The Dota 2 Berlin Major is currently in full swing and day one of the tournament on April 26 already gave us some great games to watch. Teams have been outperforming and some have caught players and viewers off guard. One of those moves comes from OG, a team playing with two stand-ins, making it to the top of the day one standings with a perfect record.
As impressive as it is having a perfect win record on a new patch, what is even more impressive is the team does not even have their full active roster or their coach due to VISA issues. Last-minute stand-ins Kartik “Kitrak” Rathi and Nigma Galaxy’s Ivan “MC” Ivanov stepped in to take the places of Evgenii “Chu” Makarov and Dmitry “DM” Dorokhin as their position five and three players respectively.
After a somewhat lackluster performance by OG at DreamLeague season 19, the team was looking lost at the end of the last patch. The new patch seems to be a fresh reset for many teams, including OG, who seem to be excelling so far. The addition of MC, famously known for being an excellent stand-in player, led them to series wins over Team SMG and Xtreme Gaming on April 26.
Despite being an older player, MC seems to be fitting in perfectly with the young blood in team OG. Team cams have revealed some hilarious instances where the Bulgarian player has been messing with his new teammates as he seems to be in perfect form for the Berlin Major.
Being one of the top players in the world, maintaining their composure, and having a positive outlook on life is essential to a long healthy esports career. After Nigma Galaxy’s lackluster performance since the last patch, MC seems to finally be in his happy place, just enjoying some Dota with the new kids on the block.
The new Patch 7.33b had taken players by surprise and it is exciting to watch teams try and adapt quicker than others so they can get on top in the standings, which is painting quite a picture. After OG struggled to find their footing towards the end of Patch 7.32, it seems like MC is the secret ingredient they needed to win.
The team are currently going in strong into day two and hopefully, they will carry this momentum when they go up against the powerhouses in the WEU region. How the games will unfold is yet to be seen, but if MC’s performance is anything to go by, OG will give us a strong showing in the Berlin Major.
