valde on leaving OG: \u201cOur ambitions did not line up\u201d Jo\u00e3o Ferreira for PGLIn an exclusive interview with Dexerto, Valdemar \u2018valde\u2019 Bj\u00f8rn Vangs\u00e5 talks about the decision to explore his options away from OG and what he seeks in his next team. For valde, his next career move could define his legacy. He is carefully weighing up his options after a disappointing 30-month tenure with OG, another chapter of a career that has been marked by unfulfilled promise. After a rocky tenure with North, in which at one point he even took it upon himself to lead the team, valde tried to turn a page when he joined OG right as the famed Dota 2 organization was entering the game, but it ended up being more of the same. His time with the international squad came to an end on May 11, when he was moved to the bench. The announcement came as OG are turning their focus to developing talent, which in esports is almost always used as a euphemism for making cutbacks. \u201cThey want to focus on younger players and develop a team from scratch, only keeping a few pieces from the old team,\u201d valde tells Dexerto. \u201cAnd that\u2019s not a direction in which I see myself going. \u201cI was a part of building the original OG roster from scratch. I also tried a little bit of the same with North towards the end. So I feel that I am ready for a different team, one that is able to contend for trophies now and play in all the big tournaments. \u201cOur future ambitions did not line up, so I think it was pretty natural that we go our separate ways.\u201d Less than just two months ago, valde had spoken of how \u201chappy\u201d he was in OG and highlighted the progress the team had made since signing Nemanja \u2018nexa\u2019 Isakovi\u0107 to replace Aleksi \u2018Aleksib’\u201d Virolainen. But their season was derailed when they failed to qualify for PGL Major Antwerp \u2014 the second Major in a row that they missed. 889 days together. Boy, it’s been quite a ride. But like any epic journey, it must come to an end. Thank you, @Officialvalde. We were honored to have such a great professional on board. We wish you the best of luck in the future. Read more: https:\/\/t.co\/qVQAotPlYv#DreamOG pic.twitter.com\/PjVzsp1gRF \u2014 OG Counter-Strike (@OGcsgo) May 11, 2022 valde was still willing to commit to OG, provided that \u201csome significant roster moves\u201d were made to upgrade the team\u2019s firepower. But when it became clear that the organization wanted to move in a different direction, he had no choice but to seek a future elsewhere. It took a team like ENCE more than a year to get to where they are now after going down that same route. valde, who turns 27 next month, cannot afford to wait that long. \u201cEveryone knows that your career does not last forever,\u201d he says. \u201cYou have to make the most of it while you can. At the end of the day, nobody remembers who came in second place. For me, it\u2019s about trying to win titles and being part of a team that has the same ambitions as me. \u201cI don\u2019t want to be part of a project that is being started from scratch, but of a team that is already established and where I can be like the last piece of the puzzle.\u201d Missing another Major After two years of Aleksib leadership, playing in a new system felt like a breath of fresh air for the team \u2014 and the players made sure to point that out publicly. For nexa, too, the change of scenery was needed, although there were concerns about how committed to the role he was after expressing his wish to stop calling in G2. It seemed like a win-win scenario for all parties involved, and the early signs were encouraging. OG secured a spot in the BLAST Premier Spring Finals after coming through a tough group that also included NAVI, Astralis, and MIBR before beating NIP in the playoffs. The first cracks appeared when the team went out of IEM Katowice in last place after losing to Heroic and MOUZ (who at the time were ranked 33rd in the world and had Jon \u2018JDC\u2019 de Castro as a stand-in). Everyone felt the weight of expectation building up ahead of the RMR, a defining moment for a team that had stumbled at the final hurdle in the qualifiers for the Stockholm Major. Defeats to NAVI and forZe after a win against MOUZ put OG against the ropes in the RMR tournament. They survived their first elimination series against Unique but then fell short against Eternal Fire, leaving the players gutted and in disbelief. \u201cIt felt terrible,\u201d he says. \u201cI think we had no excuse, to be honest. We can only blame ourselves at the end of the day. We didn\u2019t play well enough, we didn\u2019t want it badly enough. \u201cWe had good match-ups but the results weren\u2019t there.\u201d valde agrees with the assessment that the community put too much stock in the team\u2019s early results. \u201cIn hindsight, I would say yes,\u201d he says, calling the BLAST Premier Spring Groups run \u201ca little bit overrated.