OG definitely had something incredible for their breakfast because they annihilated everyone during the last day of ESL One Malaysia 2022. After beating Team Secret 2-0 at the lower bracket finals, they obliterated Team Aster 3-0 not long after at the grand finals.
In a convincingly dominating fashion, OG were crowned as champions of ESL One Malaysia. They brought home a hefty $175,000 prize along with the hearts of many SEA fans. This is the second time OG won a tournament this year. They previously won Stockholm Major, both times with stand-ins. The following is the winning line-up:
The 7.32 patch highlighted a change in how offlaners should play. They are now, more than ever, crucial to securing victories in team fights. Game one started excruciatingly slow–possibly the slowest game throughout the whole tournament–netting only 10 kills within 25 minutes into the game and OG taking a huge lead over Aster. However, that all changed after the Lin “Xxs” Jing Enigma picked up a Refresher Orb. With strategic double Black Holes, Xxs almost turned OG upside down and even forced them to riskily buyback four heroes.
The Ammar Mars then began to laser focus on the Enigma, committing his arena to prevent any of the dreaded double Black Holes. After claiming Roshan, OG took another gamble by going straight for the throne. Yet Ammar’s successful control on the Enigma paid off massive dividends, allowing OG to finish the game before Aster could react.
The second game was what grand finals are all about. Tight skirmishes popped up here and there while advantage swung left and right. Even though OG maintained net worth lead all game, Aster were able to keep the momentum at an equilibrium. There were some whiffs coming out of both teams such as an untimely bash by Roshan that costed the Zeng “Ori” Jiaoyang Puck’s life or OG having their Aegis unexpectedly stolen.
However, both Aster and OG brought game two to a maddening intensity. And as OG was about to end the game, the Du “Monet” Peng Phantom Assassin left a parting shot before he went down by scoring a rampage that shook everyone to the core even though it was in vain.
OG dealt a literal coup de grace with a lineup headlining a Yuragi’s Phantom Assassin in the third game that was not even close. However, the main star was the Chu Shadow Demon with his optical disruption saves. There were many times Aster caught OG cores in bad positions which they failed to capitalize because of Chu. He even eluded death until 25 minutes, going 1-0-11.
As Misha’s stand-in, Chu had performed far beyond expectation in this tournament. In addition, the Ammar Underlord and Taiga Dark Willow had their own moments of brilliance, executing great escapes using Fiend’s Gate and Terrorize. OG’s elusiveness in the third game was what brought them to a landslide of a victory.
In a short post-match round-robin interview, Jake “SirActionSlacks” Kanner asked all the winners a question. While the crowd loved everyone’s answers, they could not get any louder after what Taiga said about loving Malaysia and getting buffed by the SEA fans.
Aster performed admirably throughout the whole tournament. They achieved top seed during the group stage and breezed through the upper bracket toward grand finals. Unfortunately, just like PSG LGD who lost 1-3 to Team Spirit at the Arlington Major grand finals, Aster lost their footing toward the end.
This is definitely not the first time Chinese teams flop an important grand finals series even after a strong performance during the early stages of a tournament. They could only hope to come back stronger at their most important tournament of all – TI11.
