Moon, Cr1t- and Miracle- part ways with OG

Andreas Franck “Cr1t-” Nielsen, David “MoonMeander” Tan and Amer “Miracle-” Al-Barkawi parted ways with OG after an incredibly successful year together. Tal “Fly” Aizik and Johan “N0tail” Sundstein will remain with the organization and plan to announce their new roster soon. The team made history as the first to win two Valve tournaments – the Frankfurt and Manila Majors- but took a disappointing 9-12th place finish at TI6.

Earlier today it was announced on OG’s facebook that the European organization bid farewell to Andreas Franck “Cr1t-” Nielsen, David “MoonMeander” Tan and Amer “Miracle-” Al-Barkawi.

According to the announcement, OG had removed Moon from the active roster while both Cr1t- and Miracle- chose to leave to compete on other teams.

Today we recollect ourselves in the aftermath of what we all had come together to fight for: The International. For us, OG is more than just MMR and prize-money. It’s getting to take the game we love to new heights and share it with family.
We let ourselves down but we’re not giving up.
Change is never easy but it’s here. We will fight our way back to the number 1 spot but today we announce the departure of three of OG’s year-long members: MoonMeander, Miracle- and Cr1t-.

We’ve made the difficult decision that Moon will no longer be an active player on the OG roster but wish him nothing but success wherever he decides to go. Cr1t- and Miracle- have chosen to find their new homes elsewhere in the DOTA2 arena.

The five members had founded the organization together in the post TI5 shuffle – basing it on talent and friendship and defying the conventional concept of an esports organization to be player centered and owned.

Long time friends and teammates Tal “Fly” Aizik and Johan “N0tail” Sundstein will continue with the OG brand they created, reporting to be making some surprising announcements soon including the new roster.

For the team registrations this year, there is a two step or phase registration period including drop phase and add phase.

Teams have 17 days (now until September 4th) to release players from their current rosters for the upcoming season. This is an active process unlike previous seasons where the entire team was automatically dropped. Therefore players must leave the team or the management needs to remove any players that will not continue competing with the team. Any players that are still remaining on the team after September 4th are automatically locked in to the team.

New players can then be added to the roster between September 4-18th (two weeks) – locking on September 18th at 12:00AM PDT. This includes re-adding players that left or were dropped in the first phase.

OG at ESL One Frankfurt 2016 © ESL

The team first defied the odds when they rose through the lower brackets, bested The International 5 champions, Evil Geniuses, and upset favorites Team Secret to rocket to the top and claim the championship title and the staggering 1.1 million dollars prize at the first Dota Major, in Frankfurt.

They followed up with a first place finish at DreamLeague Season 4 but slid into the 5th-8th place at the DotaPit Season 4 LAN. Stepping back up, they secured the fourth place at StarLadder iLeague Dota Invitational after being bested by Na’Vi, 2:1, in the lower brackets.

They continued to re-climb the ladder of success and took a remarkable third place at EPICENTER Moscow and then the championship title at DreamLeague Season 5 one week later, after they absolutely shellacked Na’Vi, 3:0.

In another ground-breaking moment, OG seized their second Valve championship title at the Manila Major, when they defeated Team Liquid, 3:1 – becoming the first team to claim two Valve titles. Merely one week later they claimed the title for ESL One Frankfurt and second place at The Summit 5.

The team took a surprising and disappointing 9-12th place finish at TI6, after being eliminated TnC in the second round of lower brackets.