With the advent of the Dota Pro Circuit, many were anticipating star-studded teams to start with a bang but it was not for Team Secret. Organised by DreamHack, the Division I of the DPC for Dream League season 16 Western Europe began on 30 November 2021. Unfortunately for Team Secret, they were thrashed by a rejuvenated OG, freshly baked from the oven in a shocking 2-0 on the opening day.

Team Secret had adjusted their roster with a popular pros such as SumaiL and iceiceice joined up the ranks to boost their presence in the Europe region. SumaiL previously having huge success with Evil Geniuses and helped the team won the Aegis in The International 2015 was one of the youngest star. Now aged 22, he is ready to fill up Secret’s position 2 while Nisha falls back to position 1. In addition to this, team Secret managed to poach veteran iceiceice as they look to boost their offlane position with an experience player who had played throughout all seasons.

TEAM SECRET DOTA 2 ROSTER:

• Michal “Nisha” Jankowski
• Sumail “SumaiL” Hassan
• Daryl Koh “iceiceice” Pei Xiang
• Yazied “YapzOr” Jaradat
• Clement “Puppey” Ivanov
• Lee “Heen” Seung Gon (coach)

On the other hand, OG has totally revamped their team after Topson and Notail has announced to stop playing competitively. The other team members of two-time champion have also retired and left. Check out more information on the team here. While OG seemed to reflect on what went wrong after performing poorly in the International 2021 finishing at 7-8th position. In the end, they had to rebuild the whole team which would be a huge daunting task. Instead of fielding a more credible team, they have formed a very young team with little experience in The International. It was also a multi-national team (Ukraine, Bulgaria, Jordan, Norway and Russia) which made it even more difficult to win in a short period of time.

TEAM OG DOTA 2 ROSTER:

• Artem “Yuragi” Golubiev
• Bozhidar “bzm” Bogdanov
• Ammar “ATF” Al-Assaf
• Tommy “Taiga” Le
• Mikhail “Misha” Agatov

The oldest player, Misha at 24 years, is the captain for the team and spans some exposure in Europe and have previously played for Team Spirit last year. However, bzm and ATF are both only 16 years old and have no experience internationally. They were recruited after having success at the Dota 2 Champions League Season 4 playing under an unknown team, Creepwave. Yuragi also very young at 20 years old, has not played in any major but was most notably known in the Ukraine championships. Fielding a very inexperienced team could ultimately backfire but it seemed to prove the critics wrong.

OG 2 – 0 Team Secret

The odds were not favouring OG but they have surprisingly overturned the tables and thrashed Team Secret 2-0 for their first matchup.

OG picks

• Taiga : Assasin
• Yuragi: Razor
• Misha: Jakiro
• ATF: Timbersaw
• bzm: Invoker

Team Secret picks

• Puppey: Weaver
• YapzOr: Pudge
• iceiceice: Wyvern
• Nisha: Terrorblade
• SumaiL: Grimstroke

In the first game, team Secret drafted a somewhat unorthodox lineup with Grimstroke for mid and Pudge on position 4. OG’s debut ATF managed to draft his favourite Timbersaw, whereas Yuragi chose Razor. OG’s selections paid off as Timbersaw shredded team Secret throughout the match while controlling most of Secret’s disables with Manta Style. Timbersaw has proved to be a very annoying for Team Secret and ATF closed the game with his record 13 kills, 18 assists and 1 death. The game ended 38-9 to OG within 46 minutes. OG was grossly underestimated by team Secret.

Game 1 score

Team Secret tried to redeem themselves for game two with a more decent draft with Phantom Assassin, Pangolier and Void Spirit. OG on the other hand decided to go for Templar Assasin, Ember Spirit and Mars.

Team Secret picks

• Puppey: Apparition
• YapzOr: Monkey King
• iceiceice: Pangolier
• Nisha: Phamtom Assassin
• SumaiL: Void Spirit

OG picks

• Taiga : Dark Willow
• Yuragi: Templar Assassin
• Misha: Shadow Demon
• ATF: Mars
• bzm: Ember Spirit

This time, OG did not spare Secret either and Yuragi showed team Secret what it meant to belittle them. OG’s carry, Yuragi started on a killing spree at 15 minute mark when Nisha was defeated by ATF and Taiga at mid. Shortly after that, YapzOr and iceiceice were caught out by OG near Roshan. By then OG became aggressive and chased down Nisha again near Secret’s Large Golem Camp despite Puppey’s help. A full fight subsequently ensued and SumaiL could not do much died quickly. Iceiceice’s Pangolier chased down ATF’s Mars but could not do enough before being eliminated by Yuragi’s Templar Assassin. Instead of providing support, YapzOr decided to jump at Misha for a quick kill but failed badly in his attempt as OG quickly recovered from Secret’s messy play.

By 20 minutes, OG was dominating the whole map as they have not only obtained the Aegis, Secret did not stand a chance as they were completely obliterated. Yuragi ended the game within 36 minutes with 20 kills without a single death. OG had a resounding lead 43-13 over team Secret to silence the critics.

Game 2 score

OG will be the team to watch for their next game against Team Liquid scheduled on 7 December. Meanwhile, team Tundra Spirit was victorious over Alliance with 2-0 result.