A Complete History of Teams in Dota 2: Introducing OG

In Dota 2, OG is one of the most respected organizations. Until 2023, it was the only esports org to win The International 2 and they did it back-to-back!

OG also won a lot of Dota 2 Majors. And not the kind of Majors that we’ve had in recent years but the epic kind: $3 million prize pools, lots of action, much of it delivered to a live audience.

It’s really hard to compete with OG when it comes to passion and trophies. This team was the protagonist of one of the most beautiful Cinderella stories in the history of esports. At The International 8, OG were regarded by the analysts as the least likely team to win the Aegis of Champions, and that’s exactly what they ended up doing.

In this guide, you will learn more about OG’s history, how the team became famous, and what their greatest accomplishments have been so far.

A New Team in Dota 2: OG’s Epic Beginnings

Initially, OG was called Monkey Business. However, this name was used only for several months, from August 28, 2015 until October 31 the same year. After that, a rebrand followed and a lot of spectacular results.

Thanks to players like Amer “Miracle-” Al-Barkawi and David “MoonMeander” Tan, who were in their prime back in 2015, OG had a fantastic season. Everyone was on the same page, the relationship between Johan “N0tail” Sundstein and Tal “Fly” Aizik was great, and the two of them were leading OG to many victories.

The giants of Dota 2 at the time were Evil Geniuses, Team Secret, and some Chinese teams. Back in 2015-2016, nobody took South America seriously. Eastern Europe was also only at the start of its Virtus.pro era, while North America had little to offer apart from EG. In Southeast Asia, Fnatic was the main competitor.

The Frankfurt Major Miracle

Thanks to the vacuum of power that existed at the time, OG were able to get good results with ease. At The Frankfurt Major, which took place in November 2015, N0tail’s team entered the tournament as one of the relatively unknown underdogs.

The player himself, along with some of his teammates, were well-known by the community, even though they hadn’t won anything big. But the team was still a question mark. The first group stage matches seemed to suggest that OG would not do well at this tournament. But in the playoffs, things were about to change.

Back then, all of the group stage competitors were advancing to the playoffs. OG finished 3rd in group B with a record of 1 W – 2 L, which looks quite bad on paper.

In the lower bracket, OG’s results changed radically. The team faced Fnatic, Mineski.Sports5, Virtus.pro, CDEC, EHOME, Evil Geniuses, and eventually, Team Secret, in the Grand Final. In many people’s eyes, this unexpected series of victories made the team a formidable competitor almost overnight.

OG wouldn’t have won the tournament without the performances of Miracle-, who is regarded even to this day as the best Dota player ever. His way of playing heroes like Invoker and Anti-Mage simply amazed the audience. Everyone was looking forward to his games. It often seemed like he had more than 10 fingers.

Invoker is a notoriously challenging Dota 2 hero to master, but Miracle probably had around 1000 games with him at the time. And his methods were so effective that IceFrog was soon forced to nerf the hero.

The Shanghai Major 2016

Just 4 months later, OG participated in The Shanghai Major. But this time, they could no longer do what they did at the first Major. Surprisingly, OG finished 1st in their group and looked invincible. But in the upper bracket of the playoffs, Team Secret taught them a lesson in the very first match.

In the lower bracket, OG faced Virtus.pro (1-0) but ended up getting eliminated by Fnatic, who had a phenomenal year in 2016 and finished 4th at The International.

This 7th-8th place obtained at the second Major led many to believe that OG’s performance at The Frankfurt Major was a fluke. But just several months later, OG would destroy this perception by winning another Major.

The Manila Major 2016

For a newly created team, it’s often much easier to get good results in online tournaments than at LANs. The pressure of playing in front of a huge audience can seriously destabilize the players. But in OG’s case, everyone seemed very excited to compete in a large arena.

Like the previous Majors, The Manila Major had a prize pool of $3 million. OG finished 2nd in group A after beating Empire twice and losing against Newbee.

This time, their playoffs performance was much better and they ended up winning 4 consecutive matches, including the Grand Final. Their opponents were Natus Vincere, MVP Phoenix, Newbee, and Team Liquid.

At the upcoming tournaments, OG did well, winning one and placing 2nd at another. The International 2016 was going to be their biggest test of the season.

