There is no doubt that OG is the best Dota 2 team right now. And despite being an underdog coming into The International 2018, they showed the world how the game should be played. Let’s also not forget how they managed to beat every team in TI9 to defend the Aegis of Champions.
In a blog post, former OG coach and now player Sebastian “Ceb” Debs talked about the feeling he has after winning TI9 in Shanghai, China. He discussed the entire experience, from the level of teams they played with to the Chinese crowd, and everything in between.
The International 2019 went across the Pacific for the first time, with the crowd expected to support their Chinese teams. Indeed, the Chinese Dota 2 fans were very vocal, which somehow took Ceb by surprise.
“TI9 was completely different from TI8, that’s for sure,” Ceb said in the post. “The overall level of competition was much higher, just like every year. The fact that it happened in Shanghai...having the crowd cheer against you is a very special experience obviously.”
Ceb said that knowing the crowd’s roar was for teams like Vici Gaming and PSG.LGD made it “difficult” to adjust and make plays. Indeed, OG was booed during their match against PSG.LGD, even after exiting the arena.
“This was the first time I’ve experienced it, and to be honest, it was quite rough,” he said
The Chinese crowd, however, was just one of the many challenges that OG had to go through. According to Ceb, it was getting difficult to maintain a stable mentality going through each and every match. Given the long-standing curses in Dota 2, staying strong despite being under heavy pressure seemed to be a feat almost impossible to overcome. That is why winning TI9, for Ceb, was so much better than TI8. He said that in order for them to win, they had to make sure that their strategies were analyzed and scrutinized.
“Being able to rebuild the same fire you had when you went for it the first time, dealing with the public pressure and the expectations everyone around you has for your team. All of these things put together made the task very hard to fulfil,” Ceb said.
Ceb added that after winning the last fight against Team Liquid, they just could not explain the feeling. Even days after the event, they still had a hard time believing that everything was true. “This experience is so intense that you barely get time to really understand what is going on,” he said. “You just go with the flow and wake up once it’s all over.”
While one can argue that Dota 2 is a game with no definite challenge or quest, Ceb believes that what they accomplished as a team is more than just the glory and fame. “I’m at a point where I can’t even think of a harder challenge. It almost feels like we’ve finished Dota. I’m sure that feeling is temporary, and it will sooner or later get pushed away by new goals,” he said.
