Esports is a new career choice for the youth. While competitive gaming was denied a chance two decades ago, today, the competitive gaming industry is worth billions, and it is expected to rise even further. Johan ‘N0tail’ Sundstein is the perfect example of it. He is currently the highest-earning esports player in the world.
N0tail is the Danish/Faeroese gamer who played Defense of the Ancients casually and started his competitive career in Heroes of Newerth. After that, He shifted to Dota 2. He has won several Dota 2 esports tournaments. He has earned more than $7.2 million as prize money from 130 esports tournaments.
Table of contents: All you need to know about N0tail
Overview
Johan ‘N0tail’ Sundstein (formerly known as ‘Bigdaddy’) is a legendary Dota 2 Player who is currently playing from Old G. As a member of OG, he has won two The International 2018 and 2019, and he has also won four Major championships.
a. Early days
N0tail was born on 8 October 1993 and raised in Denmark. He began playing games when he was two years old. He left high school to join esports. At 15, N0tail became one of the youngest professional players of Heroes of Newerth.
b. Professional career in Heroes of Newerth
Matched up with Nova and Fly, N0tail has created a team with Fanatic players FreshPro and Trixi and won his first LAN in DreamHack Winter 2011. Along with the team, N0tail has won four consecutive DreamHack tournaments.
c. Professional career in Dota 2
As Heroes of Newerth’s professional scene has dipped, N0tail has switched to Dota 2. He joined Fanatic.EU as a Dota 2 professional player in 2012 and won Thor Open LAN. As the team struggled in The International 2013 and 2014, he created Team Secret with Fly.
After that, he joined Cloud9 by replacing Aui2000 but faced challenges in The International 2015. Due to the bad performance, cloud9 released the squad and N0tail and his former teammate Fly created (Monkey) Business, and promising performances converted their team to OG. Their performance in the S-tier tournament was mind-blowing. N0tail, along with his team, has won four majors.
In The International 2018, despite the slow start in the group stage, OG defeated PSG.LGD in the finals by 3-2. They have also won The International 2019 and became the first repeat winners of The International. N0tail has featured in Forbes 30 under 30 categories at 25.
The roster of OG that won The International 2018 & The International 2019:
- Ana
- Topson
- Ceb
- JerAx
- N0tail
After getting 7th-8th place in The International 2021, He took a break from the professional circuit. On 22 May 2022, he made OG the champion of ESL One Stockholm 2022 as a coach. He took leave from the main roster of OG, and he is now playing in Old G (OG’s 2nd Dota 2 roster) with MSS, Topson, Ceb, and No[o]ne.
Tournaments won by N0tail
N0tail has won several tournaments. His total earned prize money from 130 tournaments is $7,184,163.05. He has won multiple s-tier tournaments. Those tournaments are:
- XMG Captains Draft 2.0 with a total prize pool of $276,742 ($96,860 won by Team Secret)
- The Frankfurt Major 2015 with a total prize pool of $3,000,000 ($1,110,000 won by OG)
- The Manila Major 2016 with a total prize pool of $3,000,000 ($1,110,000 won by OG)
- ESL One Frankfurt 2016 with a total prize pool of $314,545 ($157,273 won by OG)
- The Boston Major 2016 with a total prize pool of $3,000,000 ($1,000,000 won by OG)
- The Kiev Major 2017 with a total prize pool of $3,000,000 ($1,000,000 won by OG)
- The International 2018 with a total prize pool of $25,532,177($11,234,158 won by OG)
- The International 2019 with a total prize pool of $34,330,068 ($15,620,181 won by OG)
Other sources of Income of N0tail
N0tail has won over 7 million as prize money from his career as the HON and Dota 2 professional player and becoming the highest-earning sports player today. He is the co-owner of OG Sports, and this esports organization has become a Powerhouse sponsored by Red Bull.
His highest prize money during his career was 3 million, collected when OG won The Internationals in 2019. He earned $14,000 from online gaming in 2021 and around $200,000 from several Lanevents in 2021. N0tail has now retired from competitive gaming due to personal fatigue; He plays in old G, the second roster of OG Esports.
His team ownership of OG esports remains the primary and current source of income. He now has to ensure that OG maintains its success in the professional scene.
He has 266K followers on Twitch and 169k on YouTube. An interesting fact about N0tail is he is the grandson of former Faroese Prime Minister Jógvan Sundstein. It will be interesting if he follows his ancestor’s path and joins politics in the future. I guess everyone has to wait to get a full view of his to-do list.
Conclusion
N0tail is one of the best Dota 2 professional players of all time. He has won several tournaments in Dota 2. The back-to-back final wins in The International 2018 and 2019 are jaw-dropping, as no other team has been able to do this.
He is the highest-earning esports player in the world. He is the inspiration for potential professional players taking competitive gaming as a career option.
Multiplayer games like Dota 2 require quality headsets to strategize with teammates and execute the moves to win a match. N0tail uses SteelSeries Arctis Pro Headset in his gaming sessions.
You can purchase SteelSeries Arctis Pro Headset from the link given below:
