N0tail returns to OG’s active roster

Legendary team captain and two-time winner of The International, Johan “N0tail” Sundstein has returned to the active roster of OG, the organization he founded and captained for six years, after a prolonged break.

N0tail will return to the starting roster for seemingly the duration of Dream League Division 2 Season 1 after a surprising reveal on socials on Oct. 13. The move was seemingly original a last minute change, before becoming something more permanent from Oct. 14 onwards.

N0tail rejoins OG’s main roster after four years

N0tail originally retired from active play in 2021, following OG’s 7th-8th place finish at TI10

However, like many Dota 2 retirements, N0tails was less of a permanent thing and more of a ‘break.’ The two-time TI-winner said as much in 2022, as he claimed the retirement was more of an extended break. To that effect, he was listed on the team’s inactive roster for much of this time.

However, while fellow OG and TI-winning teammate Sébastien “Ceb” Debs had made his retirement a sporadic thing, filling in and even winning tournaments with the team, Sudenstein had instead opted to retain more of a coaching and support role.

N0tail, in effect, had taken on a leadership role within the organization. With the announcement last month that a 51% stake of OG had been purchased by blockchain company The Chiliz Group, it could be intimated that some of the responsibility to lead had been lifted from Sudenstein.

Now, “BigDaddy” returns to the stage as his team’s position 5, leading a group of relative youngsters compared to the 32-year-old veteran. He replaces Rodrigo “Lelis” Santos, who officially left the team on Oct. 14.

So far, N0tail’s performance has been serviceable but has not led his team to much success. The squad currently sits at 1-2 in the group stage, with an overall match score of 2-4. This puts OG in fifth place, and on the edge of a single elimination lower-bracket position in the playoffs.

DreamLeague Division 2 Season 1 will continue until Oct. 26. The top four performers of the tournament will earn automatic qualification to DreamLeague Season 27, making this event’s stakes higher than the meager $50,000 prize pool.

Featured Image Credit: ESL