OG Dota 2 Roster 2026: Topson Rumored Back After TI Rebuild

What Happened to OG at TI 2026

Let’s be blunt: TI 2026 was a disaster for OG. The organization that won TI 2018 and TI 2019 — back-to-back, something nobody had ever done — walked into The International 2026 with a roster that had shown flashes of potential but never truly consistent results on the Tier 1 circuit.

OG were eliminated in the group stage, finishing 14th-15th after losing to GamerLegion in Round 5. GamerLegion. Not Team Spirit, not Team Vision, not any of the tournament favorites. They got knocked out before the main event even started. For a team carrying the OG name, that result is catastrophic.

For context, Team Spirit won TI 2026 with a 3-2 victory over TEAM VISION in a pulsating five-game grand final — making Yatoro and Collapse the first-ever three-time TI champions. More than 500,000 viewers watched live. OG, meanwhile, were watching from home.

The roster heading into TI 2026 — Natsumi-, Yopaj, SSK or similar configurations, Raven, and TIMS — was a blend of Filipino talent and international players. On paper it was competitive. In practice, TI exposed serious cracks: drafting issues, coordination gaps, and an inability to close games against teams operating at peak international level.

Post-TI exits at 14th-15th are not automatically a reason to blow up a roster. But for OG — an org that has made results-first decisions throughout its history — finishing that low was simply unacceptable. The rebuild was inevitable.

The Departures: Raven, Yopaj, TIMS

On September 9, OG officially confirmed the departure of three players: Marc Polo Luis “Raven” Fausto (offlaner), Erin Jasper “Yopaj” Ferrer (midlaner), and Timothy “TIMS” Randrup (support). The announcement came as OG positioned the roster changes as preparation for the 2026-27 competitive season.

Marc Polo Luis “Raven” Fausto — Offlaner (pos 3)

Raven is a veteran Filipino offlaner with years of experience at the Tier 1 level. He has a reputation as a reliable, patient player who excels on tanky initiation heroes — Axe, Centaur, Mars — but has sometimes struggled to deliver in the flashier, high-impact moments that TI demands. His departure from OG marks the second time the Filipino duo connection at the org breaks down under competitive pressure.

Raven’s stint at OG saw the team rebuild around a Filipino core, which brought cohesion in communication and synergy in the local circuit. But the results at the international level never matched the potential. At TI 2026, Raven’s positional play was exposed on multiple occasions by more proactive offlaners from CIS and Chinese squads.

Erin Jasper “Yopaj” Ferrer — Midlaner (pos 2)

Yopaj is widely regarded as one of the most mechanically gifted players Southeast Asia has ever produced. His Mirana and Tinker plays have been featured in community highlight reels for years. The problem has always been consistency — the gap between Yopaj’s peak performance and his worst performance in a single tournament is larger than most top-tier mid laners.

At TI 2026, that inconsistency hurt OG badly. When Yopaj was on, OG could trade blows with elite opponents. When he was off — which happened at least twice in the group stage — OG were exposed and unable to generate the mid-game tempo their draft required. For a tournament where every game counts, that ceiling-variance problem proved too costly.

Timothy “TIMS” Randrup — Support (pos 4 or 5)

TIMS brings an interesting profile: a Danish player in a predominantly Filipino lineup. His role was largely as the team’s communicator and playmaker from the support role. Support play at Tier 1 is less about flashy stats and more about information control, ward contesting, and enabling your cores. TIMS was serviceable but rarely the catalyst that lifted OG above their ceiling.

His departure alongside Raven and Yopaj effectively dismantles the Filipino-international hybrid experiment OG ran for the past year.

Who Stays: Natsumi- and Skem

Two players survive the roster purge: John Anthony “Natsumi-” Vargas and Rolen Andre Gabriel “Skem” Ong. Both are Filipino, and both represent what OG management clearly sees as the foundation worth building around.

John Anthony “Natsumi-” Vargas — Carry (pos 1)

Natsumi- is a carry player who has shown real promise at the Tier 1 level. He is an aggressive, farm-efficient laner who excels on high-tempo carries like Spectre, Anti-Mage, and Phantom Lancer — heroes that reward last-hitting discipline and resource allocation. His GPM numbers at TI 2026 were among the better stats OG could point to in an otherwise grim showing.

