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Fly on what’s next for the rebuilt OG
OG’s venerable team captain speaks out on the future of the revamped Dota 2 squad.
Another year, another International and another post-tournament roster shuffle – and OG’s one of the surprising teams to be shaking things up.
Known for their stability and Major wins, OG didn’t quite hit the standards expected at this year’s International, but they’re not bowing out. Instead, the team has gone back to the drawing board, and while Amer ‘Miracle-’ Al-Barkawi, David ‘MoonMeander’ Tan and Andreas Franck ‘Cr1t-’ Nielsen have left the team, OG’s rebuilt and has brought in former Team Liquid player, Jesse ‘JerAx’ Vainikka, former Alliance midlaner, Gustav ‘s4’ Magnusson and fresh pubstar Anathan ‘ana’ Pham into the fold to join Johan ‘n0tail’ Sundstein and Tal ‘Fly’ Aizik.
With OG’s fresh team roster now locked in and the MarsTV MDL Autumn tournament fast approaching, team captain Fly tells us what he’s looking forward to, how he expects the new team to gel and OG’s goals going forward.
Let’s talk about your new line-up. Were ana, s4 and JerAx your number one picks? Did you always want to play with them, rather than against them?
I’ve already played with s4 and I’ve always wanted to play with JerAx. In fact, I had originally approached him to join the first OG roster. As for ana it’s more of a mystery; the scene is less familiar with him, but I’ve watched him a lot and we feel he can bring a lot to the team.
Was it easy to approach and convince all three to join?
The shuffle season is always a strange time of year. Players make plans and back-up plans, so you don’t know exactly what is going on, who is committing and who is not. So you try to think of people you might want to play with, start talking to people, see what they are doing and go from there. Heavy networking.
There wasn’t too much convincing needed. JerAx and s4 already knew me so they knew what to expect. ana was very excited to join. He did have a lot of offers but he really wanted to join OG. He doesn’t speak Chinese well and already had intentions to join a western team.
Have you all met up yet? Is your approach to really get to know each other before you play Dota, or just get straight into training?
I’ve played with s4 and have played with JerAx at tournaments but haven’t met up since forming this new team; ana just arrived at my place a day ago because he can’t play with us from China. For now he’ll be staying with me in the short term. He’s a really chilled guy, loves Dota, still learning how to get by. We will all meet up together at the upcoming MDL tournament at the end of the month for our first LAN together.
Have you guys managed to gel as a team yet? What will you be doing to foster teamwork?
We have started scrims already, working on team chemistry. Once we start playing official matches and meet up soon, we can build our synergy both inside and outside the game. Team building is a delicate process and can’t be rushed, especially with young talent like ana. It takes time but if done right, it will pay off in the long run.
What are your targets for the upcoming MDL LAN? Do you see it as a testing ground, or something you can go out and win?
MDL is a tournament we intended to go into mainly to gain experience and grow together as a team. Personally, I always aim to win, but the more important thing this time is to get to know each other better. It will definitely help us feel out where we stand with little to no practice, since we’ll only have a week or so to practice for this tournament. But the approach is certainly not going to be the same as it would be for a Major, but it will be a great place to kick off the new season and new roster.
Fly has high expectations for the new team
© ESL / Patrick Strack
Now that most of the big teams have sorted their new line-ups, who do you see as the biggest threats, both at MDL and for the next year?
EG and Liquid will be very strong, as well as Wings who are obviously an incredible team. I’m glad they have not made any changes to their line-ups. There are a lot of new teams in the west, so it will take time to sift the strong from the weaker teams, but it’s exciting to see. I don’t know much about the Chinese teams other than Wings so I can’t comment there.
What patch changes are you anticipating post TI6?
Right now the game is in a pretty good state, where almost all heroes are viable, so I hope there won’t be drastic changes. But as always I think it's refreshing to add some smaller changes. I think they might consider adding in Arc Warden. Adding new heroes wouldn’t be a huge gameplay patch, but would put a new twist on the existing dynamics between heroes. However, I wouldn’t mind a change to how the offlane works, giving more options for laning styles.
You now have two mid laners in s4 and Ana – do you know yet who is going to play offlane?
s4 will be playing offlane; he wanted to try something different this season. Generally in the current meta, the offlane is the spacemaker, which suits s4. The lane itself has a different play style, so it will take some time to adjust, but s4 is motivated.
Anathan has largely been unproven in a high level setting; how do you see him fitting into the team after formerly being a pubstar?
I think it will take ana some time to get used to his new environment, playing with new teammates in a new scene (East vs West), but he is young and talented. Because of this, he is still flexible in his growth, allowing to learn faster and gradually improve. Every year there are a couple of new players joining the tier one, tier two circuit. They obviously have more to prove, so with that they have more motivation which brings more fire to a new team. A combination of more experienced players with new players is, I think, a very good recipe. So having the four of us more experienced players around ana will enable him and help him grow.
What are your goals for this year? Can you win a third Major with this line-up?
The goal this year is to compete to win the Majors, but ultimately I will always aim for the International. This is a common goal that all passionate players share. I want to firstly become better as a player and a captain. I do think I still have a lot of room to grow. The more experience I gain can only help me become better as a leader and I strive for that.
OG had a reputation for stability up until TI6 – what do you think a new line-up offers in place of that familiarity?
I still aim for stability; that hasn’t changed. There are definitely good things about having a new line-up – a fresh look on the game, different perspectives and renewed passion. Familiarity with my new team-mates makes me feel more confident about how we will develop as a team, not just in how we play but how we are as people. A heartfelt thank you to all our fans who continue support us through these changes. I hope to prove to everyone the strength of our new team.
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