The glory days will never truly fade—or that is at least what OG wants its fans to think as it officially confirmed a secondary Dota 2 roster that will feature three members of its previous International-winning lineups. But it won’t be operating in the way many initially expected.
After a few rumors and early registrations on the official Dota 2 roster registry leaked the lineup slowly, OG has announced Old G today. This is a new roster that will run alongside the main OG team that retained a majority of its players from the 2022 Dota Pro Circuit.
This new lineup is somewhat of a play on the ‘Old but Gold’ lineup that made a run back in 2019 and may have been teased by n0tail in an October interview with Dot Esports, with the goal of giving some of OG’s established legends a chance to continue playing with other veterans in a more substantial way than just ranked matches. And it really is just about one thing—enjoying Dota.
“This has nothing to do with OG right now, as in this isn’t like a team,” Ceb said. “We aren’t competing. We aren’t putting pressure on ourselves. We’re not here to perform or attend tournaments. We’re literally just chilling and playing some Dota.”
In this case, n0tail and Ceb are properly stepping back into the competition for the first time since stepping back post-TI10 for some good times.
They are joined by the returning Topson—who spent the final part of last season playing in Southeast Asia for T1—and MSS, who is jumping over to Europe for the first time since a brief stint with mousesports in 2014. The latter is also the second former Quincy Crew/Soniqs player to leave North America after the roster split.
The final key to the puzzle is a former rival from Eastern Europe, Noone, with the former Virtus.pro mainstay joining Old G for a new approach after a relatively disappointing season and a half with Natus Vincere. It will also be his first time playing in Western Europe after almost a decade of playing at a high level in CIS.
With this team, OG will be one of the few organizations fielding two rosters simultaneously with top talent, though it will operate very different way from how the old OG.Seed was handled in that it is all about fun and technically has nothing to do with the org.
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According to Ceb, this is just a way for him to play with people he enjoys playing with and are all capable of “putting words to ideas” in a way that isn’t just the usual pub grind—because even not playing competitively anymore hasn’t stopped him from being at the top of Europe’s rankings. Currently, the team has a set number of games in mind that they will play together at certain times of the year, regardless of if that sees them competing in a Battle Cup-type event, the DPC, or even the finals of a Major.
With this approach in mind, Ceb did reassure fans that—despite the name, which he had no part in choosing—the players involved are still wired to play Dota a specific way. This means no outright trolling. Anything they do to mess around will still be messing around while trying to win in their own way.
“Don’t hate on us when we lose because we are going to lose a lot [laughs],” Ceb said. “Be ready for that. We are going to try some crazy stuff. Just bare with us and enjoy the attempt, don’t look at the end of the road.”
Even with freedom as its main approach, the players are also open to try-harding like everyone else in the DPC when they get together to play. So if things do end up escalating and becoming more about bringing their unique Dota DNA to competitions properly, the concept of Old G and everyone involved will have a say in where things go.
Published: Dec 10, 2022 10:46 am