The retention of Natsumi- signals that OG sees him as a core piece of the franchise’s future. Given his age and trajectory, that is a reasonable bet. He is the kind of player who, with the right support structure and mid-game enablers, can hit genuine Tier 1 carry status.

Rolen Andre Gabriel “Skem” Ong

Skem is the second Filipino player being retained. His specific role within the rumored new lineup is still being clarified as negotiations continue, but his retention alongside Natsumi- confirms OG’s commitment to keeping a Southeast Asian core within the new international lineup.

The Rumored New Roster

Here is where it gets genuinely exciting. Multiple insider sources — including streamer Alexei “Storm” Tumanov and noted CIS insider Bauyrzhan “lilskrip” Bisembaev — have reported the following incoming players for OG’s 2026-27 squad:

• Topias “Topson” Taavitsainen — mid (pos 2) — two-time TI champion, returning to OG
• Valery “SSS” Lazarev — support or core (pos 3/4)
• Ivan “OneJey” Zhivitsky — support (pos 4/5) — previously VP.CIS, free agent since Sep 2025

The pos 3 slot is reportedly still in active negotiations with an Eastern European player. As of September 18, 2026, this has not been officially confirmed by OG. Treat the entire incoming roster as reported/rumored until OG makes a formal announcement.

Why Topson’s Return Is a Big Deal

If you were not watching Dota 2 in 2018 and 2019, let me fill you in on what Topson meant to this game.

Topson joined OG in 2018 as a complete unknown — no notable LAN experience, no big org history, just raw mid-lane talent that OG scouted from the open qualifiers. He went on to win TI 2018 with OG, then win TI 2019. Back-to-back TI championships as a midlaner. He played heroes other mids had written off — Invoker, Morphling, Storm Spirit — and did things with them that looked like bugs rather than features.

What made Topson special was not raw mechanics (though those are exceptional). It was his ability to read a game mid-fight and improvise. He is the kind of mid that turns a losing game into a winning one with one well-timed play, not a series of methodical advantages. In a meta that increasingly rewards proactive, aggressive mid gameplay — exactly the style in Dota 2 patch 7.41f — Topson’s return to competitive would be significant.

Since stepping away from competitive play, Topson has remained active in the community through streaming and high-MMR pub games. He never fully left the scene — he just stepped away from the international tournament grind. Reports of his return to OG suggest he is ready to compete at the top level again, and that OG’s management made a compelling offer to bring him back to the org he helped build into a legend.

Full Roster Comparison: TI 2026 vs Rumored 2026-27

Three confirmed exits. Two confirmed retentions. Three rumored incoming players. One spot still in negotiation. The rebuild is in full swing.

What This Means for the 2026-27 Season

The 2026-27 Dota 2 competitive season is just beginning its formation phase. The post-TI 2026 reshuffle is reshaping every major region, and OG are one of the most watched organizations in that chaos. Here is what the new OG roster structure means in practice:

Communication Will Be the Key Challenge

The previous all-Filipino core (Natsumi-, Yopaj, Raven, plus Skem) had a built-in communication advantage in-game. Filipino Dota 2 players are known for their synergy and the speed of their in-game callouts. Introducing Topson (Finnish), SSS (Russian/CIS), and OneJey (Russian/CIS) fundamentally changes the communication language of the team.

This is a real challenge. OG has navigated multilingual lineups before — their 2018-2019 roster was a mix of Finnish, French, Swedish, and German players — so the org has the infrastructure and culture to manage it. But it requires deliberate team building and a strong captain figure. Whether Topson steps into that leadership role again remains to be seen.

The Topson-Natsumi- Core Has Real Synergy Potential

At the hero level, Topson’s style of mid play — aggressive, roam-heavy, unconventional pick choices — creates natural advantages for a tempo carry like Natsumi-. If Topson plays heroes like Magnus, Storm Spirit, or Invoker (his signature from TI 2018-19) and creates early kills across the map, Natsumi- gets space and gold to reach his power items faster. That is a clean safelane + mid synergy formula.

