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The International 2019 had everything. From underdogs taking over the favourites to outrageous comebacks to happy Chinese fans roaring for their teams to heartbreaking defeats, it had them all. One of the most celebrated teams to enter The Internation was Team Liquid. They didn't perform up to their expectations in the Group Stages. However, the team played some exceptional Dota in the Lower Bracket and finally made it to the Grand Finals after defeating PSG.LGD in the Lower Bracket finals.
On the other hand, OG was already slaying teams which fell on their path in the Group Stages and even in the Upper Bracket of the Playoffs. OG won TI8 and was a strong contender for this competition. However, people did not favour OG to win The International because of their struggling performance in the season. The tables did turn when in the Grand Finals, as OG was looking a dangerous side even to a polished and unstoppable team of Liquid.
After Liquid’s dominance in the first half of the first game, OG managed to comeback with more than a decent farm on Ana’s Spectre and Topson’s Tiny but they couldn't win the game after a straight mid push from Liquid where Ana hesitated to buyback. Nonetheless, OG managed to pull off something which many teams would not even dream of in a TI final. They did not just win The International but did it with some style, the second and third game looked like Liquid was wanting space to breathe but OG was choking them from farming or roaming freely around the map.
We will discuss what OG did and how they managed to do it in such an intense pressure scenario.
#3 Drafting
It was clear that Liquid was doing great in the drafting phase throughout the tournament, even in the first match of the grand finals, the surprise pick of Meepo caught many people including the OG players off-guard. However, their draft was a bit questionable in the second and third game. The last pick Enigma with Tidehunter already picked as an offlaner made things easier for OG. They just played extra aggressively when Enigma did not have his blackhole and did not let the entire team of Liquid farm, using the long enemy cooldowns to their advantage.
In the third game, Liquid decided to stick with Templar as their mid and Tidehunter as their offlane. However, OG responded quite well with the Pugna pick on Topson as he crushed the lane against TA and pretty much snowballed very hard.
#2 OG’s Play Style
Although there was some brilliant display of Dota in the tournament nothing seemed as exciting as the Dota played by team OG. They played some of the most amazing synergies in TI9 and uniquely used them. Picking heroes like Alchemist, Chen, Dark Seer and Spirit Breaker. Io with scepter and level 15 talent proved to be an extremely creative and successful idea. It looked like OG were comfortable on any hero they play and had a huge pool of heroes in their arsenal. Their mid player Topson and carry player Ana were enabled to play their best heroes by N0tail, Jerax and Ceb. One could see how they cornered Liquid in the second and third match, they did not let Miracle who was Liquid’s star player get any farm or breathing space on the map. The second game was just mind-boggling to witness, where OG decided to run after Liquid for straight 8 minutes, ganking every hero visible on the map with their 5-man army.
#1 OG’s Mentality and Team Spirit
OG was playing incredible Dota throughout the tournament but what kept them from phasing was their unvarying spirit. The whole team was just having an amazing time and was playing for fun. Having fun will automatically alleviate any stress and pressure a team has. They were constantly spamming chat-wheel taunts at their enemy and at each other too. Ana used illusions to body block N0tail which ultimately got him killed him in the game, this is a perfect example of OG not giving any care to the consequences, they knew they can lead again. It looked like OG did not care if they won or lost they would still have fun, spraying “Loser” on the enemy side and triggering all their players with repeated taunts.
In the 2018 International Truesight documentary, N0tail said that they had pressure at the back of their heads, the weight of winning and being successful. However, he also mentioned that in team talks he always said that they would play to have fun and live the moment instead of worrying about the trophy, win or lose it didn't matter because as a team they had made this far and that is an achievement in itself. Perhaps the same attitude led them this far in the tournament and helped pick up the greatest trophy one could achieve in-game of Dota.
