OG officially confirmed today that Yeik “MidOne” Nai Zheng has left the organization and will no longer compete with the team’s Dota 2 roster.
This move comes after the team failed to qualify for the ONE Esports Singapore Major during the first season of the 2021 Dota Pro Circuit regional league.
OG finished in fifth place for the European league’s first season, securing a spot in the upper division for season two, $25,000, and 50 DPC points. In that event, OG only managed to beat one of the teams that finished ahead of them, Nigma, and went 3-4 overall.
With those results, the team felt that a “re-adjustment” was necessary and that MidOne’s role was the optimal positon to swap out because the team never truly meshed with his style.
“Competitive synergy is something very unique and complex,” said Sébastien “Ceb” Debs, co-owner and position three player for OG. “Yeik is one of the best players we have played with, and we worked very hard for months and made a lot of improvements… but unfortunately it never ‘clicked.’ It happens sometimes. We want to wish him the best of luck moving forward and hope he finds a great team where he can shine.”
There could be multiple reasons why things never “clicked,” including the pandemic keeping the roster from fully competing together for months at a time while MidOne remained in Southeast Asia.
OG’s CEO JMR Luna and several teammates praised MidOne for how he handled the situation, especially once he left SEA and joined the team in EU to compete.
“Living far away from home, and missing your family and familiar surroundings is very hard, and Yeik deserves a lot of credit for it,” Luna said. “He gave his all for this team, and for this teammates and we all tried our very best to have good results for our fans.”
The team has not confirmed who will join the team to fill its open carry role, but fans are already speculating that Anathan “ana” Pham might be coming off of the inactive roster after announcing his extended break from the game last January.
