MidOne feeds first blood to a Guardian 1 in OG debut

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The two-time International champions are finally back—and they celebrated by giving a Guardian 1 the biggest kill he’s achieved in his short Dota 2 career.

OG’s extended break through the first two Majors of the 2019-20 Dota Pro Circuit meant that they had to start from the open qualifiers for the ESL One Los Angeles Major.

Since the open qualifiers are open to all teams regardless of skill, OG met up against a team called Back 2 Bulgaria in their first match, a squad consisting almost entirely of lower-skill pub players.

The game started off with three heroes of OG rushing to the bottom lane, aiming to start off with a quick first blood. Yeik “MidOne” Nai Zheng’s Pangolier was part of the assassination crew and was poised to take down the opposing Shadow Shaman. But then, disaster struck.

MidOne’s allies gradually peeled off, feeling that the team’s new offlaner had the kill secured. They didn’t anticipate ArMi0 to skill Shackles and lock MidOne under the tier-two tower, however, and Back 2 Bulgaria achieved the first blood against all odds.

A Guardian 1 in Dota 2 means that the player has below 1,000 MMR, putting them in about the 13th percentile in the game. MidOne is one of four players to have ever achieved 10,000 MMR, meaning that the Malaysian superstar was outplayed by a player possessing less than one-tenth of his rating.

OG fans didn’t need to worry for too long, though. The back-to-back TI champions quickly replied with their own kills en route to a crushing victory in less than 18 minutes.

Back 2 Bulgaria’s highlight reel didn’t end with just one kill. The stack managed to get their second kill of the match with a well-placed Sunstrike on Sumail “SumaiL” Hassan, another one of OG’s new recruits.

While Back 2 Bulgaria’s journey ends here, they can at least be proud in their highlight-reel plays against the defending TI champions.

Both OG and OG.Seed have reached the round-of-16 in the open qualifiers and have completed their matches for the first day. The teams will continue their crusade tomorrow at 9am CT.

The team still has a long way to go before confirming their berth at the Los Angeles Major, however, and the caliber of competition will surely increase as they continue through the qualifiers. After all, they wouldn’t be the first titans to fall before they even reach the closed qualifiers.