N0tail

Johan Sundstein (born 8 October 1993), better known as N0tail, is a Danish professional Dota 2 player and captain for OG. With them, he has played in four iterations of The International, winning in 2018 and 2019, and has also won four Major championships. He is widely regarded as one of the top three Dota 2 players of all time, along with Puppey and KuroKy. In 2019 N0tail became the highest earning e-sports player of all time with total earnings of over $6.9 million as of 2019.[1]

N0tail
Johan Sundstein
N0tail in 2018
Personal information
Born (1993-10-08) 8 October 1993
NationalityDanish/Faroese
Nickname(s)N0tail, BigDaddy
Career information
StatusActive
Current teamOG
Games
RoleSupport, Captain
Career history
2012–2014Fnatic
2014–2015Team Secret
2015Cloud9
2015–presentOG
Career highlights and awards

Early years

Sundstein was born and raised in Denmark to Faroese parents;[2] former Faroese prime minister Jógvan Sundstein is his grandfather.[3] Sundstein first began playing video games when he was two years old. Sundstein left high school early to fully devote himself to esports.[4] Notail became one of the youngest professional Heroes of Newerth player at the early age of 15, playing the role of solo middle back then. He started by playing random pub games on HoN servers and later on decided to match up with Jascha "NoVa" Markuse and Tal "Fly" Aizik. They were recognized by the manager of Fnatic, who took them under his wing as an unofficial side project. This set off the beginning of Johan's professional career in esports.[5]

Professional career

Heroes of Newerth

N0tail, at the age of 15, met Jascha "NoVa" Markuse and Tal "Fly" Aizik in-game where they decided to start playing together. The trio became an unofficial side project of Fnatic manager Danijel "StreeT" Remus. After changes in the existing Fnatic Heroes of Newerth roster and the performance of N0tail and his friends, the group merged with the original Fnatic players Henrik "FreshPro" Hansen and Kalle "Trixi" Saarinen.[6] Soon, the squad began to achieve wins in online tournaments, obtaining their first LAN victory in DreamHack Winter 2011. Along with his team Johan was able to secure 1st place victories in four consecutive DreamHack events.[7][8]

Dota 2

Due to decreasing activity in the professional Heroes of Newerth scene, N0tail decided to transfer to Fnatic's European Dota 2 team together with Jascha Markuse, Tal Aizik and Adrian Kryeziu on March 30, 2012.[9] After a hard start to DotA, N0tail and his team Fnatic.EU won Thor Open LAN on December 9, 2012, beating No Tidehunter, now known as Alliance.[10] Since Fnatic.EU won the LAN, they mostly dominated the pro scene until The International 2013, in which they placed 7-8th after losing to team Orange, which turned out to currently be the Fnatic squad.

One year later after not winning any premier tournaments and placing 13-14th in The International 2014, N0tail announced that he is leaving Fnatic together with Fly to create Team Secret, inviting Puppey, s4, and Kuroky to join.[11] After a number of good finishes in five tournaments, Puppey decided to kick N0tail for Arteezy in preparation of the Dota 2 Asia Championships. N0tail decided to join Cloud9, replacing Aui 2000.[12] Following multiple disappointing finishes and 9-12th place in The International 2015, Cloud9 released its squad.[13] On August 28, 2015, it was announced that N0tail together with his teammate Fly which was also kicked from Team Secret have created (monkey) Business, a team featuring Miracle-, MoonMeander, Cr1t-, Fly, and N0tail.[14]

Following promising performances, (monkey) Business proceeded to become OG. They quickly became the first team to defend a Major title in Dota 2 history after winning the Autumn Major in 2016. Later on, the team managed to become the first ever four times Major champion and the first ever two times champion of The International event.[15]

Despite a slow start during The International 2018's group stage, OG finished fourth and were seeded into the upper bracket of the main event. Considered underdogs during their entire time at the event, OG and Sundstein advanced to the grand finals and won the tournament by defeating PSG.LGD in the best-of-five series 3–2.[16][17] The following year, he won The International 2019, making him and the rest of the team the first repeat winners of an International.[18] After winning The International 2018 and 2019, N0tail was featured in Forbes 30 under 30 category at the age of 25.[19]

References
  1. Heath, Jerome (18 January 2021). "The 10 Highest Earning Esports Players in the World". Dot Esports. Retrieved 27 January 2021.
  2. "Um "OG" og Jóhan Sundstein: - Søga er skrivað".
  3. sosialurin.in.fo: Jóhan Sundstein: Eg geri bara tað, eg elski og dugi best , August 25, 2019. ("Jóhan Sundstein: I am only doing the things, I love and am best at")
  4. Sønnichsen, Thomas. "Dansk mangemillionær kravlede over hegnet for at spille computer som 4-årig". Sport TV2. Sport TV2. Retrieved 31 August 2018.
  5. "Player Spotlight: N0tail - A Testament to Never Giving Up". Hotspawn.com. 16 June 2020. Retrieved 27 January 2021.
  6. "Fnatic.N0tail interviewed by AFK Gaming". 7 October 2013. Retrieved 16 August 2016.
  7. "FnaticMSI.n0tail Interview". fnatic.com. 1 December 2011. Retrieved 16 August 2016.
  8. "Fnatic wins Heroes of Newerth DreamHack Winter 2011". www.neutralcreeps.com. 26 November 2011. Retrieved 16 August 2016.
  9. Sillis, Ben; Partridge, Jon (18 February 2016). "How Heroes of Newerth led OG to Dota 2". www.redbull.com. Retrieved 16 August 2016.
  10. Helbig, Christoph (9 December 2012). "Thor Open tournament goes to fnatic". www.gosugamers.net. Retrieved 16 August 2016.
  11. "Fnatic parts with BigDaddy & Fly". 27 August 2014. Retrieved 16 August 2016.
  12. Kim, Sovann (2 January 2015). "BigDaddy-N0tail to Cloud 9". www.gosugamers.net. Retrieved 2 January 2015.
  13. Orall, Pranjal (14 August 2015). "Cloud9 officially disbands". Retrieved 16 August 2016.
  14. "Monkey Bzns is created". 28 August 2015. Retrieved 16 August 2016.
  15. "N0tail's incredible journey to Dota 2 superstar and OG Seed coach". GINX. 28 November 2019. Retrieved 27 January 2021.
  16. Mike Stubbs (25 August 2015). "Ana is our MVP of The International 8". Red Bull. Retrieved 28 August 2018.
  17. Dota Team (27 August 2015). "The International Grand Champions". Dota 2. Retrieved 28 August 2018.
  18. S. Good, Owen (25 August 2019). "The International crowns its first two-time champion". Polygon. Retrieved 25 August 2019.
  19. Apduhan, Neslyn. "N0tail goes from TI champ to Forbes 30 Under 30 - DOTA2". WIN.gg. Retrieved 27 January 2021.
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