The Journey to Joining OG: Miracle-‘s Path to Success
In 2015, Amer “Miracle-” Al-Barkawi released his latest gameplay montage on YouTube. Fans eagerly awaited his competitive debut, but behind the scenes, three teams were competing to recruit the talented mid-laner.
Miracle- had mainly played ranked games and had little competitive experience at the time. He focused on gaining MMR and becoming Europe’s top-ranked player. Meanwhile, the Dota 2 scene in Europe was going through significant changes, with many high-profile players forming their own organizations.
According to , OG (then named (monkey) Business) was the first team to contact Miracle- after he reached 8,000 MMR. While many believed OG was his only offer due to Miracle-‘s reserved nature, it turns out that several teams approached him.
When asked about how OG discovered Miracle-, N0tail revealed that three or more teams were interested in him. Notably, Kuro “KuroKy” Salehi Takhasomi and Clement “Puppey” Ivanov were among those teams.
After starting its journey with KuroKy and N0tail in its roster in 2014, Team Secret was struggling to find a working formula. N0tail and KuroKy eventually left to form their own rosters. When they made offers to Miracle-, they were unaffiliated stacks without a formal organization, making Team Secret the most solid offer.
However, Miracle- didn’t make the decision alone. N0tail mentioned that Miracle- sought advice from a third party, but couldn’t recall who exactly. This third party urged Miracle- to join the team that eventually became OG.
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During his one year with OG, Miracle- won the Frankfurt and Manila Majors. After disappointing results at The International 2016, he left OG and joined forces with KuroKy in Team Liquid. Miracle- went on to win The International 2017, achieving his dream, while OG became the first team to win Aegis in two consecutive years, in 2018 and 2019.
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