OG wins ESL Stockholm Major, but could it win TI11?

While the old OG was defined by its inconsistency, the new OG is looking consistently great so far. OG are the champions of the ESL One Stockholm Major and are effectively guaranteed a spot at The International 2022.

The first major of the 2021-2022 Dota Pro Circuit concluded with OG taking a victory despite a handicap. Sebastian “Ceb” Debs and Johan “N0tail” Sundstein were forced back into action due to visa troubles as the team’s captain and coach, respectively. Despite that, the team took a commanding 3-1 victory in the ESL One Stockholm Major grand finals.

Game one set a very strong pace for TSM. Despite being neck-and-neck early, Enzo “Timado” Gianoli O’Connor’s 17-minute Armlet and Desolator on Wraith King let TSM take control of the mid game. That spelled doom for OG as TSM arguably scaled better late, but that ultimately didn’t matter as TSM sealed the deal at 33 minutes.

TSM’s game one victory suggested the North American squad might be positioned to steamroll to a 3-0 victory. Instead, OG punched back even harder in game two.

Though support Doom has looked very potent in the ESL One Stockholm Major, David “MoonMeander” Tan Boon Yang struggled on the hero in game two. He ultimately fed kills in each lane before the six-minute mark as Jonáš “SabeRLight-” Volek died twice as a de facto solo laner. This let OG snowball early en route to a 45-14 kill count that forced the GG call.

OG takes command of ESL One Stockholm Major finals

After two routs, the first contested game was the third one. The kill count was effectively even for the entire game and the net worth lead never broke too far in favor of either team. Until the very end, it was either team’s game.

The game was ultimately decided with an all-in fight in OG’s jungle where TSM controlled the outpost. Both teams committed multiple buybacks, but the battle ultimately ended with four members of TSM dead. OG recognized that TSM was on the ropes, stormed its way to the ancient, and took the win before they could respawn. The competitiveness ended there, however. 

OG was absolutely dominant in game four, right from the start. A 5-0 kill tally in the game’s opening minutes was compounded over time into a huge EXP and net worth lead for OG. OG never took its foot off the gas and pressed that lead to a 3-1 series victory.

Though majors don’t yield the gaudy prize pool payouts the OG is known for, this victory essentially guarantees the team a spot in TI11. 

Will OG win TI11?

OG is looking like one of the early favorites to win TI11. 

Though ESL One Stockholm Major inevitably carried an asterisk due to the fact that there were no Chinese teams in attendance, OG looked good enough to take them seriously. Despite an underwhelming, 7-5 group stage run and a defeat to TSM in the first round of the upper bracket, OG was white-hot in the lower bracket and amassed a 13-2 game record. Some of those early struggles can be chalked up to the team adjusting to Ceb.

China is traditionally the best Dota 2 region and that’s likely still the case. Despite that, a deep run in Singapore at TI11 for OG is probably going to happen.