OG win the Kiev Major

After five days worth of competition, Europe’s OG are the champions of the Dota 2 Kiev Major.

In a grand final series spanning five games, OG were able to win their fourth Major after defeating Virtus Pro by a score of 3-2. The European squad’s road to grand finals was anything but easy, as the team were matched up against Team Random, Faceless, and finally Evil Geniuses in the playoff bracket.

Once in the grand finals, both teams played an extremely evenly matched best-of-five series.

Across the five games Virtus Pro showcased their expertise at playing an aggressive play style, securing early leads in all but the first game of the series. OG’s composure, however, seemed to be the deciding factor for them in their victories, as the team was able to stage an impressive comebacks in both the opening game, as well as the deciding fifth map.

In the final game of the series, OG were unable to answer the aggressive early game rotations of Ilya “lil” Ilyuk’s Enchantress as the support player set up a double kill for Roman “RAMZES666” Kushnarev’s Alchemist in the Dire safelane. At the same time, Vladimir “No[o]ne” Minenko’s Outworld Devourer decimated OG’s Anathan “ana” Pham’s Troll Warlord in the midlane which set the Virtus Pro side up for a strong midgame.

The kills kept rolling in for Virtus Pro, meaning OG were forced to respond by splitting across the map in order to destroy Virtus Pro’s towers. Virtus Pro looked poised to close out the grand final, but an astounding teamfight from OG suddenly turned the game completely around for the European squad.

Securing the midlane melee barracks of Virtus Pro as a result, OG had completely evened out the game, and VP botched yet another teamfight—OG were suddenly in the lead. From being down more than 10,000 gold, the European team were now able to dominate the map, and razed two sets of barracks in the Virtus Pro base.

In the fights, ana’s Troll Warlord went almost entirely unanswered—he was able to go toe-to-toe against the previously terrifying Alchemist of RAMZES666.

A series of fights later, and the match was over. OG have made Dota 2 history by winning yet another Valve Major.