valde: "We've shown on numerous occasions that we can go up against the best and beat them"

OG will have a chance to continue their undefeated run at ESL Pro League Season 14 against Ninjas in Pyjamas in the quarter-finals.

OG are one of only two teams in ESL Pro League Season 14 that managed to clear the group stage with a clean 5-0 record. Going into the tournament, the international squad seemed as they would have to navigate a tough group with two top 5 teams in Virtus.pro and G2, as well as Complexity, but OG’s two main competitors didn’t show up and Complexity had to field a substitute, which ended up with Casper "⁠ruggah⁠" Due’s men only dropping two maps, one each against FORZE and SINNERS.

"I feel like the part about our group maybe being a bit easy, there are two sides to it," Valdemar "⁠valde⁠" Bjørn Vangså said in a press conference before the playoffs when asked about the other favorites in Group B not showing up as expected. "Both VP and G2 were top 5 teams when we started the group and obviously you can only beat who's in front of you, so I think that even though the group may have been a bit easier, it's only in hindsight.

"Going into the playoffs, a win is a win and we take all of these matches as really good confidence. We showed we have the potential to go up against the world's best. The playoffs are just going to be about taking one game at a time and in my opinion we can beat anyone on any given day if we play our A game."

valde is cautious but confident in OG’s abilities to go deep in the playoffs

The Dane does show some caution alongside his optimism, however, and despite OG's perfect group stage showing and the confidence it gave the team, he’s still weary of some of the big names out there that also put on big performances in the group stage. "I wouldn't necessarily say we're one of the strongest," valde says. "We still have teams like Heroic, NAVI or Gambit who are all on paper probably stronger than us, looking at the rankings at least, but that is not really a concern to us.

"We've shown on numerous occasions that we can go up against the best and beat them. For us it's primarily about focusing on our own game and taking it one game at a time, making sure we have really good preparation and that everyone is on point individually. I think we'll slowly work our way into the playoffs as we go."

But time is working against OG as they come from such a hot streak in the group stage and the team’s momentum could be running cold with each passing day since they last played on August 26. "To be fair, I think it is a hindrance to have to wait several days to play considering that we went 5-0, winning our map pick every time and that sort of thing," in-game leader Aleksi "⁠Aleksib⁠" Virolainen said. "But at the same time you never know if we can keep it up and we'll keep mowing people down in the playoffs — but if you ask me I would have much preferred to just keep going because we played so well in the group stage."

"Momentum is really important, I think it is for a lot of teams, but for us especially. It always helps if we're having fun or we have a positive attitude before, during and after the game. This time we won every single game, so we didn't really get the big setbacks of losing a frustrating best-of-three or something like that. The playoffs are single-elimination so you either go through or you don't. This time we have to focus only on winning since every match is important as you don't have any second chances."

mantuu’s AWPing has been a big part of OG’s success

One of the key references to see if the team is still running hot as they take on Ninjas in Pyjamas and their star AWPer Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz at 16:00 will be how Mateusz "⁠mantuu⁠" Wilczewski is doing behind the scope of his sniper rifle. The Pole currently sits among the elite group of players at the top of the stats ranking in the tournament with a 1.28 rating so far, trailing only Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev, Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut and Kaike "⁠KSCERATO⁠" Cerato.

Such a high individual rating speaks of mantuu's current great run of form, but his personal statistics also show a glimpse of the team’s general health. "If an AWPer is playing well, usually it means the whole team is playing well because if the AWPer has the AWP it means you have a good overall economy on a lot of rounds," Aleksib said, "It's always a really big fear factor if the AWPer is playing well because there's only so much you can do with the rifles and you have to be scared about where the AWPer may be.

"mantuu has had a lot of time to figure out how he wants to play the AWP and get comfortable with every setup and every peek, which is starting to show even more now. As a team we go through a lot of stuff about individuals doing tricks with the rifles or mantuu doing a certain peek with the AWP and I think it's just about the whole team being comfortable. A lot of players are hitting their shots when the time is right and that's just a fact of why a lot of things are going so well at the moment."