{"id":10668,"date":"2023-01-18T01:44:19","date_gmt":"2023-01-18T01:44:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blix.gg\/news\/cs-2\/csgo-why-og-will-disappoint-in-2023"},"modified":"2023-01-18T01:44:19","modified_gmt":"2023-01-18T01:44:19","slug":"csgo-why-og-will-disappoint-in-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blix.gg\/blog\/news\/cs-2\/csgo-why-og-will-disappoint-in-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"CS:GO: Why OG will disappoint in 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"

When OG entered CS:GO<\/a> in December 2019, there were high expectations for the organization. Fresh off of winning their second Dota 2 International in as many years, the Red Bull-backed organization promised to bring a new elite squad to Valve’\u0099s other flagship esport.<\/p>\n

It feels slightly odd to say that almost three years later and with an entirely different roster, OG finally played their first Major in CS:GO at IEM Rio 2022. That Major also ended in disappointment, with the team failing to make it out of the Challengers Stage after losing to Fnatic, FURIA, and Vitality.<\/p>\n

Despite their underwhelming Major, OG did have a couple of positive results in 2022, placing in the top four at both the BLAST Premier Spring and Fall Finals. Questions about the BLAST format aside, these results suggest some potential in the OG lineup. That being said, even with that potential, we predict that OG will face another year of disappointment in 2023.<\/p>\n

Things look bleak for OG in 2023<\/h2>\n

The team enters the year sitting pretty at twelfth on HLTV’\u0099s team ranking, buoyed by their performance at the BLAST Premier: World Finals in Abu Dhabi to the end of 2022. It’\u0099s not their peak position, which is eighth for those wondering, but it feels like it’\u0099s their true ceiling. A team resigned to constantly shifting somewhere between the twentieth and tenth and hardly fitting for a team whose name is so closely attributed to success in Esports.<\/p>\n

\"Joao Joao Ferreira | Source: PGL<\/span><\/div>\n

PGL\/Joao Ferreira<\/a><\/p>\n

This isn’\u0099t to say that the current top 10 isn’\u0099t rife with solid teams. The elite level of Counter-Strike is so strong right now that even Mathieu ‘\u009cZywOo’\u009d Herbaut’\u0099s Vitality finds itself just one place higher than OG currently does. Still, is this the level OG expected to be at when entering CS three years ago with French legend Nathan ‘\u009cNBK-‘\u009d Schmitt, underrated Dane Valdemar ‘\u009cvalde’\u009d Bjorn Vangsa, and Finnish talented IGL Aleksi ‘\u009cAleksib’\u009d Virolainen?<\/p>\n

Is it also the level that an AWPer with the talent that Abdul ‘\u009cdegster’\u009d Gasanov should be at? Or should he be playing for a tournament-contending squad? Most fans of his would say he deserves better, but his signing for OG always was a signaller of the truth: there isn’\u0099t any room for him higher up the ladder right now.<\/p>\n

The Russian sniper is one of two positives for this OG roster; he is one of the best AWPers in the world and can turn a game on its head and take control of a server. His 1.16 HLTV Rating in the past six months is the highest on the team, too, although that is a slight decrease in his 2022 overall, which is 1.19.<\/p>\n

\"Image: Image: Copyright ESL | Helena Kristiansson<\/span><\/div>\n

ESL\/Helena Kristiansson<\/a><\/p>\n

His impact rating also sits at 1.12, which is very high compared to other top AWPers. Outside of the elite quartet of Oleksandr ‘\u009cs1mple’\u009d Kostyliev, Ilya ‘\u009cm0nesy’\u009d Osipov, Dimitry ‘\u009csh1ro’\u009d Osipov, and ZywOo, the only AWPer inside the top 20 with a higher Impact rating than him in 2022 was BIG’\u0099s Florian ‘\u009csyrsoN’\u009d Rische.<\/p>\n

It’\u0099s clear then that degster is a top-class AWPer, which isn’\u0099t spoken about enough as a luxury for top CS:GO teams. Far better teams than OG can’\u0099t say they have an AWPer of his caliber, at least not with a straight face.<\/p>\n

