PGL Wallachia Season 3: Is this the death of OG?

OG continue to disappoint and their recent performance at PGL Wallachia Season 3 has left loyal fans such as myself questioning what’s going on with this team. OG failed to win a single series in the tournament, exiting with a disappointing 0 – 3 record. Their elimination was sealed with a loss to Yellow Submarine, a team that played with a stand-in who was role-swapping in the middle of matches. So, what exactly is happening to the team we’ve all loved? 

Off-Meta Heroes

Throughout their many losses, OG keeps running non-meta heroes. Death Prophet, Centaur Warrunner, Axe, and Brewmaster? These heroes aren’t being picked in 7.38 since they are nowhere near ideal in the meta. 

If you put players like Collapse, ATF, or Yatoro on some of these off-meta picks, they’ll make it work since they’re still good players and have a competent team behind them but it’s just not working for OG. Their execution is terrible at the moment, and playing weak heroes won’t make it any easier. 

It can also be a little concerning that OG is running KheZu as a coach, who does not have experience coaching professional teams at all. I don’t know who’s making the call for these picks, but they need to reevaluate something. 

Skill Issue

We can complain about the drafts and anything else, but at the end of the day, Dota comes down to which team can click their buttons and lane better. I’m going to have to point my fingers at two players: Ceb and Nine.

These two are legends of the game, no doubt. But time might be up for them. Ceb is almost always losing his lane to the point where his net worth matches the enemy team’s supports. How is 23savage supposed to find space as a carry when his offlaner can’t find any impact?

And Nine, this isn’t 2021 anymore, buddy. For crying out loud, he’s rank 600 in the Western European leaderboards. If you like memeing that Gorgc is a bad player, I hope you won’t be surprised to learn that he’s 250 ranks above Nine. 

You can tell me that MMR is just a number, but when we compare his rank to any other mid-laner at PGL Wallachia Season 3, he’s thousands of MMR behind. I mean, you’ll even see Tier 3 or teamless mid-laners within the top 200 or even 100. You just can’t win games when your mid player is not in shape, and he’ll have to play more to get good again.

I genuinely don’t think 23savage, xNova, and dAze are that bad. The mid and offlaner are two crucial pieces to dictate the game, and when both of your lanes are automatically lost, it feels impossible to make moves. This is likely why OG gets stomped in 20 minutes every game. 

Why Can’t We Pick Up Better Players?

I’m no OG insider, but I have a theory of why the team is constantly replacing “meh” players with more “meh” players during roster shuffles. Esports orgs such as Team Liquid, Team Falcons, and Tundra Esports are backed by investors and have all the dough, so they can buy out players from other teams and pay them a fat check.

However, we must remember that, despite being the most successful organization in esports history, OG is still player-owned. This means they can still pay decent salaries, but might not have the luxury of buying out players high calibre players that are currently on other teams. 

Another team in a similar boat is Team Secret, which is why we’ve been seeing these two teams pick up random players from Eastern Europe, South America or Southeast Asia at cheap costs. 

What’s The Solution?

Disband. Well, not that. But for real, we can all agree that something needs to change. The team’s worldwide fans are unhappy, and there’s no way the players and the organization are, either. 

OG have been burning funds for years already, barely qualifying for any LAN tournaments and exiting in near-last places when they make it. You either end the Dota 2 project right here and stop shoving money into a fire or go all-in with more roster changes – but this time, let’s get some good players, please. 

If OG decide to move forward without changing their rosters, Ceb and Nine must commit to at least 10 pubs a day to get back in shape, because their performances have been disappointing, to say the least. I want to see this team succeed again but a different approach is needed.