Original... Gamers?

We at TLDR have often been quite critical of OG. They've been a team who have constantly threatened to win tournaments, but who would just eventually disappoint in a major way. And while that is still sort of true, they're becoming more and more convincing before the inevitable failure.

What is most impressive, and surprising, about OG, is that they are still the OGs of OG. There have been no changes, no big money rumours, no rumours of behind-the-scenes arguments - even when players have been out of form, or things weren't working, OG didn't panic.

ISSAA has had some struggles with form, but eventually under the tutelage of Aleksib he has slowly started to come back to the player we all knew and loved. NBK-'s K/D and ratings don't seem to matter, as OG truck on and win with him.

OG have had form problems as a team, too, and their ranking has reflected that. It reminds us of a certain... Danish team, who flitted around the top 10 and would invariably cut a player or two if they had these struggles. Naming no names.

It's classic Counter-Strike - back before FaZe threw the rulebook out the window, before Astralis rewrote it with pieces of broken shrapnel (well, before Astralis' social media managers rewrote it) and before Stewie2k decided to flash the rulebook before a smoke. Before then, this is what CS was about.

Two star riflers, a solid AWPer, a classical IGL and a much-maligned role player who was the subject of far too many HLTV threads. In many ways, it's ironic that the international team are the ones to bring back the old-school style of roster-building,

In an early interview after building the team, owner Ceb spoke about how he felt other international teams had suffered from poor management (all representations of teams in other stories in this newsletter, real or fictional, are entirely coincidental, FaZe Clan.) and it seems his approach has been to motivate, not renovate - evolution, not revolution.

Whether or not OG will ever be the best team in the world, we don't know - we suspect they might always be the bridesmaid, and never the bride. But what we do know, is that their approach, and the blossoming of the team, is admirable.