There is a reason why Sebastian “Ceb” Debs is one of the most popular Dota 2 players right now. Not only is he renowned for his coaching skills, but he also won back-to-back TI championships with his team OG. While Ceb is popular for playing offlane heroes – and he is really, really good at it – it seems he is starting to explore the support role as evidenced by his recent pub games.
According to Dota2ProTracker, the former OG player has been playing support heroes in his recent Dota 2 matches. In fact, in a 24-window, he played more than 15 matches as a support hero. This is definitely an interesting change for someone who has been known to play the offlane role.
Over the last few days, Ceb has been switching between soft and hard support roles in his Ranked games. He has also been picking heroes, such as Marci, Shadow Shaman, Pugna, IO, and Phoenix. And mind you, he has obtained a 48.3% win rate in just a short time.
This is without a doubt an interesting development for the Dota 2 pro player, especially since the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) is just around the corner (slated to start on January 2, 2023). And since Ceb will not be competing yet for the first tour of the tournament, he would have enough time to experiment with his new possible role and optimize his picks.
In the Dota 2 pro scene though, a lot of carry and offlane players have switched to the support role in the latter years of their careers. Take for example Johan "N0tail" Sundstein who is also a former OG player and one of the organization’s co-founders. When he first started, he was position one or carry player. But after a couple of roster changes and patches, he transitioned to the position five or hard support role.
There is a simple explanation as to why such a transition happens: as players age, their reflex ability is significantly reduced. They have somehow, in one or another, lost their touch (or killer instinct, if you will) as they age. This is in no way putting them in a bad light obviously. They are and will always be the best to have played the game. Look at N0tail, too – his shift to the support role gave them two championships to his name.
