OG vs Fnatic Prediction: the European Team's Substitution Isn't Critical

ESL One Malaysia 2022 will be held August 23-28 in Genting Highlands, Malaysia. Twelve teams worldwide will compete for the championship title and a $400,000 prize pool. All group stage matches will be played in a bo2 format. Beginning with the playoffs, teams will fight in games to two victories. This is the last major tournament before the qualifiers for The International 11. Dota 2 fans have only to enjoy the great fun and the variety of teams.

On August 23, OG and Fnatic will play their opening match in the group stage of ESL One Malaysia 2022. Which of the teams will be stronger? We will find out very soon. The meeting is scheduled to start at 14:40.

Team OG has historically been successful at LAN tournaments, with wins at TI in 2018 and 2019 alone. But since then, the roster has changed completely, and the newcomers on this team do not have such experience. However, in two majors this year, the Europeans took the championship in Sweden and the top 4 in the United States. The only thing that seriously strains is the permanent absence of OG captain Misha at international tournaments. He was replaced by the legendary Ceb (although in his prime years, he was definitely not a five) in majors, and in Malaysia, the captain will be replaced by Chuvash, an OG trainer.

It was obviously hard for OG to get through the last American major group stage. The European team finished it with two wins over RNG (2-0) and Thunder Awaken (2-0), losing to PSG.LGD (0-2) and Outsiders (0-2) and with three draws: against Team Liquid (1-1), Fnatic (1-1), and Soniqs (1-1). But in the playoffs, OG showed themselves well, reaching the top-four and becoming the best European team in another international start.

The current OG team keeps the reputation of an aggressive squad, and that style of play helped them win the first major in 2022 and perform well in all the regional leagues, leading to a guaranteed trip to TI11.

In late July, OG held the first complete line-up tournament at the Riyadh Masters 2022. Misha, who wasn't present at the victorious major, was finally able to solve all the problems, but the OG support was not allowed to the second major again due to visa problems. In Malaysia, the Russian player has issues that are important to solve before TI11.

Team Fnatic was very lucky to get the last direct ticket to TI11. Valve recalculated the DPC points after the Majors and left the Outsiders out of the tournament, which was an excellent gift for the Asian team. But to be honest, Fnatic shouldn't have gotten the slot because they played with three (!) substitutions in the Majors and TSM players dragged them to the main tournament of the year. But Outsiders are to blame, so let's not pay much attention to that.

After the Majors, Team Fnatic participated in the Gamer Galaxy. Invitational Series Thailand 2022, where they also had to play with a substitute. The Fnatic players failed at the tournament, losing all three group stage games. The team has another replacement for ESL One Malaysia 2022: Fnatic's carry Marc Raven Fausto will miss ESL One Malaysia 2022. Execration player Marry Palos Lamatao will play in his place.

After TI10, Fnatic changed their roster: Armel, an experienced player who played for TNC Predator for over three years, assumed the middling position, while Jaunuel, a star at OB Esports x Neon, took the top five place. In January, the team was utterly re-synchronized, and Fnatic became an Asian power once again.

At the end of the first DPC, they managed to make a comeback and reach the Majors, which was canceled at the last minute. In the second DPC league, there were no such problems. The Asian powerhouse quietly occupied the TOP-3 in its region and was preparing for the majors.

In Sweden, as part of the group stage, the team Fnatic pursued the magic of numbers. In the entire first stage, this team finished with the statistics 2-2-2, which did not allow them to start as the winners. In the first match of the playoffs, the guys received an extremely familiar opponent - T1, which they were able to overcome with a score of 2-1. And then there was the game with OG (1:2), which was also supposed to end with a victory, but on the third map, the Europeans were able to make a huge comeback and after that OG was unstoppable. Fnatic finished the majors in 7th-8th place, which is not bad overall.

For this match, we offer the following betting options: W1, the frags H1 (-13.5), and the frags TO (96.5).