After struggling for years in Western Europe, OG are looking for a new avenue towards success through a South American squad.
Renown Western European Dota 2 organisation OG announced their expansion into South America on Saturday (26 April) with the g of OG.LATAM. This new team features some of the most experienced and decorated players from Peru, including carry player Hector Antonio “K1” Rodriguez, mid laner Gonzalo “DarkMago” Herrera, and position 5 player Joel “MoOz” Mori.
Rounding out the roster are offlaner Mario “ILICH-” Romero, position 4 player Yelstin “elmisho” Verde, and coach Juan David “Vintage” Angulo Nicho. Prior to g with OG.LATAM, DarkMago, ILICH-, elmisho, MoOz, and Vintage last competed with M80 while K1 last played for HEROIC in September 2024 before taking a brief hiatus.
OG.LATAM will be competing in South America, and are set to make their tournament debut in DreamLeague Season 26 on 19 May, having qualified for the tournament by winning the South American qualifier as the ‘Perrito Panzon’ stack. OG also said that the new team will be flying to the organisation’s headquarters in Lisbon, Portugal to bootcamp for DreamLeague Season 26.
OG.LATAM Dota 2 roster:
Hector Antonio “K1” Rodriguez
Gonzalo “DarkMago” Herrera
Mario “ILICH-” Romero
Yelstin “elmisho” Verde
Joel “MoOz” Mori
Juan David “Vintage” Angulo Nicho (coach)
OG sign second team in South America after struggling in Western Europe
OG said that OG.LATAM will be their second Dota 2 roster, implying that the organisation is still set on maintaining a primary squad in its home region of Western Europe. But given the organisation’s continued struggle in the bloodbath that is the Western European Dota 2 scene, the g of OG.LATAM could very well be OG’s attempt at finding a new avenue towards success.
Despite being one of the most popular and iconic organisations in Dota 2, OG have not lived up to the prestige of a two-time The International (TI) champion organisation since 2022, when it won the ESL One Stockholm Major 2022 and placed in the Top 8 of TI 2022 with a squad headlined by the likes of Bozhidar “bzm” Bogdanov and Ammar “ATF” Assaf.
From 2023 onwards, OG failed to win a single tournament and underwent multiple roster shuffles in an attempt to return to relevance.
In 2025, OG failed to qualify for seven out of eight Tier 1 tournaments, with their only Tier 1 appearance in PGL Wallachia Season 3 seeing them bomb out in 15th-16th place. At the same time, the team also saw a succession of players come and go.
OG started the year with a roster consisting of Nuengnara “23savage” Teeramahanon, Leon “Nine” Kirilin, Sébastien “Ceb” Debs, Matthew “Ari” Walker, and Jian Wei “xNova-” Yap following the departures of bzm and Adrian “Wisper” Cespedes Dobles during the offseason.
But after failing to qualify for DreamLeague Season 25 and ESL One Raleigh 2025 in January, OG benched Ari and signed little-known Kazakhstani player Tamir “daze” Tokpanov to be their position 4 . Ceb would also reprise his role as the team’s offlaner and captain in early February following a brief departure from the active squad to lead the team through another gauntlet of qualifiers.
