N0tail Talks About Playing Dota 2 After Long Hiatus

During the off-season, many were hoping to see two-time TI (The International) winner Johan “N0tail” Sundstein return to the competitive scene following his year-long break. While there has been no confirmation of N0tail’s future, the former captain of OG did talk about his experience of playing Dota 2 again, after a six-month hiatus from the game, on OG’s latest podcast. 

Following the conclusion of The International 2021 (TI10), N0tail decided to take a step back from the competitive scene to take a long-deserved break while also mentoring the new OG roster. However, following his recent trip to Singapore many believed that N0tail will play competitively this season.

N0tail spent his break playing base-building games & Dota 2

Johan “N0tail” Sundstein has been absent from the public eye throughout the whole of the DPC 2021/22 season. Despite his absence from the pro scene he did make appearances as OG’s coach at the Stockholm Major & as an analyst for GAMERS GALAXY: Invitational Series Dubai 2022. However, his recent trip to Singapore as part of OG’s Monkey Business podcast at The International 2022 (TI11) might have rekindled the competitive spirit in N0tail.

In the newest episode of OG’s Monkey Business podcast Episode 38 featuring former Warcraft III World Champion Manuel “Grubby” Schenkhuizen, podcast co-host & OG CEO JMR Luna asked N0tail if he had played Dota 2 as of late. The former OG captain stated that he had not played Dota 2 for almost four months, the last time being back in September. However, he was recently spotted playing ranked games again after a six month hiatus.

N0tail responded by saying that while he had spent his break playing base building games, he did eventually go back to playing Dota 2. He also said that he was fascinated with the events that could occur during his games as players tend to showcase their habits in-game.

“I have been playing more, yeah. I did some base building games, got tired of it and did some Dota. It was a lot of fun, but there’s also horrible habits in all games. My games, in particular, tend to have horrible, verbal, emotional habits from players. Players are just very angry and just queue into the game to release their anger. So yeah, it is fascinating because it’s like watching a National Geographic documentary in the wild.”

[Relevant section begins at 31:06]

As of now, it is unclear whether N0tail shall return to competitive play as JMR Luna announced that OG will be sticking with its TI11 roster for the upcoming season, apart from Ammar “ATF” Al-Assaf. However, should N0tail return he would have to create a second team or join an existing stack of players.