A miracle happened at the biggest annual tournament of the MOBA Dota 2, The International in 2018. Against all predictions, expectations and logic, OG proves that the spirit of never giving up and sacrifice accompanied by capable abilities can create miracles. This European team came home with the title of International 2018 champion and prize money of 11.2 million US dollars.
Why is OG becoming TI8 champion an extraordinary thing?
Behind the sweetness of being a champion and an abundant prize money for OG, there is a story that will make people difficult to believe. They went through Dota Pro Circuit season badly and did not get a pass through directly to TI8 from the DPC ranking. OG was forced to take part in the TI8 open qualification where they won the main qualifications while participating with three completely new members, because the three old members left them for the chance to excel with big teams.
In March, Roman “Resolut1on” Fominok moved to VGJ.Storm. Then followed by the surprise departure of captain Tal “Fly” Aizik and Gustav “s4” Magnusson. They both chose to move to the American team, Evil Geniuses. Especially for Fly, besides the captain, he is one of the founders of OG Dota and a good friend of the current OG frontman, Johan “N0tail” Sundstein.
The departure of the three experienced star players almost threatened the participation of OG in TI8 because at that time, they only had two months to find and train with new members. In the end, the coach, Sebastien “7ckngMad” Debs decided to go down directly as a player. OG then added two more players to complete their squad. Topias “Topson” Taavitsainen is relatively new in the world of pro Dota, where The International 2018 is the first LAN tournament in his career. After Topson, OG then called back their ex who had a hiatus from the world of Dota pro, Anathan “ana” Pham.
Due to the arrival of these two players, OG must adapt to make some changes. N0tail changes roles to Hard Support while 7ckngMad plays in the Offlane position. Ana and Topson played in positions 1 and 2 while Jesse “JerAx” Valnikka played tier 4.
No wonder the Dota 2 fans did not take into account OG as a champion candidate. In addition to a bad season, they are also left by the star players and “only” able to find a newbie and an old player who does not play in the pro world as a substitute. Not to mention their preparation time with the roster is not much, only two months. Of course it’s difficult for people to favorite OG.
OG Dota’s Journey at The International 2018
But slowly but sure, OG continues to prove themselves. In the TI8 group phase, they finished fourth in Group A, the last position to get the upper bracket quota. Surprisingly, in the main TI8 event, they were directly confronted with VGJ.Storm with Resolut1on strengthened. N0tail et al certainly won’t be swept away by someone who they called “friend” a few months ago. They finished off VGJ.Storm 2-0 without reply.
This is where, as arranged by fate. OG met with Evil Geniuses, which was strengthened by their former captain and former player, Fly and s4. This match was touted as a place of revenge for N0tail and indeed, he succeeded in proving to the former captain (is it also a former friend?) that he could still perform without himself by rolling EG 2-1.
After completing the game against EG, OG also had to deal with the champions’ favorite teams as well as one of the teams most feared by other teams, PSG.LGD from China. A team that passes directly to TI8 because it is ranked in third place in the DPC ranking. LGD is also a representative of the France football giant, Paris-Saint Germain since April. Plus a rumor about the West-East curse that circulated widely in the Dota 2 community in the world where the Chinese team always won The International in even years, while the odd years was won by western teams. Therefore, many consider OG to be the only jury that can reach the final upper bracket. Everyone believes their steps will be stopped by PSG.LGD.
Who would have thought, predictions and expectations of people missed. OG stole the start, using the Gyrocopter-IO duet to win the first game. LGD fought back with Storm Spirit controlled by Lu “Somnus” Yao and successfully won the second game. In the third match there was a fierce fight between the two teams and at that time was mentioned as the best match during TI8. OG became the winner of the upper bracket after making an extraordinary comeback and won the third match on 58 minutes. They also strolled into the Grand Final.
In the Grand Final match, OG was reunited with PSG.LGD who successfully defeated Evil Geniuses with two wins without reply. The call for a West-East curse was even stronger, even more than before. PSG.LGD is believed by people as destined to win TI8.
The Grand Final match that will always be remembered: Comeback is REAL
The Grand Final match, which is arguably the biggest eSports match in 2018, presents a truly exciting spectacle. Worthy to be called a Grand Final match, and it will be hard to forget for those who witness.
How not, it takes 5 games before the world can determine who is the champion of TI8. In this best-of-five (BO5) format match, both OG and PSG.LGD chased each other before finally OG finihed the Chinese resistance with a final score of 3-2.
As in the upper bracket final match, OG won the first game where Spectre from Ana and the choice of OG to use Treant Protector to protect them from the famous LGD push proved to be too effective to reduce LGD. 1-0 score for OG excellence.
LGD then attacked back in the second game through Kunkka which was controlled by Somnus to counter IO Relocates skill used by JerAx, where the decision was proven to give LGD some important kill to win the second game. Score 1-1 equals.
LGD repeated their brilliant performance in the third game after Weaver from Wang “Ame” Chunyu destroyed the OG game. 1-2 score for LGD excellence.
When people believe that this is the end of OG, OG seems to be not tired of making surprises. They chose a hero that was far from the current meta, Axe, and placed it in the offlane position. 7ckngMad controlled Axe well and played a crucial role in OG’s victory in the fourth game. The match was forced to be extended to the fifth game, which is the last match in the tournament. Score 2-2 draw.
The fifth match of the Grand Final match takes place as it should; dramatic, exciting, surprising and makes us difficult to forget. At the beginning of the game, OG had fallen and was far enough behind in the number of kills. However, a clean sweep in the big war in the mid marked the comeback of OG with Ember Spirit from Anathan “Ana” Pham being the main play. The Ember Spirit doesn’t seem to be killed and continues to be a frightening specter for LGD. Hero Carry LGD, Terror Blade, can’t do much in front of Zeus from Topson and Ember Spirit Ana who use unusual builds: Eul, Octarine Core, Maelstorm, and Linken. All predictions missed, the West-East curse was broken, OG managed to make a miracle. They won the fifth game and lifted the Aegis trophy, the sign of the International 2018 champion. Congratulations OG! Good work, N0tail!
