Eyes on Katowice: This is the most important year for OG to date

Games Writer

Last Updated on 08/27/2024

With the first big event of the year on the horizon, CS:GO’s 2022 season is ready to get started. A tumultuous off-season saw major shifts in how teams stack up to each other. In the days leading into IEM Katowice, we will paint the picture for every roster competing at the event, and try to set expectations.

In this article, we take a look at OG.

OG: breaking through the ceiling

Image: BTS

OG could be considered as one of the winners of the offseason. They sold their in-game leader Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen to G2 and received Nemanja “nexa” Isakovic in return.

But at BLAST, nexa proved to be a perfect fit for the roster.

OG played simple, straightforward CS. nexa gave his players the freedom to make moves. It must have felt like a breath of fresh air following two years under Aleksib, who has a reputation for micromanaging his lineups.

But one solid performance is not enough. The organization simply needs more. OG has been in Counter-strike for over two years at this point but has won no significant trophies.

It’s time for OG to shit or get off the pot. Not in Katowice, but the 2022 season.

Either they keep on growing, with possibly another roster move, and become a serious contender for titles, or they have to accept that they’re sub-top at best.

How will OG perform at IEM Katowice?

nexa’s arrival has created some momentum for this lineup. The performance at BLAST was promising.

Okay, they played against NIP and MIBR with stand-ins and Astralis, which still has many issues to deal with. But the eye test was positive.

Now comes the difficult part: keeping the momentum going. And that’s an entirely different thing.

We can assume that OG will have different tactics than “nexa go kill” in Katowice. But if they manage to keep it simple, give enough freedom for players to take chances, and we see one or two other players step up, they should be able to impress.

As with any other team playing the play-ins, making the main tournament is the bare minimum for OG.