Dota 2: OG score huge 2-0 sweep over Liquid behind ATF, Yuragi
OG are off to a great start in the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) Spring regional league for Western Europe as they followed up their 2-0 sweep over Nigma Galaxy in their league opener with another 2-0 victory, this time over Team Liquid, the top team of the Winter Tour.
Behind some standout performances from offlaner Ammar "ATF" Al-Assaf and carry player Artem "Yuragi" Golubiev, OG secured their second win of the league and are in good position to qualify for the Spring Major in Stockholm, Sweden.
ATF's Huskar carries OG in game one
In the first game of the series, OG’s draft mainly focused on enabling Ammar "ATF" Al-Assaf's mid Huskar.
To that end, the team made sure to ban Ancient Apparition and Necrophos, two heroes we listed in our guide for the best counters to Huskar. Midlaner Bozhidar "bzm" Bogdanov took the offlane role for this game and focused on starting fights with Dragon Knight.
Meanwhile, Tommy "Taiga" Le provided all the magic damage the team needed on Skywrath Mage, which was then amplified by Mikhail "Misha" Agatov on a Position 5 Pugna.
Team Liquid also placed all of their eggs in one basket, that of Lasse "MATUMBAMAN" Urpalainen's Lone Druid.
Michael "miCKe" Vu on Ember Spirit and Ludwig "zai" Wåhlberg on Pangolier were tasked with controlling ATF while Aydin "iNSaNiA" Sarkohi and Samuel "Boxi" Svahn supported the team on Grimstroke and Mirana, respectively.
Liquid’s draft had two issues in game one, the first being lacking enough burst damage to bring down ATF’s Huskar. The hero thrives on long, drawn-out fights and can be almost unkillable without significant burst damage to bring him down quickly.
The second issue with Liquid's draft was the lack of synergy with Grimstroke’s Soulbind ultimate. While Grimstroke still provides a lot of value through Ink Swell, he works best if he has a hero who benefits from the Soulbind such as Doom and Legion Commander.
The two teams were even in net worth at the end of the laning stage, though Liquid were able to take a small lead after that due to securing more kills in the game.
OG realized they needed to get the Aegis of the Immortal in their hands to prevent Liquid from overwhelming them, and that’s exactly what they did 18 minutes into the game.
Despite having the Aegis in their hands, OG weren't able to take control of the game and, in fact, got teamwiped at the 27-minute mark.
Liquid then asserted their dominance thanks to MATUMBAMAN’s Lone Druid leading all players in terms of net worth.
A big issue with Huskar is that the hero doesn’t scale very well into the late game. OG were aware of this and thus focused on allowing Artem "Yuragi" Golubiev to farm on his carry Nature’s Prophet.
Despite Huskar’s innate late game weakness, ATF played the hero perfectly during a crucial clash at the 32-minute mark.
Knowing that his hero could destroy both enemy supports, he immediately jumped on iNSaNiA and Boxi for a quick Double Kill while his team brought down miCKe and MATUMBAMAN.
OG firmly took control of the game after that, and forced the GG call from Liquid after 44 minutes of action.
ATF was undoubtedly the star of game one, notching a series-high 15 kills and 11 assists against just one death.
OG beat Liquid at their own game to bag the sweep
Three members of Liquid have been together for more than four years now. As such the team has perfected their aggressive playstyle courtesy of all the matches they've played together over the years.
During game two, Liquid decided to go for an ultra-aggressive, pickoff-oriented line up, taking Ember Spirit for miCKe and Earth Spirit for Boxi to make space.
Zai would join the team whenever and wherever a fight occurs on Nature’s Prophet, while iNSaNiA played Grimstroke for the second game in a row. This time, though, he would thankfully have some combos to work with. MATUMBAMAN could also help the team relatively early on Tiny, one of the fastest farming carries and best heroes of 7.31.
OG decided to fight fire with fire, matching Liquid’s aggressive draft with their own. While Liquid’s aggression stemmed from their pickoff potential, OG instead focused on sticking together and using their big teamfight ultimates courtesy of ATF's Mars and Taiga's Enigma.
Misha was tasked with saving allies on Shadow Demon while bzm tanked all the enemy's damage on Dragon Knight for the second game in the row. Yuragi played Templar Assassin, one of the few heroes who could farm as fast as Tiny.
Liquid proved the strength of their offlane duo when they secured four kills in just the first five minutes of the game. This allowed Zai to rush Urn of Shadows and eventually turn it into an early Spirit Vessel.
Similar to game one, it was another relatively even match between the two teams.
This time though, it was OG who had a small lead after 18 minutes. Liquid thought they could get a quick kill on Taiga in the top lane and decided to commit for it, but OG punished their aggression by taking four kills and claiming the Aegis.
After taking a massive teamfight victory and Roshan, OG proved unstoppable.
In the last 20 minutes of the game, Liquid only managed to get six kills while accumulating 26 deaths in total. Yuragi bagged over a third of OG's 41 total kills, tying the series-high of 15 kills along with 13 assists against three deaths. Bzm pitched in with 11 kills against five deaths while ATF had nine kills against two deaths.
With two victories in the bag, OG are looking very strong at the start of the Spring regional league.
The team’s growth in the Spring Tour is also reassuring fans that the new OG are just as fearsome as their two-time The International-winning squad.
Liquid, on the other hand, are looking a little shaky this Spring.
This marks their second loss of the league after getting swept by Team Secret in their opening match. And with strong opponents ahead such as Gaimin Gladiators and Tundra Esports, Liquid have a tough road to the Stockholm Major.
OG roster:
Artem "Yuragi" Golubiev
Bozhidar "bzm" Bogdanov
Ammar "ATF" Al-Assaf
Tommy "Taiga" Le
Mikhail "Misha" Agatov
Team Liquid roster:
Lasse "MATUMBAMAN" Urpalainen
Michael "miCKe" Vu
Ludwig "zai" Wåhlberg
Samuel "Boxi" Svahn
Aydin "iNSaNiA" Sarkohi
Otomo is a long-time gaming enthusiast and caster. He has been playing games since he was 10 and is the biggest Dota 2 fan.
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