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OG fill us in on their epic TI8 victory
Between roster upheaval and a missed direct TI8 invite, 2018 was a hard year for OG. Read on to find out from the players themselves how the squad went from underdogs to TI champions.
On odd years teams from the West win The International, and Chinese teams win on even years. That's been the format since the first International back in 2011. With a strong run in the inaugural Dota Pro Circuit season, PSG.LGD entered The International 8 in Vancouver, Canada, as the clear favorites to claim the Aegis of Champions for China. To add to that, in Chinese culture the number eight is often associated with prosperity and fortune. Destiny appeared ready to deliver PSG.LGD victory.
But OG proved time-after-time that they have a way of defying destiny. They did so when they beat PSG.LGD 2–1 in the upper bracket finals of TI8 to secure their place in the grand finals. They did so again in a grueling and electrifying five game series to become the first non-Chinese team to hoist the Aegis on an even-numbered year.
"This TI has felt different from other tournaments. Everyone feels free to play without shackles. No nerves. No pressure," Johan 'N0Tail' Sundstein, captain of OG, exclusively told us after lifting the trophy.
OG's is an underdog story. In hindsight, that seems like an outlandish claim to make. In all of esports, only 12 other teams have earned more prize money than OG prior to TI8, with the lion’s share of their earnings coming from a string of major tournament victories from 2015 to early 2017.
This TI has felt different from other tournaments. Everyone feels free to play without shackles. No nerves. No pressure.
The first official DPC season was not so kind to OG, however. The wins stopped flowing freely and Anathan 'ana' Pham, one of OG's star carries, took a break from professional Dota following the team's loss at TI7. 'Ana' was replaced by Roman 'Resolut1on' Fominok, but the team didn't recapture its prior form while he was present.
'Resolut1on' was let go in March and to make matters worse, Tal 'Fly' Aizik, a founding member of OG, and Gustav 's4' Magnusson left the team to join Evil Geniuses shortly after OG was eliminated from ESL One Birmingham in late May.
While OG floundered and dealt with roster upheaval, the team they'd eventually face in the grand finals of TI8 looked dominant. They remained a threat at any tournament throughout 2018, punctuated the season with wins at Epicenter and the MDL Changsha Major, and they easily earned a direct invite to TI8 based upon their performance during the inaugural DPC season. OG was not so fortunate.
The winds of fortune are fickle, though. After the departure of 'Fly' and 's4', 'ana' returned to the team and assumed his old role. He told us that it felt like coming home.
Topias 'Topson' Taavitsainen, a relative newcomer to the professional Dota scene, was brought on as well. Long-time members Jesse 'Jerax' Vainikka and 'N0Tail' were also joined in-game by their former coach, Sébastien 'Ceb' Debs, who became the team's new offlaner, while 'N0Tail' moved to the hard support role.
With precious little time to come together as a team, OG managed to cruise through the European open qualifiers for TI8, and secured their spot in the TI.
"We're grateful it clicked so well and that fast," 'Ceb' said. "We clicked right away. We were all ready to work it out if it didn't. I think we got pretty lucky."
'Playing with OG has been very rewarding," 'Topson' told us before TI. "I think we have very good team synergy and everyone enjoys playing with each other."
That alone is a remarkable feat, but OG's story continued. They qualified into the upper bracket of the TI8 main event by coming fourth in a group that included two former champions, Team Liquid and Evil Geniuses, along with the favorites to win this year, PSG.LGD. OG would go on to cleanly beat VGJ.Storm, winners of the other group, 2–0, while PSG.LGD took down another tournament favorite, the number-one-ranked DPC team, Virtus.pro.
By making it to the second round of the upper bracket, OG had already secured a top six finish. If their story had ended there, it would still be historic, because OG had never come this far in TI before.
Their next opponent was be Evil Geniuses, the new home team to former OG members 'S4' and 'Fly'. They put up a valiant fight, but OG eventually toppled them 2–1. Meanwhile, PSG.LGD advanced comfortably over TI7 champions Team Liquid.
"This has been an amazing run so far," 'N0Tail' said in an interview prior to their match with PSG.LGD in the upper bracket. "It's a lot of hard work paying off."
They approached their match much like they approached the rest of the tournament: with calmness and composure, and without expectations.
"We knew we had potential to go far in the tournament, but we didn't put unnecessary amounts of pressure on ourselves. Whatever happens, happens," 'Ceb' said.
For the first time since the group stage, PSG.LGD and OG collided in the upper bracket finals. With PSG.LGD coasting through a murderer's row of teams, OG looked to be heavy underdogs. That scrappy underdog story of the new OG played out in the games, too. While OG salvaged game one after being massively behind, they were trounced in game two.
Game three started out just like games one and two, with PSG.LGD taking a substantial lead early on. With cool heads, a draft favouring the late game, and an all-hands-on-deck frenetic defence that lead to one of the greatest comebacks of all time, OG snatched victory from the jaws of defeat and advanced to the grand finals of TI8 from the upper bracket.
PSG.LGD eventually found their way to the grand finals as well, going through Evil Geniuses in the process. What ensued was the one of the most electrifying five-game series of Dota 2 ever played on the grand stage of The International. Thunderous does not begin to describe the roar of the crowd, which howled rapturously for hours. By the final moments of the set, nobody in the packed Rogers Arena could will themselves to sit.
Even though they made it to the TI8 grand finals from the upper bracket, OG were still the underdogs. They were still the team boasting middling results in 2018, and they were still the team with a roster cobbled together just months before TI8. They were still the team who'd never made it anywhere close to the grand finals of TI, and still the team who had to leave a trail of vanquished hopefuls behind to even qualify at the last minute. They were the team staring down the barrel of a time-honoured TI tradition.
OG had to play from behind in every round of a five game barn burner of a final series. No game went smoothly, but they navigated the chaos with aplomb. Time-after-time they dragged PSG.LGD into deep water and sunk them. Through adversity they persevered and shone as brightly as the Aegis they hoisted while confetti smothered the arena and fireworks burst over the stage.
"We've been blessed," 'Ceb' said.
