OG (esports)
Games | |
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Founded | August 2015 |
Location | Europe |
CEO | J. M. R. Luna |
Head coach |
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General manager | Manon Merloz |
Championships | |
Partners |
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Main sponsor | Red Bull |
Website | ogs |
OG is a professional esports organisation based in Europe. Formed in 2015, they are best known for their Dota 2 team who won The International 2018 and 2019 tournaments. They also have teams representing other games, such as Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Valorant.
History[]
Dota 2[]
Foundation and early success (2015–2017)[]
OG was founded as "(monkey) Business" [sic] by players Tal "Fly" Aizik and Johan "N0tail" Sundstein, who were former Team Secret players, along with David "MoonMeander" Tan, Amer "Miracle-" Al-Barkawi, and Andreas "Cr1t-" Nielsen in August 2015. Soon after a dominating run through the European qualifiers for the Frankfurt Major, they adopted the moniker OG. They went on to win the inaugural Dota 2 Major Championship in Frankfurt in November 2015, earning US$1 million in prize money.[2] Despite placing in the bottom half of the next Major in Shanghai in March 2016, the team would rebound and take first place at the Manila Major in June 2016, becoming the first team to repeat as champions of a Valve sponsored Dota 2 tournament.[3]
OG entered The International 2016 as one of the favourites after earning a direct invite, but ended up finishing 9-12th out of 16 teams. In August 2016, MoonMeander, Miracle-, and Cr1t- left the team, with Gustav "s4" Magnusson, Anathan "ana" Pham, and Jesse "JerAx" Vainikka replacing them.[4][5] Despite the new roster, OG won the Boston Major in December 2016, giving them their third Dota 2 Major championship.[6] For the first premier tournament following Boston, OG advanced to the grand finals of the Dota 2 Asia Championships in Shanghai, where they were swept in a best-of-five series against Invictus Gaming.[7] Following that, OG won the Kiev Major in a best of five series against Virtus.pro.[8] At the Kiev event, the team made an appearance on Valve's True Sight documentary series.[9]
The International victories (2018–2019)[]
In May 2018, the organisation signed James "Swedish Delight" Liu to represent the professional Super Smash Bros. fighting game scene.[10][11] That same month, Fly and s4 left the team to join Evil Geniuses, with Roman "Resolut1on" Fominok joining VGJ.Storm. Due to post-deadline roster changes, OG would no longer be eligible to be directly invited to The International 2018 nor for the Regional Qualifiers and were required to play through the Open Qualifiers.[12][13] Needing three new members just a few weeks before the qualifiers began, OG quickly signed Topias "Topson" Taavitsainen, a newcomer to the scene who had never performed at a major LAN event prior to the event, Sébastien "Ceb" Debs, who had previously served as the team's coach, and ana, returning to the team from a year-long break after their previous elimination at The International 2017.[12][13][14][15] Finishing outside of the top eight in the Dota Pro Circuit final standings, which granted a direct invite to The International 2018, OG earned theirs by playing through and winning the European-region open qualifiers.
Following that, OG were then placed into group A of The International's group stage, finishing fourth with a record of 9-7, which seeded them into the upper bracket. There, OG won every series to advance to the grand finals.[16][17][18] Facing the lower bracket winner PSG.LGD in it, whom OG had just defeated in the upper bracket finals, OG won the game one, but lost the next two games.[17] Needing another win to avoid losing the series, OG forced a late-game comeback in game four, and subsequently won game five in a similar fashion, making them International champions and winning them over $11 million in prize money.[12][17][18] Their victory was considered a Cinderella and underdog success story, as they had come from the open qualifiers and had beaten some of the more favoured and accomplished teams along the way.[17][18] Their win also broke the historical trend of Chinese teams winning the International in even-numbered years.[13]
In November 2018, ana left the team after deciding to take a break from the professional scene, with Per Anders "Pajkatt" Olsson Lille and Igor "iLTW" Filatov substituting for him until he returned in March 2019.[19][20][21][22] In April 2019, the team played against and lost to the OpenAI Five, a group of artificial intelligence bots that learned to play the game entirely through machine learning, in a live exhibition series in San Francisco.[23] Later that month, Titouan "Sockshka" Merloz replaced Cristian "ppasarel" Banaseanu as team coach.[24][25]
The team earned a direct invite to The International 2019 by finishing in the top 12 of that season's Dota Pro Circuit.[26] There, they went 14-2 in the group stage, advancing through the upper bracket before defeating Team Liquid in the grand finals 3-1, making them the first ever repeat champion of an International, being awarded $15.6 million out of the $34 million prize pool.[27]
