Thirty-eight and 84 are numbers to live by, quite literally, for OG’s Amer "Miracle-" al-Barqawi. In four main-stage Manila games so far — all victories — Miracle- has only come close to dying twice, juking away from danger with 38 HP remaining the first time and 84 HP the second. Both times, he turned back into the fight and scored an additional kill before escaping for good.

Four consecutive perfect games in the upper bracket of a premiere tournament is an unprecedented feat, and Miracle-’s doing it with the utmost flexibility in both safe and mid lane. So far, his streak has included one of only three Templar Assassin games at Manila, as well as his second-ever competitive Morphling game.

“You expect Miracle to be the star, but in the Na`Vi series he played Magnus and he made N0tail the star,” Charlie Yang reflected on the broadcast panel. If there was any doubt before, at Manila Miracle- has proven he’s truly a world-class player; but OG have also proven they’re a world-class team that can fuel his success.

Seeing is Believing

OG was born of Tal “Fly” Aizik’s view of the game. Once he left compLexity, he quickly grew to be one of the world’s premiere captains. At Manila, the panel has praised his skill, noting that it’s about more than just his drafts: Fly understands what his players want, he stays calm, and he feeds them what they need to flourish.

His perspective on the game is fairly straightforward, as he explained to me after coL was eliminated at The International last year. “At least the way I view the game, if you are able to take the first three towers and actually save your own, as long as you play good enough you will actually win the game,” he said. Take towers, win games. He added that he personally loves CDEC because “they’re killers,” and he loathes slow play.

This influence drips from OG, whose average win-time during the group stage was only 31 minutes. The sole team with a faster average game-time was Newbee. According to a comment from RedEye on the analyst desk, N0tail admitted their weakness is winning games that run longer than 35 minutes.

Their aggression is fueled by unique vision decisions in-game. OG will regularly hold on to opening wards for two to four minutes before placing them, and their wards have been uniformly aggressive — in fact the only non-Rosh ward OG have placed on their own side of the map all bracket was to help catch a Tinker. If you turn on an OG game halfway through and you see a defensive ward, they’re probably losing (which they haven’t since they entered the upper bracket).

In their one Radiant game, they didn’t even bother to place a ward for the first four and a half minutes, but instead saved it for when it would allow Miracle- to slow-push the bottom lane in safety. The decision freed up Cr1t- to rotate and attack elsewhere.

These decisions come at a cost, though: most teams provide mid lane vision, but Miracle- rarely gets such a crutch. The only times OG will place a mid ward is when it’s vital for harassment, for instance in his Templar Assassin or Tinker games. How is it he can be so adept at finding kills and staying alive when he’s typically playing with a vision disadvantage?

Guardian Angels

The answer is that everything Miracle- does is planned by his personal Sancho Panza, in the form of Andreas Franck "Cr1t-" Nielsen. Cr1t- typically works as Miracle’s mid-lane ward, spending the bulk of his early game rotating around the area and only breaking into his opponents’ vision if an enemy support is visible first. Otherwise, he sits and waits, stacking and contesting runes, and rotates deep into the enemy jungle to scout for incoming ganks or wrap around behind the opponent midlaner.

Cr1t- typically trades even or below his opponent in last hits for the first five or six minutes of the game, but regardless, the control and kills he makes available nearly always allow the MMR king to win his lane. There have rarely been two players with such inspiring synergy and coordination.

More than 81% of Miracle-’s kills are assisted by Cr1t-, and at least three in four kills Miracle- achieves were initiated or scouted by Cr1t-, whose perfect sense of map presence regularly creates something from nothing. This relationship also allows Miracle- to remain much safer than most mids, helping him achieve his astonishingly low death rate.

It’s not uncommon for this unsung hero to be playing at Level 1 several minutes into the game, but he is usually permitted to soak mid lane when Miracle- rotates into the jungle before 10 minutes. By that time, OG’s unique delegation of duties has already sewn an advantage.

Give and Take

Miracle-’s role is almost exclusively as a counter-initiating combat cleanup, while N0tail creates pushing or aggression, and MoonMeander takes initiators such as Faceless Void, Beastmaster and Batrider. This is absolutely key to understanding and predicting OG’s drafts.

The strategy allows Notail to create early high-impact plays into the opponents’ offlane, knocking down early towers and restricting opponents from rotating onto Miracle-. It’s not uncommon for OG’s early ward configurations to start with both wards intended to shut out the opponent’s offlaner, which allows Fly to support the safelane without Cr1t-’s help. Excluding his expert rotations for quick ganks, Cr1t- only spends time in sidelanes if Miracle- has a ward mid, furthering his “walking ward” effect.

Regardless, OG’s goal is to use their vision to kill the offlaner before five minutes, which forces him to play more cautiously, compounding their control and freeing their supports to rotate with impunity.

Even later in the game, Miracle- typically sits 1,000-1,500 units away from a tower as N0tail pushes. N0tail rotates more often as well, for example with his move behind Dendi in Game 1 against Na’Vi, or his maneuver at around nine minutes in Game 1 against MVP Phoenix. Miracle-’s early game is all about efficiency, with typical priority on Boots of Travel and net worth utilization, while N0tail’s early game is all about dominance.

OG’s one all-encompassing rule: play for objectives. They don’t chase kills that don’t convert to advantage. They don’t farm when they could be winning. They don’t let a losing fight go without getting something back. This was on display when Miracle- snuck in to attack a barracks as his team was fighting during their second game against Na’Vi.

Devils with Discipline

What sets OG apart is not explicitly their fast game style, steady delegation of duties or pack mentality. It’s their discipline — that ability to choose engagements based on probability of success rather than maximum possible returns.

Most fast teams, especially those rooted in old CIS playstyles, have playmaker cores willing to dive extensively. Dendi, for example, finds fantastic success leading his opponents into a fight,and preparing to set up the kills to follow. But that can backfire with poor predictions: the faster you play, the faster mistakes can stack up.

By contrast, it’s rare for anybody on OG to overstay their welcome, least of all Miracle-. He’s willing to sit back and allow his supports or offlaner to draw out opponents. Even when he is initiating, he will sit back and let other players follow up to ensure his team is properly positioned for a possible counter-initiation. For example, his Tornado onto Ditya Ra just short of 32 minutes in Game 1 against Na’Vi was followed by a careful retreat, as N0Tail and Cr1t- fulfilled their roles to finish the kill.

Such patience is a rare attribute in a core. Each player on OG has a sense of purpose, and it fuels this unstoppable killing machine, who is now 43/0/32 across four main-stage games.

And OG’s discipline extends beyond game decisions for the team’s members. “[N0tail has] a high level of commitment to just self-improvement,” Charlie complimented after noticing the carry player practicing instead of joining his team for lunch. “It’s a little bit rare to see from a top team, a team that’s achieved something at the highest level. They tend to slack off a little, but he hasn’t.”

Nobody on OG has, and it shows. The only question now is how will their style stack up against Newbee — the only team at Manila faster than OG — in the winner’s bracket finals.

Ryan "Gorgon" Jurado writes about Dota 2 and freelances for theScore esports. You can follow him on Twitter.