Jerax and n0tail talk about why OG didn’t attend the first Major

When the invites to the first Major DPC qualifiers went out last week, one big name didn’t show up. While Liquid, Secret, and Alliance were all invited, OG was not.

PGL has confirmed they have contacted the new king of TI8, but the team has refused to attend.

Regarding @OGesports we reached out to #ogdota2 to invite them for the Closed Qualifier. They declined the invitation and will not be participating at the Kuala Lumpur Major

— PGL (@pglesports) September 9, 2018

Not much was known about OG’s reason for not attending the Major, until last week, when both n0tail and JerAx officially shared the reasons. First, n0tail in the stream said that traveling too much was the first reason the team decided not to attend the Kuala Lumpur major:

Not long after, Jerax also confirmed in a tweet that the team was taking a break for a while but would soon be back in action:

Hey! Wanted to quickly comment about not playing in the first major. Most of us had the feeling, that we needed to take our time off from dota/traveling, and spend time for the other things we love. It’s been an insane road and now it’s time for a pit stop. See you soon again! ?

— Jesse Vainikka (@iamJERAX) September 9, 2018

Burnout was a big problem during last year’s DPC season, when most of the top teams took a tournament or two off due to fatigue. With fewer Majors this year, hopefully teams will feel more comfortable attending all of them. However, the break between The International and the first Major was shorter than before.

The break may have been too short, confirmed by Team Secret’s CEO and Dota 2 manager, Matthew “Cyborgmatt” Bailey. The tweet states that OG is not the only party considering skipping the first Major, due to the short break.

I don’t blame you guys, lots of teams were in a similar position debating whether or not to play in this first Major. Season 2 is starting way too soon!

Winner of TI should have been directly invited to the first Major. Playing qualifiers weeks after winning TI just seems wrong.

— Matthew Bailey (@Cyborgmatt) September 9, 2018

While the TI champions that will not be attending the event will make the tournament somewhat lose its charm, the Kuala Lumpur event is still a Major and there are plenty of DPC points to look forward to. Apart from OG, no other top team has decided to retire from the tournament, as this decision is quite risky.

The closed qualifiers for the Kuala Lumpur Major will begin September 16 and run for four days, with 17 teams qualifying for the next round. Two teams are from each of South America, CIS, and Southeast Asia, while three are from each of North America, Europe, and China. Last place for the previous Minor champion.

According to VPesport