The question mark is the offlane. The right pos 3 can either make this look like a top-6 team or expose its weaknesses. Raven’s departure leaves a gap in the team’s frontline and initiation capacity. Whoever OG brings in at offlane will define how well Topson and Natsumi- can actually express their potential.

Tournaments on the Horizon

The next major Tier 1 tournament after TI 2026 is BLAST Slam VIII, with details emerging for the fall 2026 circuit. OG will need their roster confirmed and practiced before the qualifiers open. The window between now and the first Tier 1 LAN of the season is shorter than it looks — OG cannot afford a slow start to their rebuild.

OG’s Legacy and the Weight They Carry

OG is not just another Dota 2 team. They are the only organization in TI history to win back-to-back Aegis titles (2018, 2019). Their 2019 run — coming through the lower bracket to eliminate PSG.LGD, Secret, and Liquid in succession — is widely considered the greatest run in competitive Dota 2 history.

That legacy is both a gift and a burden. Every OG roster that steps onto a LAN stage carries the weight of those two trophies. Finishing 14th-15th at TI 2026 hits harder because of what the org has achieved. And every time there is a roster change, the question is the same: is this the team that gets OG back to that level?

Bringing Topson back does not recreate the 2018-19 magic. N0tail is long retired. JerAx is gone. Ceb is gone. Ana is gone. But it does bring one of the most talented mid laners this game has ever seen back to the organization where he won the biggest prizes in esports. That counts for something.

For pub players, watching OG rebuild is also a reminder of how quickly the top of the bracket can shift. Teams that were dominant for years get dismantled and re-formed. The meta changes. Players adapt or get replaced. If you want to track how the best players in the world approach the game at any given moment — their hero pools, their item builds, their lane priorities — following the Tier 1 reshuffle is the best free education available.

How Roster Shuffles Affect the Pub Meta

This sounds like a macro esports topic, but it has direct implications for your ranked games. Here is why:

When players like Topson re-enter the competitive scene after time away, they bring updated pub perspectives. Topson has been playing high-MMR pubs throughout his semi-retirement. His hero pool and item choices right now are not shaped by a coach’s draft board — they reflect what actually works in the current 7.41f meta at 10,000+ MMR.

When he joins OG and the team starts scrimmaging, those pub-tested ideas get refined into competitive-grade strategies. Watching what an incoming high-profile player like Topson prioritizes in his first official scrims — which heroes he locks in, which offlane combos the team tests — tells you more about the evolving meta than any tier list article.

If you are currently grinding ranked and want to understand which heroes are being quietly developed at the top level right now, watching streamers like Topson during this pre-season window is one of the highest-value things you can do for your MMR. Alternatively, working with a high-MMR Dota 2 coach who follows the pro scene closely can compress that learning curve significantly.

At TeamSmurf, our coaching pool includes Immortal-rank players who track these exact roster changes and their meta implications. If you want to convert your understanding of pro-level strategy into actual ranked wins, our Dota 2 coaching service is the fastest path from “I watch pro games” to “I apply pro-level patterns in my own games.”

What to Watch For in the Coming Weeks

Before we get to the FAQ, here are the specific developments to track as OG’s rebuild continues:

• Official Topson announcement: Insider reports have him in talks, but OG has not officially confirmed. Watch OG’s social channels and Liquipedia for the official signing.
• Pos 3 signing: This is the missing piece. An EEU offlaner is reportedly in negotiation. The name here will tell you a lot about whether OG is going for proven Tier 1 experience or a younger high-ceiling player.
• 343 coaching situation: Adam “343” Shah’s status as coach was reported as uncertain post-TI. Whether OG retains or replaces their coaching staff is as important as the player signings.
• First qualifier appearances: Once the 2026-27 DPC (or equivalent circuit) qualifiers open, OG’s new roster will be stress-tested against regional competition before any international LAN.
• Topson pub games: If the signing happens, watch Topson’s Dotabuff for hero pool signals. He tends to telegraph his competitive approach through his pub picks.

This is also a good time to remind yourself why investing in your own MMR progression matters — the closer you are to high MMR, the more often you see the emerging meta in action before it hits the pub tier lists. Post-TI pub games are genuinely valuable signal.