The TI6 Disappointment

OG looked perfectly prepared to get a great result at The International 6. Their active roster was full of talented players, the assistant coach was Sebastien “Ceb” Debs, and everything looked perfect. Apart from a handful of teams, nobody seemed capable of beating them.

OG announced ahead of the tournament that they were going to The International with high hopes. Unfortunately for them, despite their phenomenal group stage performance (1st place in group A with 11 points), things were about to take a bad turn.

OG lost the first upper bracket match against MVP Phoenix and then got crushed by TNC in the first lower bracket match as well. Their early elimination from the first important Dota 2 tournament of the season led to a lot of disappointment and many roster changes.

The 2016-2017 Dota 2 Season

After TI6, Miracle- left the team, along with MoonMeander and Andreas “Cr1t” Nielsen. They were soon replaced by Anathan “ana” Pham, Jesse “JerAx” Vainikka, and Gustav “s4” Magnusson. All 3 of them were in their prime and hungry to win trophies. Their combined experience helped OG to win The Boston Major 2016.

The Grand Final against Ad Finem was one of the most exciting Major Grand Finals in Dota 2.

At their next four tournaments, OG would finish near the top. But what they really cared about was The Kiev Major 2017, where they ended up beating Virtus.pro in the Grand Final (3-2). This was another match for the esports history books. In particular, ana proved to be one of the world’s strongest carry players.

Unfortunately for OG, The Manila Masters, EPICENTER, and eventually The International 2017 ended with modest results. OG finished 7th – 8th in the last two of them, which caused some new roster changes.

The 2017-2018 Season

This was the most difficult but also the most beautiful season for OG. Things did not go well for them, and by the end of May, s4 and Fly were gone. Both of them joined Evil Geniuses. N0tail was completely crushed because he regarded Fly as his best friend. His decision to leave the organization was perceived as a betrayal.

Arguably, this was OG’s darkest hour. But replacements were found relatively quickly. At this point, Ceb was already a member of the roster. Ana came back from his prolonged vacation. The last player who completed the roster was Topias “Topson” Taavitsainen, who was extremely young at the time.

Later, Ceb described his decision to give him the job and said that Topson had bested him in a few pubs.

OG had to go through regional qualifiers and even open qualifiers to receive their TI invitation. And even after they got invited to the tournament, nobody believed they could succeed. In the upcoming matches, OG would change people’s perception but not completely.

The best teams in everyone’s mind were still PSG.LGD, Team Liquid, Evil Geniuses, and others.

After finishing the group stage in 4th place, OG went on to win 4 consecutive matches and the Aegis of Champions. In the Grand Final, the Western Europeans were led 1-2 but they somehow ended up winning. The best game of the match was the 4th. In this game, both Ceb and ana played miraculously.

As a result of this victory, OG received $11.2 million, which was a spectacular amount of money. Getting around 2 million dollars per player for winning an esports competition is not bad at all.

The 2018-2019 Season

After winning The International 8, OG lost some of their best players and started to struggle again. Their entire 2018-2019 season was a complete mess until the end, when ana came back and the squad ended up winning The International for the second consecutive time, becoming the first team to achieve this objective.

The prize money received by OG for winning the Aegis of Champions for the second time was $15.6 million. No doubt, some of the former players regretted giving up on OG a bit too early.

The 2019-2023 Years

The next season was a terrible one for OG and Dota 2 in general. Lots of important events were canceled and everyone was trying to avoid getting infected by the virus. The International was skipped by Valve. Eventually, the tournament took place more than one year later.

OG finished 7th-8th and got eliminated by Team Spirit, who ended up winning the Aegis of Champions.

In the 2022 and 2023 seasons, OG had some good results but were no longer the same team. The roster changed completely. N0tail stepped down to enjoy his retirement. Ceb still competed from time to time but not as seriously as before.

At the 2022 edition of The International, OG finished 7th-8th, which was another decent but underwhelming result. The same year, OG also won ESL One Stockholm Major.

The year 2023 was one of the worst in OG’s entire history. The organization struggled in every possible way and the fans are now wondering what will happen to N0tail’s dream.

Header: Valve Corporation