Monkey Business, a Dota 2 pub team consisting of OG founders, TI-winners, and prominent Dota 2 streamers, has announced it will compete at Phygital Games of the Future, a hybrid sport and esports event set to be held in Abu Dhabi on Dec. 13.
Sébastien “Ceb” Debs, Johan “N0tail” Sundstein, Johan “pieliedie” Åström, Janne “Gorgc” Stefanovski, and Topias “Topson” Taavitsainen, were announced as participants in Games of the Future 2025 on Dec. 6, 2025.
However, the event’s apparently controversial funding sources and community backlash has thrown their attendance into question.
Monkey Business, of course, is the name of the former stack that would become TI-winning Dota 2 organization OG. Originally founded by N0tail, alongside the likes of Andreas “Cr1t-” Nielsen and Amer “Miracle-” Al-Barkawi, Monkey Business evolved essentially into a second identity for OG, with the banana branding and allusions to ‘playing like monkeys’ permeating their branding.
However, the team name itself has been dormant for several years, and Monkey Business’ announcement as a team for Games of the Future 2025 came as some surprise. Additionally, there were questions as to why a team headed by two OG founders (Ceb and N0tail), would choose not to play under that banner.
But the confusion quickly turned to anger, as the community pointed out the Games of the Future event organizer, Phygital Entertainment, had connections to both the Russian and UAE governments. We reported as much in our breakdown of the 2025 event.
Now, the team seems to be reconsidering their participation, with Ceb making a statement on Twitter/X on Dec. 6.
“We’ve seen the concerns about the event and do not take such things lightly. Our team has taken immediate action and is looking into things as we speak. We’ll update everyone as we learn more and will adjust our next steps according to the information we receive.”
Games of the Future and Phygital Entertainment have consistently drawn criticism for their connection to the Russian Ministry of Tourism, Sport, Culture and Communications. The 2024 edition initially saw Chinese and Russian government officials in attendance. Critics point to ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine as well as both government’s controversial standing in global geopolitics as reasons to boycott the event.
The event is also no stranger to teams withdrawing. In 2024 both Nigma Galaxy and nouns withdrew from Games of the Future, although neither organization gave a reason. Esports Charts refused to log the event’s stats.
Whatever the Monkey Business stack decides to do will be a statement either way: Either a tacit endorsement or a boycott.
Featured Image Credit: ESL
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