It was perhaps the worst-kept secret of the CS:GO world, and now it's official: OG's joining the scene with a team headed by Aleksib and NBK-, players who were unexpectedly removed from ENCE and Vitality, respectively. They found their fifth in mantuu alongside valde and ISSAA after they apparently opted against Jamppi due to his alleged ties to a VAC-banned Steam account.

It's been rumored since the end of the Berlin Major that OG would enter the Counter-Strike space with a team spearheaded by two players who were unexpectedly removed from their respective top-tier sides: Aleksib from ENCE and NBK- from Vitality were treated as lock-ins from the start, but various contractual disputes and other complications meant that this project has not yet come to light.

Yesterday, valde's sale by North to a then-undisclosed party indicated that the announcement is getting closer. The Danish player has been on HLTV's top 20 list last year and was widely expected to be a part of the org's resurgence. However, results and performances remained mediocre, which means he departs the side with four tournament wins, all in the DreamHack circuit: Montreal, Tours and Valencia from the Open events and a shock win in Stockholm's Masters outing where they beat out Astralis in two separate best-of-three matches and completed a comeback against mousesports after losing a map 0-16.

OG's recently made Dota history by winning back-to-back TI events, and they've also recently launched a secondary Dota 2 roster under the name OG Seed. With neither ENCE nor Vitality showing the uptick in performances and results they expected from the roster moves (and neither team present at the ongoing Pro League Season 10 finals), it will be interesting to see how the exiled players will perform as part of this brand new project.

(By Luci Kelemen)