Introduction
A year ago, the 2015 Fall Shuffle hit. And while it may not have hit as hard as it hit this year, it still affected a lot of teams and players. Among all the teams that were reshuffling and the drama that was going around, the former Cloud9 member, Johan "N0tail" Sundstein, tweeted:
This sparked the flame that the Dota community and Reddit is always so anxious for - the flame of drama. All kinds of speculations and predictions began, as fans all over the world tried to decipher N0tail's message. Five days later, the secret was out. N0Tail had teamed up with Amer 'Miracle-' Al-Barkawi, a pubstar whose flashy plays had been going viral on YouTube, as well as former Complexity players: Tal 'Fly' Aizik and David 'MoonMeander' Tan, and Andreas Franck 'Cr1t-' Nielsen who he had played Heroes of Newerth against. The drama was centered on the fact that N0Tail had assumed the core position in his team, and critics were skeptical of the beastly support player's ability to carry his team. Critics soon realized that these monkeys meant business as N0Tail and his boys dominated, taking over Ninjas In Pyjamas to qualify for the Frankfurt Major, and placing 3-4 in the MLG World Finals, losing their series against the formidable Team Secret. As they secured their trip to the Frankfurt Major with their solid performances, they were picked up by OG.
What does the name OG stand for?
To be completely honest with you, I don’t have a clue about that either. And, funnily enough, neither have OG themselves! This was the door to their training room at the Frankfurt Major, where they too pondered upon what their name really means, and came up with some rather interesting possibilities.
What exactly is this "unparalleled Major Legacy" that you mention?
This unparalleled Major legacy is the record that OG holds to date, of being the only team to have won two Majors. The newly formed OG had a rough group stage at the Frankfurt Major, and placed in the lower bracket against Fnatic. OG, however, dominated the Lower-Bracket and soon enough, met the European powerhouse Team Secret in the finals of the Major. This time, however, they were more than ready and 3-1’ed them to win the first ever Major organized by Valve. Going into the Shanghai Major, karma struck OG as the Fnatic they had rolled over in the Frankfurt Major 2-1’ed them in the lower bracket and they secured the 7-8th position. OG, although devastated of their inability to repeat history, stuck together and emerged as a top team going into the Manila Major. In the finals, they met Team Liquid, the crowd-favourites for the event, and this time they did repeat history as they 3-1’ed Team Liquid too, becoming the first ever team to win two Valve events, a record that no one has been able to break since.
OG after the International 2016 and the Fall Reshuffle
At the International, a major upset happened, something which neither OG nor any Dota analyst could have thought of in their wildest dreams as OG's way to go down in the International. OG, one of the top favourites for the event, were knocked out of the International by the underdogs TNC Pro Team, led by the skillful captaincy of Jimmy ‘DeMoN’ Ho. The Fall Reshuffle came soon afterwards, and it struck OG to, and soon two of OG’s members: Miracle- and Cr1t had left the team and MoonMeander had been replaced. The new OG roster, followed a similar recipe of picking new talent, as they replaced Miracle- with Australian 8k MMR pubstar Anathan ‘ana’ Pham. MoonMeander was replaced by Gustav ‘s4’ Magnusson and Cr1t’s role was filled in by Jesse ‘JerAx’ Vainikka.
OG’s roster for the Fall Major:
Johan 'N0Tail' Sundstein
Anathan 'ana' Pham
Gustav 's4' Magnusson
Jesse 'JerAx' Vainikka
Tal 'Fly' Aizik
Sébastian '7ckngMad' Debs (coach/sub)
OG’s achievements post TI 6 shuffle:
The newly formed OG was overflowing with raw talent, and this talent was reflected in their performances. OG managed to secure third place at the first premiere tournament after the reshuffle, the MarsTV Dota 2 League, where they lost only to arguably the strongest teams after the reshuffle Evil Geniuses. However, they had proved the capabilities of their roster and were able to secure a direct invite to the Boston Major. In upcoming tournaments, OG showed critics that they were the rightful recipients of the direct invite as they placed second at the Summit 6, beating Evil Geniuses … twice! Soon afterwards, they continued to assert dominance over Evil Geniuses, as they faced them in the finals of Elimination Mode 2.0 and managed to defeat them 3-2 in some very close and interesting games.
OG in numbers:
Win Rate: 60% in 50 matches
Radiant Win Rate: 56% in 25 matches
Dire Win Rate: 64% in 25 matches
How has OG’s playstyle changed after the 2016 Fall Shuffle?
OG was able to create a roster with a play style similar to the one they had at TI 6. Their two cores, Ana and N0tail, often switch between carry and midlane, but Ana has remained their primary midlaner, as he has assumed the position in about 75% of games. Their roaming support, JerAx has a similar style to that of Cr1t, where he is constantly able to make successful ganks throughout the early game and create space for his cores. Even the signature hero of both the players has remained the same - Earth Spirit.
Most picked heroes:
But what has changed greatly for OG is the offlane. When OG acquired MoonMeander after The International 2015, he was an established offlaner who was known for his play-making abilities and insane raw talent as an offlaner. However, s4, although undoubtedly one of the most skilled players in the professional scene, joined OG playing the offlane role for the first time in his professional career. It would be unfair to say that he did not encounter any difficulties playing the position. During MDL, s4 would give up many deaths early on in the game and get his core items late. But proving to be a player of the highest calibre, s4 learned from his mistakes and moved on, soon settling quite well into the offlane position. A signature trend of s4 in his offlane has been his comfort heroes, especially Batrider. Since the formation of the new iteration of OG, Batrider has been picked 21 times by them, the most out of any hero, and s4 has managed to maintain a 61.9% winrate with the hero.
Having stabilized s4 in the offlane, given Ana valuable LAN experience at The Summit 6, and not afraid to run niche strats like support Tiny, OG are one of the top contenders to defend the Eaglesong trophy and continue their Major legacy.
