What an incredible year it has been.

OG started out as an idea to form a team with a few fundamental principals: Friendship, trust and hard work. I finally was able to use the what I've learned over the years to feel confident as a captain with this new team, but not in an imposing way - I always strive to learn and become better every day, along with my teammates.

We had amazing success, and then a downfall.. but we survived through that and just like before, we repeated our pattern where we rose quickly but had another big fall when it mattered the most.
Winning big tournaments affects your mentality, and when we got to TI we were not able to reach the same level of fire and motivation we had for Manila. It felt like we were just playing the game, and I can see the people we played against would yell and scream and jump with excitement while we were mellow... I tried to instill motivation the best way I know, but in the end it did not work.

In the end, we were 5 players who are not all completely the same. While we did start out the team with these fundamentals, over time people changed a little bit, and it didn't feel the same as when we started the team.
Cr1t- and Miracle- are both very young and have a lot of potential. This was the first year for them playing in the highest level of dota, and I think they just want to try out new things while they can, it’s a growing process and I understand it, and I’m not going to hold them back.

With Moon it was a bit different, but out of respect for him it was not because of his talent nor skill that we parted ways with him, sometimes people have different personalities and don't work as well together.

Making a team is a very delicate procedure, there are so many factors involved that you can't just simply choose 5 players you think are good. It's extremely rare and hard to find people who will be on the same page as you, and it's something you also have to work for as a team, it doesn't just click right away. You really have to understand the other people on your team to be able to play the best together.

After being in several different teams, I can say that this was the best experience of my dota career so far. I don't think the 5 of us were completely on the same page, but we were very close—it showed with our success. Even tho we parted ways, it does not mean our friendship ends here. I really wish that Cr1t-, Miracle- and Moon all have success, because they are all incredible players, and I respect them.

Like some smart people said, don't be sad its over, be glad it happened.

So what comes next?

I am on vacation at my fathers place, and I talked to him yesterday. He used to compete in Judo, and he went to train in Japan.. and back then it was not simple for the Japanese to accept someone foreign training with them, so they would try to break him in any way possible. They would train for 8 hours, and after that they would have sparring matches—if you win, they throw another guy at you until you break. They just wanted you to go back home.

This went on for 6 months, and after that they finally started giving my father some respect, because he would not give up no matter what, he would fight on and would never quit.
After that they started calling him Tōshi, which means fighting spirit in Japanese, and even made him a Judogi with that written on it.

So like my dad, I am not one to give up easily. Even tho these changes are not easy, and things don't go your way.. Your plan A, plan B and plan C all fail, you still push on and find a solution, you don't give up. I won't give up. I aim to be the best and that won't change.

OG will stand, and I hope those who followed us will continue to do so, because this is going to be the beginning of something new, and something that will continue to be great.

#DreamGreen

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