OG.Seed disband following ownership conflicts
OG.Seed, the secondary Dota2 team of two-time back-to-back The International champions OG, have pulled the plug on their Dota2 project following multi-team ownership conflicts.
As unveiled in the announcement, the OG.Seed project was launched with intentions to "mentor another Dota team, share the knowledge that we [OG] have accumulated throughout all these years of competition, and help them build a solid foundation by providing them with the necessary tools to help them improve," however due to The International 10 postponement amid COVID-19 concerns, the uncertainty of Dota2 competitive calendar and the transition to regional tournaments, managing two teams became a problem.
The biggest issue OG were facing with was the conflict of interest that could have and had arisen by having two rosters competing in the same tournament.
Many tournament organisers don't allow multiple rosters from the same esports organisation to compete in the same competition, meaning that OG.Seed would be forced to attend mostly tier-two and tier-three tournaments. That, however, was a big issue, since OG.Seed's ambitions for their roster were much higher than that.
While OG stated that they "worked with other teams and tournament organizers to try to find a solution," they eventually came to the conclusion that it may be too soon to try and properly implement multi-team ownership into their organisation.
OG and OG.Seed were seen competing in the same tournament in May and April at WePlay! Pushka League Season 1: Division 1, where they got seeded into the same group and played one match. The same tournament also featured Virtus.pro and their academy team VP.Prodigy, who were as well seeded into the same group since WePlay! did not implement any rules that would prevent esports organisations to enter with two teams.
The news of OG.Seed's disbandment surfaced this Tuesday on OG's official website, however, as stated by the European esports organisation, this decision was made a month ago.
"When we learned that OG Seed would not be able to compete in the same tournaments as OG, we sat down with them and mutually decided that we would give OG Seed a 30-days notice before releasing them (1st July 2020), and use this month to help them find a great new home," read the announcement.
"All of us at OG would like to thank them for all their great work, commitment and friendship. We are extremely proud to see how they’ve evolved and how much progress they’ve made."
OG.Seed was formed barely six months ago, on November 27, when the team announced Omar Mohammad "Madara" Dabachach, Rasmus Johan "Chessie" Blomdin, Zakari William Lee "Zfreek" Freedman, Andreas Per "Xibbe" Ragnemalm and Petu "Peksu" Vaatainen as the inaugural members of OG's secondary Dota2 team.
Although the newly established roster did not feature any big names, OG.Seed have achieved a couple of impressive accolades in their rather short existence. In November, OG.Seed made it to the final round of DreamLeague Season 13 Europe Open Qualifier, finished second at DOTA Summit 12 and Cyber.bet Cup: Spring Series – EU, and most recently claimed a bronze medal at OMG Cup 3.
While they failed to claim any silverware, OG.Seed managed to produce a few notable individual performances, which saw them take down some of the strongest Dota2 teams in the world, including Evil Genuises, Team Liquid and OG themselves.
It remains to be seen what will happen with OG.Seed's roster, however, as revealed by OG, they are actively working on finding them a new home. Nevertheless, OG.Seed have shown a lot of promise throughout the last six months which suggests Peksu and co. won't have a hard time finding a new banner to fight under.
