OG New Offlane Io Strategy Incoming? Ceb Is Spamming the Hero in Pubs

When it comes to drafting in Dota 2, OG is undoubtedly a pioneer. Regardless of their form, they manage to come up with strategies that may appear outlandish yet somehow pan out well, which specifically tends to stand out more at an event like The International 10 (TI). At TI9, one of the factors that gave OG an edge in the drafting phase was the Carry Io. Continuing this tradition at TI10, OG's mainstay, Sébastien "Ceb" Debs appears to be cooking up another latent strategy. He has been spamming Io offlane in his pubs for the past few days, according to Dota 2 Pro Tracker.

OG and Ceb may debut Io offlane at TI10

In the past eight days, Ceb has played 12 matches with Io offlane on his main account. With a staggering 83.3% win percentage, he has won 10 out of these 12 games. Ceb has actually been practicing this strategy throughout TI10 in his ranked matchmaking, which makes it likely that we may see this special strategy in the official game. After OG's series’ on the second day were over, he did not hesitate to go to his pubs and play it out. Three of the four games he played were on Io. The one game he did not play Io was because the hero got banned due to both teams picking him in the same phase. Additionally, the fact that he always chooses the hero in the first pick is indicating heavily towards some strategy that is in the works.

In light of Io's popularity at TI10 so far, OG can also pick the hero and deploy it in the support role if necessary. TI10's group stage has seen Io as the fourth most-picked hero so far, with 10 wins and 14 losses across 24 games.

A strong part of Io, in the past few patches, has been his Aghanim’s Shard. Buying the item on the hero not only increases the Tether movement speed by 10% but also “causes it to deal 150 damage and stun enemies for 1.75 seconds upon them coming within its slow range.”

This aspect of the hero is frequently overlooked and teams at TI10 have been caught off guard multiple times. It is also worth noting that OG has been a victim of this Aghanim's Shard as well. In a game against Team Aster, in the group stage, efforts were taking to jump at the enemy carry. SumaiL and Ceb tried using the Morphling Earthshaker combo but were stunned at every attempt as a consequence of this Io Aghanim's Shard oversight.

OG has an obvious affinity towards Io. At TI9, they established the Io carry and caught multiple teams by surprise. Now they are looking to bamboozle their opponents once again, but it is yet to be ascertained how effective their strategy will be if they do indeed pursue it at TI10. Although Ceb has been quite successful at pubs, TI10 is a whole different type of ball game.

OG is currently playing against Evil Geniuses in the group stage of TI10. Later in the day, the team will play Team Undying. OG is currently looking strong for a top-four finish in the group stage, which if they prevail, shall grant them entry into the upper bracket of the playoffs.

You can keep up with TI10's full group stage schedule with AFK Gaming.