Fresh off their victory at the Mars Dota 2 League in Macau last week, fan-favorite squad OG find themselves with a guaranteed top four finish in yet another Pro Circuit event in Los Angeles.
The Summit 8 has been more or less kind to the winners of the most recent Pro Circuit Minor, in spite of a middling result in the group stage. To get themselves in the clear and into the playoffs, OG swept Evil Geniuses and edged out compLexity Gaming in two best-of-three series.
Their first match gave them no trouble at all, with the total time between the two games clocking in at just 13 seconds less than a full hour. Tal “Fly” Aizik and his crew collectively took EG out of each laning phase, ensuring that they couldn’t utilize their late game-favored drafts to their fullest.
Their newest recruit, Roman “Resolut1on” Fominok, flexed his carry muscle in the series, scoring six kills and one death as Arc Warden in the first game and 10 kills and two deaths in the next as Sniper. His performances as of late are indicative of OG finally finding their stride with him, which is more than what could be said about OG in the early parts of the Pro Circuit season.
Though their second series went to three games, it was in reality no more a struggle than the last one. The two games that they won went very smoothly, with Resolut1on once again going off on their opponents. He went 14-0 in the first game after getting his hands on his signature Anti-Mage, and 16-2 on Storm Spirit in the third game. It’s clear that OG’s plan is to play around Resolut1on, and it seems to be working extremely well.
Their work is not yet complete, however. On Sunday, they’ll face Fnatic, who went 5-1 in their group (containing OpTic and LGD Gaming). Given the relative strengths of both teams in this matchup, we can expect there to be at least three games played. After that, they’ll have to deal with whoever wins between Virtus Pro and Kinguin—and we all know that will probably be VP.
