OG are one of the biggest laughing stocks in Counter-Strike.
For years, the iconic Dota 2 has failed to field competitive rosters in Counter-Strike and despite being in the game since 2019 have still only played in two Majors: IEM Rio 2022 and the BLAST.tv Paris Major.
Their performances in those Majors were sub-par, and now they find themselves in a constant stream of replacing mediocre players with mediocre players in the hope that eventually one team will gel and become greater than the sum of its parts.
Spoiler alert: that isn’t going to happen.
With a huge change to CS now just six months away, it’s time we ask the question: why doesn’t OG just leave CS?
The safety net is disappearing
Partnered leagues are one of the most controversial things in CS history, and that’s likely down to teams like OG.
Their current team of F1KU, HeavyGod, k1to, Nexius, and MoDo is so bad that the average fan would first have to search the team before being able to name even half of the roster. If it wasn’t for BLAST, you would never see this team in tier one, especially given the fact they were eliminated from the MESA Nomadic Masters in last place by a team called Chinggis Warriors.
Has anybody out there even heard of them? No? We didn’t think so.
Without serious investment, results like that are the reason why OG will fall off the map entirely when the partner systems are torn down in 2025, but investment poses an even bigger issue.
OG can’t build a competitive squad
When we’re talking about serious investment, we mean that OG would have to at least buy out the core of a team.
k1to isn’t an IGL, and neither Nexius nor MoDo is actually suited to tier one CS at this stage in their career. To make matters worse, OG’s best prospect, HeavyGod, already looks to be on his way out of the organisation and onto Cloud9.
So, with that in mind, OG will need to replace three or even four players in order to build a squad capable of being competitive enough to succeed in a world where Valve’s rankings will take precedence over all.
There are talents out there, but those talents are either very quickly being snapped up by other organisations, have no tier one experience, or what little tier one experience they have has shown that they are nothing but inconsistent at the elite level.
All around OG, teams are becoming more and more competitive all the time, and even attempting to catch up to them will cost a lot of money for potentially very little return.
Buying a core would be the best option, but it’s bound to be the most expensive one too. Outside of that, OG will be forced to buy bits and pieces from other teams and hope it will work — and be honest, who actually wants to see that attempted for the umpteenth time?
Cut your losses
At the end of the day, it really isn’t worth it for OG to take another gamble on yet another ragtag group of players.
Esports isn’t an endless money pit, at least not anymore, and while OG are bound to be one of the organisations in the most favourable positions, that doesn’t mean they will be able to spend constantly without any regard for profit or sustainability.
Right now, OG have at least two sellable assets, and others that could possibly be sold lower down the ladder. Surely it is best for them to sell those players and leave with some dignity, rather than be exposed even further when their safety net is gone?
No one wants to watch OG play, but equally, no one wants to see them force five more players to suffer playing together and consistently embarrass themselves.
It’s been an embarrassing few years for the organisation, one that they should quickly look to put behind them. Just don’t let the door hit you on the way out, OG.
Comments