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The group stage of the Riyadh Masters 2023 is in full swing. The $15,000,000 battle is now sharpening between 16 of the best teams in the world. The group stage of the biggest commercial event in Dota 2 history continues.
Next up is the match in Group A between OG and Team Spirit. The format of the match is, as always, bo2.
Both teams are in need of high-profile results this season. Both teams are playing rather stubbornly on the international stage, so their face-to-face match will be full of mistakes and mistakes.
Let's try to understand how this match will end and whether one of the sides will be able to register the necessary victory in the face-to-face encounter.
Let's go.
Team Spirit uniforms
Let's start the analysis of the match by analysing Team Spirit's match form. In this match, the team will play with the first number one.
Despite Spirit's lack of high-profile wins in the 2023 season, they are still better than OG. The latter is one of the most chaotic teams in the world.
In the first round of DPC 2023: EEU Division 1 Spirit were ranked 2nd. Then the dragons were prevented from winning by BB Team, who finished the tournament in first place with a score of 7-0. After playing in their home league, Team Spirit visited The Lima Major 2023 where they finished in the top 8.
Later Spirit played the second round of the home league and again finished in the top 2. Going to The Berlin Major 2023 they expected to improve the result of the previous Major, but in the end it got worse: already TOP-12.
Despite the "sluggish" game on the international arena, Spirit still consistently come out of the groups at the Major, and at home they look like the main contender for victory in every game. This was the case in the third season of DPC 2023.
Spirit finished the Eastern Europe final cycle in first place. It took 3 attempts to earn the championship in Eastern Europe.
- Team Spirit roster: Yatoro, Larl, Collapse, Mira, Miposhka .
The last tournament before DreamLeague Season 20 for the Dragons was DreamLeague S20. There the representatives of Eastern Europe took the top 5, which is not a bad indicator, considering the above mentioned performance for the year.
Spirit visited The Bali Major 2023, but their trip there ended in failure. The team finished in the top 12, not making it to the prizes.
Spirit started the group stage of the Riyadh Masters, where they got directly into, quite well. They played two tough games against EG and GG and took one map in each match.
Team Spirit's most popular characters
Crystal Maiden tops the list of Team Spirit's most popular characters. The character has appeared in the pick 6 times and has an 83% win rate.
Apart from Crystal Maiden, Disruptor and Underlord are also appreciated, having been peaked 5 times each with 80% winrate. There was also Skywrath Mage (4 matches, 100% wins), Doom (4 matches, 75% wins), PL, Viper, Slark, Riki appeared 3 times each and has 100% wins.
OG Form
Let's move on to the breakdown of OG's game form. In this match the team will play the second number.
If Spirit are not shining with results, but with constant periodicity glimpsed at large and not so large events, OG rarely get to them. Hence the lag.
At DPC 2023: WEU Division 1 Tour 1, OG could not guarantee themselves a top-4 finish and consequently missed out on The Lima Major 2023. Things seemed to pick up during the second round of DPC 2023: WEU Division 1 Tour 2. Then OG made a strong-willed comeback and made it to the Top 4 after tiebreaks.
At the Berlin Major, the team played with two stand-ins and made it to the top 6, but it seems that those stand-ins were the secret to their success. After returning to regular season matches with a full roster, OG looked critically bad, but improved at the last minute.
At DPC 2023: WEU Tour 3, OG Long Team went down to the wire, but managed to keep their place in the top division by finishing in the top 5 in the third round of the professional season. By the way, at the last DreamLeague S19 OG also took the 5th place and this is an indicator, but it is unlikely to be repeated in the new season.
- OG roster: Yuragi, bzm, DM, Ceb, Taiga .
After a year-long extravaganza, Ceb is the new OG player. OG resorted to their ultimatum weapon during DreamLeague Season 20, but it didn't help them and OG finished in the top 20.
At Riyadh Masters 2023, OG started their journey to the top from the Play-In stage. There, in Group B, they finished in the penultimate place, but then shut down Decider against Entity with a 2-0 score.
In the group stage, the trend continued. At Long Sogpeg, the team lost 1 match and drew 1.
Most popular OG characters
Among the favourite OG characters: Keeper of the Light (6 matches, 83% wins), Phantom Lancer (5 matches, 60% wins).
Among the most successful: Crystal Maiden (4 matches, 100% wins), Underlord (4 matches, 100% wins), Alchemist (3 matches, 100% wins), Storm Spirit (3 matches, 100% wins), Void Spirit (3 matches, 100% wins).
Head-to-head history
The teams have played each other three times in the 2023 season. Two times ended in a draw, and one match was won by OG.
Match outcome
Given the history of head-to-head encounters and the very lacklustre play from the two sides, I would look at the OG. Yes, they are far from being a serious opponent, but the Spirit look like they're not that good either.
Bottom line: +1.5 on OG.