As previously mentioned, degster is one of two positives for OG, the second being Shahar ‘\u009cflameZ’\u009d Shushan, who signed from Endpoint in the first half of 2021. flameZ is one of many Israeli talents to light up Counter-Strike in the last couple of years. He is a stable rifler at a 1.11 HLTV Rating, and there can be very few question marks over flameZ’\u0099s ability to play at the very highest level.<\/p>\n

However, unlike degster, flameZ isn’\u0099t without his caveats. One of the great misconceptions of Esports fans is that, like in most traditional sports, there is linear growth. Unfortunately for OG, in this instance, in Esports, this isn’\u0099t typically the case. The Israeli star may still be just 19, but now have a year and a half in tier one, he hasn’\u0099t gotten any better or worse than when he first signed for OG. It suggests he has both a reasonable floor and a respectable ceiling but also suggests he will likely never be better than he is right now.<\/p>\n

\"Image: Image: Copyright ESL | Adela Sznajder<\/span><\/div>\n

ESL<\/a><\/p>\n

As we’\u0099ve already stated, flameZ is a stable rifler. A solid building block to line up next to degster. But his stability is also a false flag for OG; it means that the only true star in the OG lineup remains degster, and this is where their problems start.<\/p>\n

Tier two masquerading as tier one<\/h2>\n

flameZ isn’\u0099t the only player OG has plucked from tier two. After reportedly being rejected by Justin ‘\u009cjks’\u009d Savage, the organization turned to Sinners and AGO to complete their roster following the departures of both their Danish riflers Valdemar ‘\u009cvalde’\u009d Bjorn Vangsa and Nikolaj ‘\u009cniko’\u009d Kristensen. From Sinner and AGO, respectively, signed Adam ‘\u009cNEOFRAG’\u009d Zouhar and Maciej ‘\u009cF1KU’\u009d Miklas.<\/p>\n

Starting with the Czech, it’\u0099s NEOFRAG that has proved to be the bigger disappointment. Once the star of SINNERS, NEOFRAG has completely failed to acclimatize to life in the upper echelons of Counter-Strike. His 1.18 HLTV Rating for 2021 with his former team has fallen to a measly 1.01 since joining the international side.<\/p>\n

It’\u0099s the same story for F1KU too. While the Pole may have held lesser expectations for his performances, his 1.09 2021 rating has fallen to an identical 1.01 since his move to OG.<\/p>\n

\"Image: Image: Copyright BLAST Premier Photographer: Stephanie Lindgren<\/span><\/div>\n

BLAST\/Stephanie Lindgren<\/a><\/p>\n

In an era where the top teams are constantly striving for more firepower, and the elite teams have at least a trio of stars, this means that OG is a far cry from being anything close to a top team. Barring the overperformances at the two BLAST events, and the off chance one of these two players reaches a so far unseen peak for an event, OG doesn’\u0099t have the fragging potential to compete with the teams above them in the rankings.<\/p>\n

This is all without factoring in their IGL, Nemanja ‘\u009cnexa’\u009d Isakovic, the IGL, who isn’\u0099t particularly fond of the role. By IGL standards, his 0.99 HLTV rating isn’\u0099t even particularly bad, especially considering the poor performances of two teammates. But even with that in mind, how much faith can you have in an IGL who is resigned to being so, rather than doing so out of choice \u00c3\u00a0 la William ‘\u009cmezii’\u009d Merriman?<\/p>\n

None of these factors are hardly conducive to a successful team. While there may be a star AWPer and a solid player to back him up, that’\u0099s where the positives end for this OG squad. Unfortunately, for an organization that promised so much, their team is just too lackluster to offer anything truly. Until that changes and they manage to put together a competitive team, OG will face just as much disappointment in 2023 as they did in 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When OG entered CS:GO in December 2019, there were high expectations for the organization. Fresh off of winning their second Dota 2 International in as many years, the Red Bull-backed organization promised to bring a new elite squad to Valve’\u0099s other flagship esport. It feels slightly odd to say that almost three years later and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":10667,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-10668","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cs-2"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blix.gg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blix.gg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blix.gg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blix.gg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/89"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blix.gg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blix.gg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blix.gg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blix.gg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blix.gg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blix.gg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}