Restructuring (2020–present)[]
The Dota 2 team went through various changes in January 2020, with ana leaving to take another extended hiatus until the next Dota Pro Circuit season,[28] JerAx announcing his retirement,[29] and Ceb leaving the active roster to help focus on developing other players on the team.[30] To replace them, the team signed Syed "Sumail" Hassan, Yeik "MidOne" Nai Zheng, and Martin "Saksa" Sazdov.[31][32] Sumail was released from the team in July 2020, with Ceb replacing him as a player.[33]
In March 2021, MidOne was removed from the roster, with ana briefly returning to the roster before announcing his retirement in June.[34][35] Shortly after, the team re-signed Sumail.[36] OG qualified to The International 2021 via regional qualifiers,[37] but were eliminated 2-0 in the lower bracket to the tournament's eventual champion Team Spirit.[38] In November 2021, the roster underwent significant changes as Sumail and Saksa were released, Ceb announcing his retirement from professional play, while Topson and N0tail left the active roster after deciding to take a break from the professional scene.[39][40][41][42]
In November 2021, OG announced an entirely new roster consisting of Tommy "Taiga" Le, Ammar "ATF" Al-Assaf, Bozhidar "bzm" Bogdanov, Artem "Yuragi" Golubiev, and Mikhail "Misha" Agatov, who had previously served as the team's coach.[43]
Rosters[]
Dota 2[]
OG Dota 2 roster | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Players | Coaches | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Evgenii "Chuvash" Makarov
Roster updated November 22, 2021. |
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive[]
In December 2019, OG announced they had formed a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team, with the organisation signing veterans Nathan "NBK-" Schmitt and Valdemar "valde" Bjørn Vangså, along with Aleksi "Aleksib" Virolainen, Issa "ISSAA" Murad and Mateusz "mantuu" Wilczewski.[44] Following that, the team signed Casper "ruggah" Due as the team coach in January. In September 2020, ruggah was implicated in the coaching bug scandal. As a result, the Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC) and Valve banned ruggah from participating in one Valve-sponsored Major Championship.[45][46] In February 2021, the team removed NBK- from the active roster, with ISSAA following suit shortly after.[47] To replace them, the team signed Nikolaj "niko" Kristensen in March 2021, and Shahar "flameZ" Shushan a month later.[48][49]
OG Counter-Strike: Global Offensive roster | |||||||||||||||||||
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Players | Coaches | ||||||||||||||||||
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Casper "ruggah" Due
Roster updated January 2, 2022. |
Valorant[]
The team formed a Valorant division in 2021.[50]
OG Valorant roster | |||||||
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Players | Coaches | ||||||
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Julien "daemoN" Ducros
Roster updated October 6, 2021. |
References[]
- ^ "Please welcome @casdueh new coach for our CS:GO team!". twitter.com. OG. Retrieved 29 January 2020.
- ^ Stubbsy, Mike. "How OG surprised the world at the Frankfurt Major". Red Bull. Retrieved 29 June 2016.
- ^ Cocke, Taylor. "OG wins Manila, becomes first team to win two Dota 2 majors". esports.yahoo.com. Yahoo. Retrieved 14 June 2016.
- ^ Van Allen, Eric (24 August 2016). "OG loses MoonMeander, Cr1t-, Miracle- in roster shuffle". ESPN. Retrieved 25 September 2016.
- ^ Partridge, Jon. "Fly on what's next for the rebuilt OG". redbull.com. Retrieved 25 September 2016.
- ^ Van Allen, Eric (11 December 2016). "OG defeats Ad Finem at Boston Major for its third Major title". ESPN. Retrieved 11 December 2016.
- ^ Elliott, Travis (4 April 2017). "Dota 2 Asia Championships Main Event: Invictus tops OG in finals". ESPN. Retrieved 4 April 2017.
- ^ Ballenger, Jack (30 April 2017). "OG cements its dynasty at the Kiev Major". ESPN. Retrieved 1 May 2017.
- ^ "True Sight: The Kiev Major Grand Finals". Dota 2 blog. Retrieved 1 June 2017.
- ^ "OG on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
- ^ "Esports team OG steps into Super Smash Bros. by signing Swedish Delight". Shoryuken. 7 May 2018. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
- ^ a b c Rose, Victoria (25 August 2018). "OG Dota win The International 8 for $11 million top prize". The Flying Courier. Retrieved 26 August 2018.
- ^ a b c O’Keefe, David. "OG fill us in on their epic TI8 victory". Red Bull. Retrieved 26 August 2018.
- ^ "A Shift in OG". Facebook. Retrieved 28 May 2018.
- ^ "OG". Facebook. Retrieved 4 June 2018.
- ^ "OG beats PSG.LGD in winners bracket thriller; Evil Geniuses advances". ESPN. Rotoworld. 24 August 2018. Retrieved 26 August 2018.
- ^ a b c d "OG wins five-game thriller to take The International 8 title and $11 million". ESPN. Rotowire. 25 August 2018.
