Ukrainian and Russian tier-1 organizations never paid attention to him.
When Misha made it to the OG, he took over as Head Coach. This means that even Sockshka has to become an assistant coach. That said, Ceb claims that Misha refreshed the OG game and was the one who allowed them to finish at least top-8 at The International 10. Apparently, the OG has high regard for Misha’s talent. They call him a very smart and intelligent player.
Youngblood
On the young blood side, a young Ukrainian player with the nickname Yuragi will play at the carry position in OG. He used to play under the nickname spAce. He is not known to the general public. Artem appeared in various mixes in 2019, but he was known only as a pub player. Yes, he has signature characters, mostly late carry: Morphling, Terrorblade, Phantom Lancer. If you play these heroes well, you’re more likely to win in matchmaking.
ATF – This nickname speaks for itself. Ammar’s full nickname is AmmarTheF*cker. That’s a thunderous statement. However, time after time Ammar proves that he’s a very unorthodox player. He doesn’t have a wide pool of heroes, but Ammar plays well-trained heroes like a beast.
Ammar played on the Creepwave team, where he showed outstanding performance on his line. He is only 16 years old! This player could have tremendous promise, and OG decided to give him a chance.
By the way, Ammar is not the only 16-year-old player at OG. This is what the next generation really means. Their mid player from Bulgaria with nickname bzm (former hansha) is also 16 years old. Just like Ammar, bzm came from stack Creepwave. He started to appear in different open qualifiers with different teams only this year. This guy has a lot to prove.
Prospects
I don’t think the outlook for this roster is completely clear. Many commentators and analysts predict a guaranteed place in the second division for the new OG, but if the team management will make the right conclusions and apply those successful decisions, everything can work out. After all, if you look at Team Spirit, their success largely depended on the organization’s work – managers, coaches, and psychologists. They talked a lot about this in interviews.
OG’s ambition is to raise young guys to be real champions. Let’s see if they can cope with this task.