It was already known that OG was set to have an all-new roster for the 2023 Dota Pro Circuit season, but it’s still surprising how different the lineup is.
The organization saw three of its players step away from the game and released two more, while insisting that it would still compete at the start of the next DPC season. That meant OG was hitting the reset button, a prediction that proved to be true. But while there are an abundance of high-profile free agents out there in Dota 2, OG’s new roster is largely made up of lesser-known players.
The new OG roster contains the following players:
- Artem “Yuragi” Golubiev
- Bozhidar “Biziem” Bogdanov
- Ammar “Ammar The F” Al-Assaf
- Tommy “Taiga” Le
- Mikhail “Misha” Agatov
The two biggest names on the roster are support players Misha and Taiga. Misha, who will serve as the new OG captain, is a journeyman of the CIS region who played on a number of teams with his most notable run coming in the 2019-2020 DPC season with Team Spirit and as OG’s coach for TI10. Taiga has spent the last few years with Aydin “iNSaNiA” Sarkohi and Michael “miCKe” Vu on the lineup sponsored by Team Liquid and Alliance.
Past those two are three lesser-known players. Ammar The F, formerly known as ATF, and Biziem come from the lineup of Creepwave which competed in the lower division of the European DPC leagues. Yuragi has minimal pro experience and has spent his time in Dota 2 as a pubstar to this point.
OG noted on its website that its process for signing players included tryouts and talks, with now-former OG players discussing the strengths of each new signing. The new OG lineup will debut in December in the upper division of the European DPC league.
Can the new OG roster win The International?
The new OG lineup has a very steep hill to climb in terms of standing out in the European DPC league. Winning The International is almost out of the question.
Europe’s DPC league is set to be incredibly competitive with an overhauled Team Liquid, a scary Team Secret, the rebranded Nigma Galaxy, a star-studded new Alliance squad, and a more polished Tundra Esports. It’s hard to look at almost any of these teams and say that this OG roster will defeat them.
Then again, exceeding expectations is the OG way and TI10 was just won by a Team Spirit squad that was in a similar position. Questions will start being answered in a few weeks with the start of the DPC league.
