Cover-Credits:
With the departure of Alexander "TORONTOTOKYO" Khertek from Team Spirit post The International 11 (TI11), the team had seen its first roster move in over a year and a half. Denis "Larl" Sigitov emerged as the new midlaner, but Spirit's Illya "Yatoro" Mulyarchuk disclosed a few months ago that they had prioritized OG’s Bozhidar "bzm" Bogdanov for the role. However, according to Yatoro, there was a likelihood that the transfer fell through with one of the reasons being OG failing to inform the player about the buyout request. OG’s captain Sébastien "Ceb" Debs stated, in an interview with escorenews recently, that bzm was aware of this offer but declined it due to a language barrier and the two teams' form at the time.
Ceb talks about bzm not joining Team Spirit after TI11
Yatoro's statement came a few months ago, but Ceb brought it up in a recent interview, referring to how OG is a player centric organization, and that bzm was informed within an hour of the request from Team Spirit.
“I saw an interview with Yatoro where he stated that OG supposedly said nothing to bzm about this. I don't remember if he added a "maybe". Need to double check the information. OG is the best club in terms of player attitude, so as soon as an offer comes in, the person finds out right away. Bzm found out about the invitation to Spirit within the next hour. We didn't hide anything from him. He just didn't want to transfer.”
Furthermore, Ceb cited the results and atmosphere of both teams at the time and the fact that bzm was not well versed in Russian as reasons for the transfer failing.
At the time, Spirit was struggling. That was before it started winning again. He would have to speak Russian on the new team - he knows a little bit of the language, but not well enough. That played a big role. At the same time, things were going very well for OG. We just won Stockholm Major, we were in the top 4 in Arlington, he was happy with the team and the atmosphere. So he just decided not to move, that's all.”
[translations via DeepL Translate]
Despite the circumstances in which Team Spirit went with Larl during that time, the move eventually paid off. It took some time for the team to synergize as Larl also improved but Spirit won two of the biggest Dota 2 competitions last season: Riyadh Masters 2023 and TI12.
As for OG, it has had a series of roster changes since TI11, and despite some strong runs in various tournaments, it has not yet won any event.
