OG isn’t monkeying around anymore, as they officially enter the competitive VALORANT scene. The legendary Dota 2 organization founded by its International-winning members announced the signing of the Monkey Business roster on Feb. 15.
It's business time. Monkey Business time. Image courtesy of OG.
The Monkey Business roster first debuted together just a short while ago in January. At the Red Bull Home Ground event, they fell in the quarterfinals in quick 2-0 fashion to SUMN FC. After that event, SUMN FC would end up signing with Fnatic. With a vacancy at the “out of nowhere unsigned roster” position, Monkey Business went on a tear at the Challenger 1 open qualifier.
The roster of former Overwatch and CS:GO pros survived the daunting best-of-one rounds to reach the round of 32. They beat the unsigned roster of roughtimes and then the newly signed Team Vitality, each 2-0, to reach the closed qualifier. The closed qualifier was rife with upsets, including Ninjas in Pyjamas upsetting G2 Esports, and Wave Esports spoiling the Fnatic debut. Included in that mix was Monkey Business’s surprise 2-0 win over Guild Esports. This included a one-sided 13-4 victory on Ascent to open the series.
With their victory came an assured spot in the closed qualifier for Challengers 2, which comes with Masters spots on the line. Prior to that, the OG organization could be seen openly cheering on Monkey Business and hinting at a possible signing. Why? Because before OG formed as an organization, they competed as a Dota 2 stack named Monkey Business. After forming OG, they did pretty well for themselves, becoming the first-ever two-time and back-to-back TI champions. In 2019, they broke into CS:GO by signing an international roster.
The new OG VALORANT roster consists of
- Dylan “aKm” Bignet
- Benjamin “uNKOE” Chevasson
- Kevin “TviQ” Lindström
- Dragan “elllement” Milanović
- Théo “OniBy” Tarlier
- Julien “daemoN” Ducros (coach/manager)
In the official announcement, OG’s co-founder and Dota 2 roster members Sébastien “Ceb” Debs and Johan “N0tail” Sundstein spoke about joining the scene.
“We’ve heard a lot about the game, and were seduced by the idea behind it as well as how serious the ecosystem is already. When the opportunity to get involved with a roster that you like and you believe in arises, you sometimes just have to grab it. It was the same with CS:GO, sometimes the stars align and you have an opportunity to do something really interesting.”
The new OG VALORANT roster will make their debut with the new org at the EU Challengers 2 event. If they win their series, they will ensure themselves a spot at the EU Master event. Even if they fall, they will have another chance to qualify for Master at Challengers 3.
