Let’s not mince words, the battle was exceedingly difficult for OG. Climbing from the depths of the losers bracket to take their shot against the champions of the winners bracket, was the fairy tale story fans of the Dota 2 eSports world wanted. However most of these ‘fairy tale stories’ don’t always come true. Especially with the eSports scene. This one however, had a happy ending. Team OG successfully defeated tournament favorites Team Secret and claimed their $1.1 million USD in prize money for placing first at the Frankfurt Major 2015.
Team OG was originally known as Team (monkey) Business. A team brought together in the European community of some extremely notable Dota 2 players, both pubstars and pro players. In the end, the winning team that comprised OG were:
Amer ‘Miracle-‘ al-Barqawi was originally dropped from Balkan Bears, another European team who is currently dormant. Since the removal he had been stomping the pub charts and worked to secure the highest MMR in not just Europe but the World. Taking over Team Secret’s w33. Becoming an exceptional player and recognized for his talents in the carry and middle position, he was invited into (monkey) Business.
Johan ‘BigDaddyN0tail‘ Sundstein is a very popular personality in the Dota 2 eSports community who is extremely feared for his flexibility in various roles. While he started predominately with support roles with characters like Chen and Wisp, his transitions into middle positions and core characters have made him a fierce player. Originally a Heroes of Newerth player for Fnatic .EU, once the competitive scene for HoN dwindled, Johan moved on to Dota 2 with fellow OG teammate Fly. Since then, he’s been offered positions with Team Secret and Cloud9. After The International 2015, he joined with Fly to form (monkey) Business.
David ‘MoonMeander’ Tan was a very prolific star in the Heroes of Newerth scene who had a quirky personality that people gravitated towards, especially when he streams. Much like Johan, David moved into Dota 2 when HoN’s competitive scene was on the decline. At this time, David joined up with Dream Destroyers with various other ex-HoN players to take the Dota 2 scene by storm. However, fate had other plans for Tan and he moved on to play with stayGreen who eventually became Complexity Gaming. While he left for a while, returned to Complexity Gaming to enter The International 2015 where the team lost to Virtus Pro in the losers bracket. Following this, he joined with Fly who was also in Complexity Gaming to form (monkey) Business as the teams offlaner.
Andreas ‘Cr1t-‘ Franck Nielsen. A dark horse if anybody’s ever seen. While not much is known about him, he’s had a LOT of history of playing Dota 2 from the very beginning. Originally, he had played for various teams including We Haz Asian, H2k Gaming, Lions Pride, Mousesports and Team Life. Requiring a solid position 4 support, (monkey) Business put Cr1t- to the mettle and brought in another Danish to give Notails some company.
Finally, Tal ‘Fly’ Aizik. The final and arguably most integral part of OG. Taking the position of the teams captain and position 5 support, Tal leadership guided them to the victory they all deserved. This man was the anchor that led to the all-star team making their debut together in OG. Leaving Fnatic behind, he joined Team Secret 1.0 as Simbaaa with Notail. Eventually, he left the team, eventually getting picked up by CompLexity Gaming and teaming up with MoonMeander.
An exceedingly strong team that has surely made a name for themselves after their 3-1 victory against Team Secret. These underdogs deserved their victory against an incredibly tough enemy. The amount of professional plays and incredible teamwork shows the utter trust and total communication of this team. This Major they’ve stepped it up. The question is, can they continue this momentum?
Oh you’ve might have noticed I barely talked about the grand final matches. I’ve spoilt the winning team and the score already. Their battle though? If you don’t have the time to wade through all of the matches, youtube channel NoobFromUA has some incredible highlights of the ridiculous plays and crazy shenanigans between two insane teams.