OG at The International 8
The International, also known as TI, is an annual tournament by Valve for Dota 2. It starts with sixteen teams before crowning one champion. All the teams were competing for a prize pool of over 25 million dollars, with the first-place team winning over 11 million.
Dota teams frequently change up their rosters, potentially even multiple times a year. For example, between March and May 2018, team OG lost three out of five team members and rebuilt on the fly. Their new team consisted of ana, Topson, Ceb, JerAx, and N0tail. Unfortunately, one key member who left in May was "Fly", which caused team OG to lose their invitation to TI; the newly built team would have to win qualifiers to get into the big tournament.
OG beat out seven different teams to win the Europe Qualifier in June. As a result, they would be one of the eighteen teams competing to win the Aegis trophy. The team favored least was OG. Defying all expectations, OG ended up winning everything.
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References
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Against the Odds: OG at The International 2018
Of the 18 teams competing at The International in 2018, many publications such as Liquid Dota ranked OG bottom of their power rankings, citing that: “For a team with a history of underperforming at TI, expectations for OG are at an all-time low.”
Pinnacle
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The International 2018 Primer - The underdogs and dark horses
OG are notorious for underperforming at TI, and heading into the 2017/18 season they picked up Ukranian superstar Roman "Resolut1on" Fominok as their mid-laner. The team failed to land a top-four finish in any Major tournament post TI-7, and were left squabbling for points in the Minors.
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