OG Rounds Out Dota 2 Roster With Kitrak, Loans Taiga to Wildcard Gaming

On the eve of the roster lock for The International 12 (TI12) qualifiers, OG revealed its final Dota 2 roster addition. Kartik "Kitrak" Rathi has been assigned to the team as the new support player, replacing Tommy "Taiga" Le. For the past few days, Taiga had been on OG's inactive roster but was also loaned to Wildcard Gaming for the qualifiers in another announcement earlier today. The Western European team now includes Kitrak along with Sébastien "Ceb" Debs, both of whom played together for Old G in the last few months. With this, Kitrak also makes his formal return to competitive Dota 2, as his last major stint was with Wind and Rain in 2018.

Kitrak joins OG as Taiga gets loaned to Wildcard Gaming

Taiga's transfer to Wildcard was confirmed shortly after Kitrak was added to OG's squad.

The following five players make up OG's Dota 2 lineup for TI12’s qualifiers

1. Artem “Yuragi” Golubiev

2. Bozhidar “bzm” Bogdanov

3. Dmitry “DM” Dorokhin

4. Sébastien “Ceb” Debs

5. Kartik “Kitrak” Rathi

OG has been going through a rough patch this year, which has likely forced it to make these changes. There were two Majors it missed, and its performance at LANs was shaky, with the other Western and Eastern European teams overshadowing it significantly. Various rosters were tried, but none seemed to work.

With the two new players coming from Old G, the new roster is an amalgam of OG and Old G. Taiga left for Wildcard, while Mikhail "Misha" Agatov and Evgenii "Chu" Makarov have taken on the responsibilities of coach and assistant coach, respectively. Misha and Chu initially worked with OG as coaches, and following the last year of their respective tenures on the active roster, they have returned to their former responsibilities with the organization.

Meanwhile, for Old G, Vladimir "RodjER" Nikogosian has joined Nemiga Gaming, but the future of the two core players - Topias "Topson" Taavitsainen and Volodymyr "No[o]ne-" Minenko - is currently unclear, despite rumors about their new teams.

It will be intriguing to see if Ceb's comeback and ability in flourishing under stress will help lift the side out of its recent slump. Two slots are available in the WEU (Western Europe) qualifiers, and teams like Quest Esports, Nigma Galaxy, and Team Secret are expected to present formidable competition.

Meanwhile, Taiga heads to a new North American (NA) region to play for Wildcard Gaming, where it is unclear who he will replace. The path to TI12 is comparatively easier there, with just nouns as a key challenger. Only one slot will be up for grabs in TI12’s NA qualifier.