Inside the mansion owned by the world’s richest Esports player – BBC News

[Music] johann sunstein has climbed some of the highest heights in gaming he and his team have lifted the most valuable trophy in esports not once but twice they are the top team right now everyone else was switching people in and out but og were able to stay as a unit add to that countless other individual tournament wins and the 27 year old tops the list as the richest esports player ever so with 7.4 million dollars in prize winnings what does a gaming obsessed champion buy a 17-bedroom gaming complex in portugal is a good start growing up i really wanted to revolve my life around games and now i have this thing dedicated to games and it's a wonderful thing johan's been a professional for 10 years now playing dota 2 a hugely popular multiplayer fantasy battle game he's known online as no tail and is originally from denmark he moved to lisbon for the warm weather and bought his house nearly a year ago but the renovation's been slow going thanks to kovid he's had to prioritize furnishings can wait high-speed internet and gaming pcs are the real esports essentials i've spent 400 thousand so far renovating and buying stuff furniture and material i'm spending one and a half on we're but i'm also giving myself another 300k to work with uh so up to 1.8 1.8 million yep that's a lot of money it's a good chunk it's a good chunk yeah we join him on a busy weekend of competition four online matches in a tournament with half a million dollars at stake the pandemics forced all his competitions online well johannes team manager has just kicked us out of the game room the players need complete focus they don't want any distractions including cameras and us in the room so we're watching it next door and a projector this is the feed that's being pumped all over the world hundreds of thousands of people are watching this dota 2 is hard to follow in a flurry of spells and fireballs we watch as johann's og team trounce their opponents they just call it they just call it they are done right now johan is doing post-match interviews with the casters on the internet so how did it go it was good we won yeah the other one was important important game for us while winning this game we're very likely heading into some sort of high record like many esports stars johann's video game habit started young i had my first game boy when i was still doing potty training how many hours were you playing when you were sort of 13 14 when you're really starting to get into it i was playing a lot i was getting home from school and basically playing till night up to 12 hours sometimes more during weekends it was more i'd be playing 20 hours if i could at the age of 13 14. yeah my mom was also pulling the plug and this is when i was getting maybe a bit of pushback because they were worried about my health and also started worrying i started worrying a bit about my future i struggled a bit with school from 15 to 17 and i or late 16 and i just quit after that i never looked back johan's family have followed him to major competitions around the world but his parents admit they worried about his future at first it was his decision and yeah you have to respect he's a growing man so at what point as a family and as parents did you think did you feel um comfortable that johann had actually a very bright future ahead and he was going to be okay i went out i guess it was around 16 and to have some ice cream to bring back home and there was this a friend of him uh was selling me the ice cream and he said do you have any idea how uh how good johan are in playing games and he is one of the best gamer in the world and he says what the tournament that made johan and his teammates mega rich is dota 2's the international it's by far the most lucrative event in esports with a 34 million dollar prize pool the last time it was held the fortnight world cup only held once so far had 30 million dollars the next two events topping the list are league of legends and call of duty but the pandemic has hit some esports events hard physical competitions have been cancelled or held without crowds whilst others have gone online when you go to a big stage and there's a crowd it's a lot easier to feel that this game really matters there's a lot of eyes on this game it's like the blood starts going the adrenaline is there how how much intensity is there at the high level of your sport there's a huge dark side to this and it's the mental strength that it can take and and it's it's there's also the group aspect to it that amplifies it and can amplify it and make you feel terrible i get negative myself i get very uh sad like sadness is my my number one enemy and and he keeps saying hi to me um but the same way when my team is doing good i feed off it i get very very happy and and it just it goes the other way to the other extreme the mental strain on johann is something i didn't expect on our visit many gamers see him as living the dream but if you win the fight we win again what they also don't see though is the large team around him johan's supported by a growing staff that forms his og brand there's social media managers sports psychology trainers even a full-time chef johan and his teammates are looking ahead and hoping for the return of the international this summer martin hopes that with johan leading him he too can lift the trophy for the first time you came second didn't you in international before what did it feel like to miss out at that point it was like my first year professionally so i was like i had this feeling of content which i i don't know i i now kind of hate that i felt that way because yeah i was this was my first international back then i got to the final like what just happened you know i'm playing in the final and i'm like if i was even playing in the final now i would feel so much differently i would like maybe this is my last chance i need to try my best and i have no regrets today helping and coaching other players is how johan is hoping to stay in gaming once he retires from competition that was the money shot did you get that at 27 in esports terms he's old yeah how long have i got left uh i think i think i got plenty of years left i used to be young now i'm the old one i don't feel all yet uh at all i still feel it really still feels like i'm 20 and we're just getting started i may not be the best player in mechanical skill but damn i know i know how to make this work

Channel: BBC News

Views: 1,795,761

Keywords: bbc, bbc news, news, esports, Johan 'N0tail' Sundstein, N0tail, dota2, joetidy, gaming, game, dota game, dota2 play

Id: tg4OmfCIZh4

Length: 6min 40sec (400 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 15 2021