As OG Seed get set to embark on their DreamLeague Season 13 qualifiers mission, Dota 2 expert and Luckbox community member Riley introduces the players in the TI champs' development roster
Since their record-breaking TI win in Shanghai in August, OG have entered their customary annual break from competitive Dota for the rest of the year, meaning no notable undertakings regarding the organisation are to be expected.
However, instead of purely taking a vacation this time, OG have announced their involvement in an interesting project - one that gets them involved with the DPC in a different way - that is the OG Seed project.
With the project, OG has picked up a roster that will be playing under the OG brand, and will be guided and coached by the back-to-back TI9 champions themselves at OG's facility, up until OG's return to activity in the DPC, which will be ESL One Los Angeles Major Qualifiers in 2020.
As stated by OG in their official announcement: "Our idea is simple: on top of our original roster, we want to create a team of players we strongly believe in but that haven’t yet reached the achievements they feel they can reach. We will help them pursue their dreams."
All the way until the third major of the DPC season, the back-to-back champions will be directing their talent, efforts and energy towards OG Seed.
We perfectly know the rules of the DPC system, and everything is thoroughly thought through.
DreamLeague qualifiers debut
OG Seed’s first showing will be in the European Open Qualifiers for the DreamLeague Season 13 Major. We already had some time with them and are very confident in their potential. In fact, we’re overly excited to discover what they can do. We do not look at wins, losses or results in general, we only seek for improvement."
DreamLeague Season 13 qualifiers schedule and streams
The roster they have picked up, a newly formed European pub stack called "4 Euros 1 Murica", is also deeply exciting by nature, with some of the most promising yet underutilised names who have been struggling for a while in the scene, reminiscent of OG's Sébastien "Ceb" Debs' journey himself.
OG Seed roster
The OG Seed roster:
- Omar "Madara" Mohammad Dabachach
- Rasmus "Chessie" Johan Blomdin
- Andreas "Xibbe" Per Ragnemalm
- Zakari "Zfreek" William Lee Freedman
- Peetu-Elmeri “Peksu” Väätäinen
Getting to know the players
Kicking off the roster is Madara--the aspiring Greek-British carry's name peaked back in 2016, when he and fellow Greeks in Ad Finem reached the Grand Finals of the Boston Major in a spectacular underdog run, before being cut short off their tracks by OG themselves, who might have learned a thing or two from them for the TI8 run.
1. Madara
Since Ad Finem's cinderella run, Madara and his peers' name has moved away from the hot topics; however, Madara himself has made a brief but striking resurgence after standing-in for Alliance during the MDL Disneyland Paris Major, in place of Michael "miCKe" Vu, where he confidently reaffirmed that his prowess in his carrying ability is still on par in the highest levels of competition.
2. Chessie
Next on the list is Chessie, who, together with his brother Linus "Limmp" Blomdin, have been around for quite a long time now, even tracing back to Heroes of Newerth like N0tail. They mostly sticked together in Complexity Gaming for two seasons, before Chessie's departure to The Final Tribe (now Godsent) to join fellow Swedish icon Adrian "Era" Kryeziu's startup lineup.
3. Xibbie
As if that wasn't enough, now that his brother is finding success under Alliance's wing, the other half of the seasoned duo now has the opportunity to do the same, and joining him from Godsent to chase that opportunity as well is Xibbe, a relatively new and upcoming Swedish offlaner also picked up by Era.
4. Zfreek
Probably the most exciting figure among the bunch, Zfreek is the epitome of an underutilized prodigy. Also formerly a HoN star before building his entire Dota pro career in Complexity Gaming alongside his brother Kyle Freedman, Zfreek is continuously recognized as one of NA's most consistent and talented standouts.
Although he has been around since a fairly long time now, Zfreek is yet to find experience the highest levels of success. During his time of fealty in COL, the roster experienced differing degrees of success under different lineup experiments, but one thing that remains the same is Zfreek is always a point of conversation when it comes to COL, or just regarding NA's best in general.
5. Peksu
And rounding off this team is Peksu, a relatively new Finnish captain who's been part of several Tier 2 teams this past couple seasons, including Vega Squadron with Madara. An interesting point is that Peksu began the dip into his pro career in a Finn stack, at SFTe-sports, alongside no one other than Topias "Topson" Taavitsainen.
Thus, with the back-to-back TI champions themselves helming this lineup of struggling names looking to find their breakout, this philantrophic project to personally guide and launch some of the game's most underutilised talents, paying homage to OG's roots and story itself, is definitely one of the most exciting developments we'll get to see coming into 2020.
Picture: OGEsports / Twitter
