After two back-to-back The International trophies, OG lost the chance to win a third this year.
The team was eliminated in the main event’s lower bracket, after losing to Team Spirit 2-0. This followed an upper bracket loss to European rivals Team Secret.
Fans had big expectations for OG heading into TI10, but a couple of things seemed to go wrong. OG’s offlaner Sébastien “Ceb” Debs had an emergency eye surgery right before the big event, as he suffered from a retinal detachment that could’ve left him blind on one eye. Ceb didn’t get a chance to bootcamp and prepare with the team.
Despite that, the team looked sharp in the group stage and secured an upper bracket start. A tough draw in the form of a renewed Team Secret knocked them down to the lower bracket and it was a surging Team Spirit that knocked them out of the tournament entirely.
Team Spirit eliminated OG from TI10 with better hero picks
Heading into the lower bracket, OG seemingly had no fear. That lack of fear might be what eliminated them from the biggest Dota 2 event of the year.
In the first game against Team Spirit, OG’s Syed “SumaiL” Hassan went with Tiny against Team Spirit’s Magnus and Winter Wyvern. Tiny is a hero SumaiL has an unfortunate history with, and Spirit had some strong answers in the draft that prevented SumaiL from dealing damage and kept him stunned.
All would be well if OG adjusted after this, but OG doubled down on the same pick in game two. The team picked Tiny again for the second match of the series without banning Magnus and got countered again. The result was the same, as some fans thought the game was pretty much lost in the pick and ban phase.
While this may not be the case, it surely seems that OG was thinking its skill was more than good enough to win games, disregarding the importance of the drafts and counters when met with an opponent like Team Spirit.
In the main event, OG only managed to win against Quincy Crew. While a top-eight finish at TI10 is actually a strong one for OG given how the team performed in the Dota Pro Circuit, it’s still a disappointment for a team that was a serious contender to take three titles. Thanks to TI10’s massive prize pool, OG is still far from going home empty-handed. For its top-eight finish, the team still won over $1 million.
