SumaiL returns, Ana retires, OG flops against Virtus.Pro

With a heavy heart the Dota 2 community finally accepts Anathan “ana” Pham’s humble retirement. Despite his overflowing talent in the game, ana has found other priorities in life that he truly desires. In his stead, Syed Sumail “SumaiL” Hassan is back to the team hoping to bring OG over the line in their TI10 qualifyer run.

Before all that comes to be, OG gets a practice run at ESL One Summer 2021, and it is not going well thus far.

The King is back

SumaiL, nicknamed the King, was announced as OG’s new carry player. It’s certainly a great sight for SumaiL fans since the player hasn’t been active in the DPC 2021 recently. Furthermore, SumaiL was infamously known for his unorthodox playstyle, having only found success playing under Evil Geniuses. This brings us to the discussion of how compatible SumaiL is with team OG.

SumaiL and team OG has had a long history, not just as opponents but teammates as well. One year ago, team OG announced their season 2020 line-up, consisting of SumaiL, Yeik “MidOne” Nai Zheng, and Martin “Saksa” Sazdov. It wasn’t long before SumaiL was let go from the roster for Sébastien “Ceb” Debs to return.

Of course, since OG never had decent success with SumaiL previously, we aren’t too optimistic for the OG lineup. At least until team OG delivers up to everybody’s expectations by qualifying for TI10.

Ana’s retirement

Ana’s early retirement from the scene may come off as premature, considering he’s only 21-years-old. However, his Dota 2 career and passion kicked off way back in 2013 and plausibly much earlier. Regardless, ana still became the first two-time consecutive champion of the Internationals championship. A goal that many Dota 2 veterans consider as the holy grail they aspire to achieve.

After a year-long break from the competitive career, ana returned to team OG last month, hoping to once again defend his title as champions. Despite his return, OG still failed to qualify for WePlay AniMajor, and ultimately the Dota Pro Circuit 2021 (DPC 2021). Fans were still hopeful that OG can qualify for the International 10 (TI10) through the regional qualifiers, at least before ana broke the news.

With OG’s saving grace walking out of the room, uncertainty lingered around OG’s future at TI10.

New OG, New Methods, Same Problems

Speaking of playstyle, SumaiL isn’t the most compatible carry player among others in his class. It’s a double-edged sword, as many would claim. For one, SumaiL could become a dealbreaker in most matches. Otherwise, we can expect a losing streak coming their way.

For instance, OG picks up a relatively similar strategy to EG at the ESL One Summer 2021 by letting SumaiL play team fight-oriented carries. Leshrac and Nature’s Prophet were strong heroes that snowball well into midgame, where OG continuously force fights across the map.

While a win versus AS Monaco Gambit is by no means a form of validation to OG’s performance, it’s a promising start. Fortunately, we can anticipate more exciting match-ups at the ESL One Summer 2021 this week as there are several renowned rivals. For example, T1, Team Secret, Virtus.pro, and Quincy Crew are official TI10 invitees.

The problems however were showcased in their second duel versus Virtus.Pro which OG lost handily. It was not only about SumaiL who played Spectre/Prophet relatively well, it was all the other wheels falling off early that brought OG down.

Both at the end of the DPC season and at ESL One Summer, OG is failing to deliver across all lanes. Its the veterans that simply don’t deliver on their greatness. Both Ana and now SumaiL are performing as best as can be expected, considering they are facing losing lanes across the board.

All things considered, it really isn’t bad news after all for both OG and its fans. Of course, there are naysayers who may say that ana was OG’s bread-and-butter for their championship-winning strategies. Nevertheless, there are still three founding members looking forward to making OG the top candidate in Dota 2 betting and, the third-time TI win in their books.