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"The process of making a winning team is like a jigsaw puzzle. I believe Ana is a piece that you can work with. He's not the new Miracle, he's very much his own, unique piece," says Johan 'n0tail' Sundstein .

OG 's move to recruit Anathan 'Ana' Pham didn’t cause as much of a stir as it once would have. After all, OG had been there before. The Green Army plucked Amer 'Miracle-' Al-Barkawi from the top of the public leaderboards, and ensured his transition to the professional side of Dota 2 was as smooth as humanly possible. It came at a time when it was almost unheard of – although now it’s increasingly common to pick up a relative unknown as teams look for the next big talent.

It's much the same story with the new mid-laner, a player who's reached 8,000 MMR , but barely touched the surface of a brutally competitive Dota 2 scene. "Pub games are so different. It's been really difficult transitioning to professional games. When I play pub games, I queue up and just don't care about what I pick or how I play. I can mute everyone, and usually very little teamwork is involved," says Ana when asked about life since joining the pro ranks with OG.

"It's like a playground with no boundaries, and no one really cares. In pro games, your team are the people you work with and every game needs to be taken seriously. You have to synergise with everyone because these are the same five people you play with every day. You have to be able to adapt and play different strategies, assess new patches, and it's a lot more draining."

Joining any professional team brings pressure. Certainly, the more successful the team is the more pressure it brings

Mental fortitude is often as important as mechanical skill when it comes to surviving and making a success of what often can be a gruelling Dota 2 season. The young mid-laner admits that he's felt the pressure since joining the record-breaking team. "Joining any professional team brings pressure. Certainly, the more successful the team is the more pressure it brings."

Meanwhile, the recruitment of Gustav 's4' Magnusson to the roster is an intriguing one. Having a TI-winning mid-laner move to the offlane to accommodate you, an unknown entity in the Dota world, must have been daunting, but the young Australian sees it as a huge positive for his development. Ana calmly comments, "Having Gustav around helps me immensely. Whilst we are in game, s4 often helps me with my decision-making plays, and how to lane with certain heroes against others. He has immense Dota experience and isn't afraid to point out what I'm doing wrong."

Frenchman Seb '7ckngMad' Debs has also been embracing Ana since he joined the OG roster. "7ckngMad is a great help. He watches all of our games, and talks to me after scrims about how I can improve as a player."

Regardless of how long you've been in the game, changing a role that you've been accustomed to for an age is always a challenge. s4 moves from Alliance, where his phenomenal Dream Coil on Puck in the Grand Final at The International 3 is still heralded as one of the greatest plays in Dota history. It effectively secured the then seemingly invincible Alliance roster $1,400,000 and a place in Dota 2 history. We asked him how life has been since transitioning into the offlane, and how he's been settling in at his new home.

"It's really fun and challenging to play in the offlane. I really like the fact that your starting item builds change from game-to-game, and you need to assess what's best for each match-up rather than just going for a standard one like you do every game in the mid-lane," remarks Gustav.

When we quizzed Tal 'Fly' Aizik about how he chose the new roster, he placed heavy emphasis on ensuring the chemistry is spot-on. Team manager Evany Chang tells us that it's all been a smooth transition from her perspective. "The change has been great; not many hiccups and everyone is comfortable speaking their mind. There wasn't a prolonged ice-breaking period," she reveals.

Shortfalls in communication have seen some of the most talented Dota 2 rosters fall at the first hurdle. It doesn't matter just how much talent a roster can have, impeccable communication is paramount. Gustav echoes Chang's sentiment. "The chemistry's already good, because we're trying to improve it every day. We're playing a fast play-style at the moment so it's vital that everyone is on the same page, understands each other and knows what the next move is going to be."

One of the biggest contributing factors to the great success of the previous incarnation of the OG roster was the phenomenal support duo of Fly and Andreas Franck 'Cr1t-' Nielsen . The dual-defensive support combination was impenetrable in Frankfurt, before Cr1t's dynamic roaming style on heroes such as Earth Spirit and Elder Titan combined with Fly's Phoenix to shred teams in Manila. When he learned of Cr1t's impending departure, the Israeli captain moved swiftly. "I knew exactly who I wanted to play with, and managed to get that person," he says. "As I said, you always have to think ahead, and I had to ask myself who I really wanted to play with. JerAx was top of my list and, luckily, we got him."

The Finn's playstyle is far from identical to that of his Danish counterpart, and the synergy between the two support players often dictates the manner in which teams approach games. Jesse 'JerAx' Vainikka has not been short of spectacular plays in his time (a certain first blood body block with Sand King illusions in his 4ASC days comes to mind), and Fly is keen to bring Vainikka's early game prowess to the fore.

"JeraX has an amazing sense of the early game and can set up kills and plays better than anyone I know. Once we've spent more time together at bootcamps and LAN events, we'll get even better. The synergy is already there, but it takes time to build something amazing. We've definitely started off on the right foot, though."

The man who shot to fame for his exceptional ability on Earth Spirit echoes the sentiments of his new partner, also conceding that the OG vs Liquid rivalry of the previous season helped him learn a lot about Fly's style.

"In the past we've played against each other a lot, and you learn so much about the other player," Vainikka says. "Having that experience between us definitely helps, and it means it hasn't taken long for us to build good synergy.

"I remember the first team that I joined, I found it really hard and it took months because there wasn't really a 'support meta' so to speak, where you know how certain interactions work every time. Myself and Fly have a very easy time talking to each other, and when we've been unclear about something, we've had a very easy time coming up with a solution that suits both of us."

The question of course, is if the new solution will work against other teams as the new season begins. The OG roster looked strong at The Summit 6, finishing second ahead of the likes of Wings Gaming and Evil Geniuses. The next part of Inside OG looks at the teams mentality heading into Boston , including their thoughts on the new single elimination format.

Read Inside OG: Part 1 here .