- ^ a b c Strom, Steven (26 August 2018). "Dota 2 championship ends in a pulse-pounding, curse-breaking Cinderella story". PC Gamer. Retrieved 26 August 2018.
- ^ Miguel Garcia, Nikko. "'ana' of Dota 2 TI8 champs OG to take a break". FoxSportsAsia.com. Fox Sports Asia. Retrieved 19 November 2018.
- ^ Bishop, Sam. "OG reveal that Pajkatt has joined their Dota 2 team". Game Reactor. Retrieved 5 December 2018.
- ^ "Dota 2: OG releases Pajkatt after two months". ESPN. 4 January 2019. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
- ^ Partridge, Jon. "Ana on returning to OG and pro Dota". Red Bull. Retrieved 17 March 2019.
- ^ Statt, Nick (13 April 2019). "OpenAI's Dota 2 AI steamrolls world champion e-sports team with back-to-back victories". The Verge. Retrieved 15 April 2019.
- ^ @OGesports (30 April 2019). "A stunning announcement. Please welcome @FollowSockshka on BOAR-d!" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ^ Stubbs, Mike. "Ana is our MVP of The International 8". Red Bull. Retrieved 19 September 2018.
- ^ Div. "OG and Keen Gaming secure their spots at The International 2019". VP Esports. Retrieved 26 June 2019.
- ^ S. Good, Owen (25 August 2019). "The International crowns its first two-time champion". Polygon. Retrieved 25 August 2019.
- ^ Michael, Cale (25 January 2020). "OG's ana to extend break until 2020-21 Dota Pro Circuit". Shack News.
- ^ "OG's 'JerAx' announces retirement". Reuters. Field Level Media. 26 January 2020. Retrieved 29 January 2020.
- ^ "OG's 'Ceb' steps down from active roster". Reuters. Field Level Media. 27 January 2020. Retrieved 29 January 2020.
- ^ "'SumaiL' latest addition to OG's Dota 2 roster". Reuters. Field Level Media. 29 January 2020. Retrieved 29 January 2020.
- ^ Esports, OG (29 January 2020). "Our new roster". ogs.gg.
- ^ Banerjee, Sonu (25 July 2020). "Ceb is back to OG Dota 2 roster, Sumail removed". TalkEsport.
- ^ "ana leaves OG, stepping away from Dota 2". Reuters. Field Level Media. Retrieved 15 June 2021.
- ^ Esports, OG (15 June 2021). "A Humble Goodbye". ogs.gg.
- ^ Tshoma, Ngugen (15 June 2021). "ana retires Dota 2 roster, OG welcomes 'King' Sumail". TalkEsport.
- ^ Lozano, Kurt. "Defending champions OG qualify for TI10 after outlasting Nigma, Tundra". Yahoo News. Yahoo News. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
- ^ Michael, Cale. "A new champion will be crowned at The International 10 as Team Spirit eliminate defending champs OG". Dot Esports. Retrieved 18 October 2021.
- ^ Michael, Cale (8 November 2021). "OG releases Saksa and Sumail from its Dota 2 roster". Dot Esports. Retrieved 17 November 2021.
- ^ Esports, OG (18 November 2021). "Ceb to step away from highest level of competitive Dota". ogs.gg.
- ^ Michael, Cale (19 November 2021). "Topson steps away from competitive Dota 2 to focus on his family". Dot Esports. Retrieved 19 November 2021.
- ^ Esports, OG (20 November 2021). "N0tail to take a break as a player to mentor the new OG Dota roster and stream". ogs.gg.
- ^ Michael, Cale (21 November 2021). "OG signs entirely new Dota 2 roster led by Misha and Taiga, features two 16-year-old standouts". Dot Esports. Retrieved 21 November 2021.
- ^ Sillis, Ben; Partridge, Jon. "Meet your OG CS:GO dream team". Red Bull. Retrieved 10 December 2019.
- ^ "Esports Integrity Commission findings from investigation into CS:GO spectator bug explotation". ESIC. Archived from the original on 4 November 2020. Retrieved 28 September 2020.
- ^ Corporation, Valve (27 January 2021). "2021 RMR Update". counter-strike.net.
- ^ Bhatti, Fariha. "OG's CSGO roster down to 3 players as ISSAA gets benched". WIN.gg. Retrieved 17 March 2021.
- ^ Kotwani, Bharat (17 March 2021). "Niko joining OG CSGO". TalkEsport. Retrieved 18 March 2021.
- ^ Esports, OG (27 January 2021). "A New Flame". Og.
- ^ "New Horizon: OG Valorant". ogs.gg. ogs.gg. 15 February 2021. Retrieved 15 February 2021.
External links[]
- Dota teams
- Esports teams established in 2015
- Super Smash Bros. player sponsors
- Esports teams based in Europe
- 2015 establishments in Europe
- Red Bull sports teams
- Counter-Strike teams