OG announce a slight adjustment ahead of the 2023 Dota Pro Circuit Spring Tour.
No one is leaving the organization or the team for the next tour at OG. Instead, Mikhail "Misha" Agatov will be stepping down from active play and will swap roles with coach Evgenii "Chu" Makarov.
I thought a lot about it, and could not ignore the moments when I coached before. I enjoyed it so much and I felt like all my Dota knowledge was used 100%.
The most important for me is OG. I feel like we will be so much stronger if I can help structure the practice process, talk about how to improve the game, help the team and take care of the drafts, etc - Misha
In an official statement released by OG, Misha also mentions that he felt he couldn’t transfer all his game knowledge into personal plays or in-game calls while he was the team captain.
OG 2023 Spring Tour roster
Artem “Yuragi” Golubiev
Bozhidar “bzm” Bogdanov
Dmitry “DM” Dorokhin
Tommy “Taiga” Le
Evgeniy “Chuvash” Makarov
coach: Mikhail “Misha” Agatov
Misha’s stint with OG began in the coaching seat when he joined the team just before The International 2021 and made his TI debut. Following the top 8 result in Bucharest, the team witnessed a massive shakeup and Misha put together the current roster.
Last year, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Misha faced multiple visa and passport issues and couldn’t attend most of the LAN tournaments prior to TI11. At two of those Chu stood in for him and helped the team to reach a top 6 finish GAMERS GALAXY: Invitational Series Dubai 2022 and claim the championship title at ESL One Malaysia 2022, the last LAN event before TI11.
Misha was also absent at the ESL One Stockholm 2022 Major where OG took home the trophy with Sébastien "Ceb" Debs standing in. Throughout the whole Major and even after claiming the title, Ceb was vocal about the incredible help the team got from home from Misha and Chu, who worked together in the coaching capacity and did everything remotely to have the team prepared for each opponent in Stockholm.
OG’s restructured roster will be entering the Western Europe regional league battle for a spot at the ESL One Berlin Major next week, on the 13th of March. In the previous tour, the team fell short of a major ticket after losing a tiebreaker battle with Tundra Esports and Entity.
Spring Tour schedule
- Open Qualifiers: March 13-15, 2023
- Closed Qualifiers: March 16-22, 2023
- Division 1 Regional League Tournament: March 13 - April 2, 2023
- Division 2 Regional League Tournament: April 3-23, 2023
- ESL One Berlin Major: April 26 - May 7, 2023
