OG officially named CIS Dota 2 veteran Mikhail “Misha” Agatov as the team’s head coach for The International 10 today.
Misha has been working with the team for six months now, having joined up as a coach following the end of the 2021 Dota Pro Circuit’s second season in June, while Titouan “Sockshka” Merloz had moved to an assistant coaching role.
Following the season, OG had yet to qualify for a spot at TI10 and Misha had only been playing as a stand-in with various teams since being released by Team Spirit last December. Prior to that, he spent most of 2020 as a stand-in for Ninjas in Pyjamas and most recently competed with VP.Prodigy at several events in March.
Following his joining OG as a coach, the team qualified for TI10 via the Western Europe Qualifier, squeaking out a close 3-2 win over Tundra Esports and salvaging what could have been a rough close to the DPC season.
“We want to publically welcome Misha into the OG family!” Ceb said. “We started working with him after a rough season, and we immediately felt the change. He has poured his soul into this project since day one, and he was a key part of us qualifying to TI10. He is young, he is confident, and we believe he is going to really help us be the best version of us for TI10.”
Immediately after the official announcement, OG needed Misha to stand in for Ceb during the showmatch against beastcoast to celebrate the launch of OpenAI’s Artificial Gamer documentary, hosted by Beyond the Summit.
OG is currently preparing to contend for their third title defense at TI10 starting on Oct. 7, having won back-to-back Internationals in 2018 and 2019.
