The Great Victory of a Great Team

So International 9 ended and it’s time to summarize everything that has happened. The winners are the OG team, which defeated Team Liquid in the Grand Final of The International 2019 in Dota 2. The match ended 3-1 in favor of Johan «n0tail» Sundstein’s team.

OG became the first two-time champion of The International in history. The team earned more than $ 15 million in prize money for their victory. For Team Liquid, this is the second TI Grand Final. In 2017, Kuro «KuroKy’s» Salehi Tahasomi team beat Newbee 3-0. This year, the team took second place and earned more than $ 5 million.

The International 2019 took place in Shanghai from 15^th August to 25th. The 18 best teams played for over $ 34 million and a champion title. The next TI will be held in Stockholm, Sweden.

Last year, at TI8 everyone was amazed by the team spirit and playstyle of the OG. The team that was assembled two months before the main tournament of the year suddenly wins it without any problems! Then the expected decline began. All previous champions after winning a huge amount of money, prestige and perpetuating their names in the history of DotA 2 did not have their best shape immediately after the tournament. This is understandable because after such an event everyone needs a rest. And so many people say that when you have conquered the peak, there is already no enough motivation to play on “ordinary” tournaments. And OG was no exception.

The player of the first / second position, Anatan “ana” Fan, went completely inactive for half a year. Many said that the team after the victory would not be as phenomenal as it was at TI. But everything changed when, after six months, the inactive Ana returned to the squad. 

And after fairly average and not particularly outstanding results in substitution tournaments, the OG began to play with their victorious roster again. Despite this, they hardly managed to get into the top 12 DPC of the season and get a direct invite to International.

But it was only the beginning. In the tournament itself, the team simply began with rage. They defeated everyone without any problems and some talents even said that for these five players that were just a “pub game”. They really did a huge number of actions that did not correspond to the concept of a professional game and it did not stop them from winning. They stormed through the teams in the group stage and took first place, not losing a single series, and received only two draws.

After that, they confidently walked towards the grand finals and the second victory in the main tournament of the year. They surprised everyone with their playstyle, the speed with which they demolished the throne of an opponent and, most importantly, the heroes’ peaks that were unexpected for everyone. Wisp-carry, first shown by this particular team, brought them many quite unexpected victories. It began to seem that instead of them, the well-known Open AI bot was playing. The playstyle of this five and a computer was somehow similar. There were also those who really accused as a team of so good results, that it simply cannot be true.

OG could only ignore them and play their game. And indeed, their crazy style of playing helped them achieve the previously impossible! They became the first team in the world which took Aegis a second time! Moreover, they did it for the second time in a row! They are undoubtedly the strongest team in the world. They defeated Team Liquid as if it were a random rival. And they are rightfully the first in history double winners of the International.

Also, these five players became the five richest esports players in the world, earning more than $ 5 million each.

But just a couple days after the tournament, Ana again announced that he was going to stay inactive for some time. But now we already know that this is only a necessary rest in order to please us again with their wild game on stage next year!

In the meantime, we just have to watch the team’s quiet and measured game with possible roster changes

The roster of the OG team at the moment:

1 Anathan “ana” Pham-inactive

2 Topias “Topson” Taavitsainen

3 Sebastien “Ceb” Debs

4 Jesse “JerAx” Vainikka

5 Johan “n0tail” Sandstein