Ceb leaves OG Dota 2 active roster
Sébastien "Ceb" Debs announced this Monday, January 27, he will no longer be a part of OG Dota 2 active roster and will instead look to for another way to remain involved with the team.
The reigning two-time TI champions OG have gone through a rollercoaster of emotions in the last couple of days, seeing how three of their players decided to leave the active roster, leaving OG with only two active members. It all started on Saturday, January 25, when Anathan "ana" Pham announced he will extend his break from Dota 2 competitive scene until the end of 2019/20 DPC season, followed by Jesse "JerAx" Vainikka's announcement of his retirement from Dota 2 pro scene a day later, which left two huge voids in OG team.
This Monday, Ceb unveiled more bad news for the two-time TI champions, shocking the Dota 2 community with his announcement that he will leave OG active roster, claiming "all good things come to an end".
In his announcement, which was posted on OG official website, Ceb talked about why he decided to leave the team, while calming his fans by promising he is not leaving the OG family.
"Changes are healthy, perhaps even required," said Ceb.
"It has been one hell of a ride. Ever since ana and Topson joined us, DotA has never felt the same again. I believe we’ve built the best team in DotA, I am very convinced of that. We played as underdogs, played as favourites. We competed with the hunger and the fire of the uprising teams, and we competed with the confidence of the defending champions. It truly feels like we went through most of what competitive DotA had to offer."
Ceb also talked about his experience while playing at OG, where he felt like at home, praising OG's ambitions of becoming the best and nothing less, which also allowed them to achieve the historic achievement when they won TI twice in a row – something no other team in history managed to do to date. He did, however, also address the competitive fire in players, which is burning bright at the start of anyone's career and is taken as granted, but as time goes by, and you come closer to achieving your goals and dreams, that competitive fire requires a lot more attention so it does not die out.
JerAx talked about the same issue, claiming he had the competitive spirit in him since the start of his career, but eventually lost the motivation to keep on pushing, which eventually led to his decision to retire earlier this weekend.
Towards the end of his announcement, the French Dota 2 pro, former analyst and coach also addressed his plans for the future, claiming he is not done with being involved in the scene, but will instead look for other ways to remain with OG and help Johan "N0tail" Sundstein and Topias "Topson" Taavitsainen achieve their dreams of lifting the third TI title.
"Johan and Topias are looking at their third title, and so am I. I will be alongside them once they lift the trophy again. As usual, I’ll do what ever it takes to see the group succeed, and that sometimes means sacrificing some of your own personal targets."
"It is time for me to take a step back, and remove myself from the active roster. I will be taking a role within OG in which I will be able to help all teams and players with increasing their performance," said Ceb.
"I do not want this to sound like a definitive retirement, even though it could very well end up being it. I love the surprises that comes with life, therefore I’ll always keep every door open."
Ceb started his career as a Dota 2 pro in 2011 when he joined Team Shakira. He later played for Western Wolves, mTw, DD.Dota, Quantic, Sigma.int, Terra Firma eSports, Denial eSports, Basically Unknown, FIRE, Champions of Summoner's Rift, Alliance, Monkey Freedom FIghters and Kaipi. In May 2016, Ceb joined OG as a coach and later in June 2018 moved to the active roster.
In August 2018, Ceb won his first International title with OG, when the European squad defeated PSG.LGD in the grand finals. The squad had a fairly quiet 2018/19 season as they failed to win a single Major tournament, yet once again delivered when it mattered, and won TI9 in a commanding fashion, having decimated Team Liquid in the finals 3-1.
Ceb has ended his Dota 2 career as one of the most successful players in history and one of five players who won two International titles. Ceb is also the fourth-highest paid players in the history of esports, having pocketed US $5,489,233 in total prize winnings in his nine-years long career.
With Ceb's departure from the team, OG is now left with only two members on the team, which raises the question whether the squad will be ready to compete in 2019/20 DPC season and whether they will have the needed quality to contest yet another TI title. While N0tail and Topson are still two of the best players in the world, there are already speculations suggesting the duo will follow the footsteps of ana Ceb and JerAx and hang up their mouse and keyboards as well.
OG Dota 2 roster for 2020:
Topias "Topson" Taavitsainen
Johan "N0tail" Sundstein