\u201d According to him, the team merely took advantage of their honeymoon period and the fact that opponents didn\u2019t know at first how to prepare for this new version of OG. But once they were figured out, OG fell short in terms of consistency and were incapable of finding a way out of a slump. Initially praised for the team\u2019s improvements upon his arrival, nexa has suddenly seen community opinion turn against him. However, valde says that everyone is to blame for the team\u2019s collapse. \u201cAt the beginning, it really helped those players [flameZ and niko] that we got nexa,\u201d he says. \u201cBut I think that towards the end it didn\u2019t work. \u201cI cannot put all the blame on nexa, I think we all had our fair share of the blame. Individually, we didn\u2019t perform well enough and we were not coherent as a team. We wanted to move in different directions and had different outlooks on the game.\u201d As valde closes this chapter of his career, he looks back at this time with OG with mixed feelings. \u201cIt was a huge learning experience but it was also filled with a little bit of disappointment,\u201d he says. Despite the lack of titles or Major appearances, OG came close to breaking into the top five in the world rankings on multiple occasions and showed glimpses of brilliance here and there. But they were never able to take that extra step, the one that separates contenders from pretenders. In some tournaments, OG looked like an elite side; in others, they were little more than also-rans. \u201cWe came close to winning tournaments and really breaking through,\u201d valde notes. \u201cBut we consistently failed to take the final leap to be a really good team. \u201cI really enjoyed playing with a lot of different players, and I also met a lot of amazing people in the organization. But at the end of the day, results matter a lot. That\u2019s what you can look back on when you\u2019re not playing anymore.\u201d Career goals With only seven months left on the contract that he signed in April 2021, valde should be courted by plenty of teams as the end of a Major cycle always brings a flurry of roster activity. valde says there is no preference for his next team to be Danish or international as he sees pros and cons to both options. \u201cIt would be easier to play with a Danish team in terms of the language and the culture,\u201d he explains. \u201cWith an international team, there are more options available but it might be harder to get really good teamplay going and stuff like that.\u201d Read more: Behind gob b\u2019s CSGO return to coach BIG – A new challenge could give valde the chance to flourish again in a central role after he took a back seat for most of his OG spell for the team\u2019s sake. However, he says that he can just as well continue to play \u201ca more supportive\/anchor role\u201d as long as his teammates \u201care good enough to fill the other roles\u201d. It all depends on the team. But he wants to make one thing clear: He has no interest \u201cwhatsoever\u201d in being an in-game leader again. For all of his teams\u2019 shortcomings, valde has remained a consistent performer, both on LAN and online. But with a solitary appearance on HLTV\u2019s Top 20 player ranking, in 2018, and only one Big Event title to his name, from DreamHack Masters Stockholm, his place in the pantheon of Danish Counter-Strike isn\u2019t even assured \u2014 something that was almost unthinkable when he rocketed to the top of the game with Heroic in 2016 and 2017. This is why it\u2019s so important for valde to make up for lost time. After years of heartbreaks, near-misses and underperforming rosters, he wants to be more than a good player on a decent team. He is craving what he feels is rightfully his: a spot on a top team that can challenge for the biggest titles. \u201cI\u2019m at a stage where I need to make the right decisions,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s also why I decided that I don\u2019t want to join another mediocre team where things are not going right and where I am not happy. \u201cI\u2019m still super motivated. I love competing and I love playing the big tournaments, so I want to find a team that can help me reach my goals and that I can help reach theirs. I feel like I have been a really consistent player, taking into account the roles I have had. \u201cI still believe I can play at the top level. So it\u2019s about finding the right team to show it. Hopefully, the right offer will come my way.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
valde on leaving OG: \u201cOur ambitions did not line up\u201d Jo\u00e3o Ferreira for PGLIn an exclusive interview with Dexerto, Valdemar \u2018valde\u2019 Bj\u00f8rn Vangs\u00e5 talks about the decision to explore his options away from OG and what he seeks in his next team. For valde, his next career move could define his legacy. He is carefully […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39273\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}