Four out of five Major wins - Johan 'BigDaddyN0tail' Sundstein was alongside Tal 'Fly' Aizik the co-founder of the most dominant organisation in these last two years.
"He is one of the most naturally talented gamers"
Although most people give credit to Andreas 'Cr1t-' Nielsen and Amer 'Miracle-' Al-Barkawi in the early days of OG, n0tail and Fly were able to rebuild the roster around them. One reason for that was n0tail himself.
In an interview with Red Bull, Fly, back then when they still played with each other, explained what is so special about n0tail:
"He is one of the most naturally talented gamers, and not just in Dota, the guy is just very good at any game he picks up - and it's a unique thing to have. I could see right away when I played against him for the first time that this guy is special. He has a unique view of the game, which allows us to come up with idea's that can be game breaking at times."[size=10]Tal 'Fly' Aizik
However he proved this talent again, after OG had to go through their biggest reformation.
Back in the old support days
He played under the lead of some of the best captains in the game - Tal 'Fly' Aizik and Johan 'BigDaddyN0tail' Sundstein. Who would have thought that he could be a great captain by himself, which included a surprising role swap?
Back in the days when he transitioned from Heroes of Newerth to Dota 2, he was part of the legendary Fnatic lineup with Kai 'H4nn1' Hanbueckers, Adrian 'Era' Kryeziu, Kalle Juhanpoika 'Trixi' Saarinen and Tal 'Fly' Aizik. While nowadays n0tail is mostly known for his carry position, he played position 4 back then.
Even in his later lineups, such as Cloud9 G2A* and Team Secret, he played the support role.
Only when n0tail and Fly decided, after some time apart, to start their own team, did n0tail switch to the carry position - with success.
Taking over as a captain
After the break-up with his old pal, OG seemed to be at an end: two players and one coach standing in for a while were just not enough to compete in the tough European region for a The International 2018 slot.
From 1 to 5 : ana / TOPSON / Ceb / JerAx / N0tail. Back to business for TI qualifiers 👍
— 7ckngMad (@7ckngMadDOTA) 3. Juni 2018
But N0tail pulled off an ideal roster, that would be able to dominante the European region and get the first slot for TI8. He gave up playing in the carry position and decided to control his team from position 5. It was Jesse 'JerAx' Vainikka by his side, Sebastien 'Ceb' Debs switched to offlane, alongside Finnish newcomer Topias 'Topson' Taavitsainen and Anathan 'ana' Pham, who returned to the OG roster after leaving in August 2017.
A strong draft and a good gameplan led by none other than n0tail led to OG going 7:0 in the group stage of the TI qualifier, and afterwards they won the playoffs easily by beating Team Kinguin* and Wind and Rain.
Now, for the first time OG won't be a favourite for the Aegis and n0tail can prove that he, as a captain without Fly, is able to form a roster which can dominate the Dota 2 scene.
Photo credit: Beyond the Summit/@tempusrob
Comments