Gaming
Esports
N0tail explains how OG are gearing up for ESL One Birmingham
OG's new roster debut may have been delayed this season, but that hasn't stopped them from playing some thoroughly entertaining Dota, as their captain tells us.
It only feels like yesterday that OG were lifting their second Aegis of Champions in the middle of the Mercedes Benz Arena in Shanghai, China, celebrating becoming the first ever two-time winners of The International. The joy on their faces and the amazement of the crowd are things we'll never forget, but how the esports scene has changed since then.
We haven't had a major LAN event in Dota for months and OG haven't competed at a LAN since The International last year. It's not unusual for the TI champions to take a bit of a break the following season, but ,of course, this time other factors have resulted in OG's extended break.
Fortunately, team captain Johan 'N0tail' Sundstein says he and the team are doing about as well as can be expected.
"Obviously, I miss the LAN tournaments, but it's been a great chance to spend time getting into things that have been hard to get into in the past," says N0tail. "Working out regularly, a lot of home cooking and a stable sleeping schedule."
These days, it's vital for any esports pro to be at the top of their game at all times and physical and mental fitness is a key part of that. Gone are the days where pro players would rarely see the inside of a gym; instead they have impressive training routines and are always trying to stay as fit as possible. In short, business is as close to normal as possible for the OG captain.
"Some players manage to be incredible at what they do without proper exercise. It's still not something I would recommend," says N0tail. "I'm trying hard to maintain a good routine and it's actually been going very well, even with the gym closing down."
Now, OG is starting to get back into the swing of things and are playing in the top level online competitions that have taken the place of the big LANs that we're used to seeing. Their big season debut was in the ESL One Los Angeles Online league and now they're looking forward to the ESL One Birmingham Online league, which starts today.
"I much prefer to play on LAN, but online tournaments are definitely giving me a bit of a nostalgic feeling,” says N0tail. "It's not often you sit at home to play and get this immense feeling of 'this game is important, I've got to do my best plus some'. I'm getting used to it more and more, and there will probably be some time adjusting for me, but also the tournament organisers. I'm looking for a way to feel the people watching and crowd more. Maybe I should tune into a VR viewing party."
Thanks to the truly global nature of the OG team, the squad have had to play with an improvised lineup. While the new iteration of the OG roster – N0tail, Topson, MidOne, Saksa and Sumail – were hoping to use this period of the season to really gel and perfect their play in the run up to TI, in fact they've struggled to play any official matches together.
"As more and more borders started closing and online tournaments began being hosted, we learnt rather soon that we had to play without a complete roster and with a handicap," says N0tail. "We tried playing with Neta '33' to great success, although we had changed our style a lot to enable this new lineup of players. We did a few trial games with Irakli 'W1sh-' Peranidze, but I personally felt this big change wouldn't be healthy to keep going for our lineup, as we spent a lot of time breaking down the game to players and we didn't have much time to explain our view of the game, as online games keep coming."
Despite the new look rosters that have changed quite a bit, OG did manage to take second place at ESL One Los Angeles. They put on some impressive performances with 33 and coach Sébastien 'Ceb' Debs standing in for Topias Miikka 'Topson' Taavitsainen and Yeik 'MidOne' Nai Zheng, who were unable to play.
N0tail is ready for ESL One Birmingham Online
© Jonathan Oon/Red Bull Content Pool
A 2–0 win over Team Secret in the first round of the upper bracket really showed that OG were as strong as ever and while they just fell short in the final against Virtus.Pro in an epic five-game series that went to the wire, there's no doubt that OG are still one of the best teams in the world, even with the issues online Dota presents.
"VP has found a groove and it'll be exciting to see how they will evolve as a team. ILTW has really stepped it up and stood out to me, as well," says N0tail when talking about the final. "They were difficult games, but we're challenged every game currently due to our timezone and ping differences."
Te next challenge on the horizon is ESL One Birmingham Online, which just like the Los Angeles event is an online league with a massive $200,000 prize pool. OG certainly head into the competition as favourites, even if it isn't entirely clear what their lineup will look like.
There's also a lot of uncertainty around the rest of the season. The remaining Dota Pro Circuit events have been cancelled and The International 10 has been postponed, most likely until next year. No one seems to know what the future of Dota looks like during this difficult time, but OG are game for pretty much anything that can be sent their way.
As long as Dota is going, OG will be playing
"It's very hard to say what the future holds, as the season is unknown and it seems uncertain if we'll even have LAN tournaments for the rest of 2020," says N0tail. "As long as Dota is going, OG will be playing. Even with TI being cancelled, we're hopeful something will replace it and give us a chance to show what we're capable of."
This may not be what we expected to see when OG revealed their superstar new look roster at the start of the year, but it's certainly entertaining. OG have been a part of some of the most entertaining Dota matches of the online era and we fully expect that to continue in the online version of ESL One Birmingham.
