NoMail: N0tail and the coaching email

Alliance’s video and coach ppd at a DPC match

On May 11, 2021, Alliance published a video in which the team’s new coach, Peter “ppd” Dager, talks to the players during an official Dota Pro Circuit match. Russian-language esports media reported that it was a game against Brame in season two of the 2021 DPC in Europe. By that evening, the clip was already being discussed on Reddit.

OG captain Johan “N0tail” Sundstein responded sharply on Twitter: “Having a coach during a dota game has never been allowed” and “0 respect for people that cheat.” English-language outlets wrote that he also mentioned pitching the same idea to Valve back at TI9 and being turned down.

The email not everyone read

It soon emerged that before season two, the organizers had allowed teams to communicate with their coach during matches and had informed them by email. Sources differ on who exactly made the change: cybersport.ru names ESL and DreamHack and says Valve reportedly did not know about it, while esports.gg mentions an email from ESL and a later reversal by DreamHack following guidance from Valve.

Virtus.pro, Team Spirit and Level UP knew about the email. OG CEO JMR Luna called the change “one paragraph in an email to managers.” Alliance, in other words, acted within the rules, and N0tail himself later acknowledged that the team was not at fault for following the regulations.

“I accept NoMail”: how the nickname was born

The public accusation brought N0tail a wave of criticism. Fans came up with the nickname “n0mail,” a jab suggesting that OG don’t read their email. On May 12, 2021, the OG captain answered on Twitter with humor: “I accept NoMail.” Russian-language media paraphrased this as him agreeing to change his handle to n0mail.

That same day, May 12, the DPC organizers for Europe and the CIS reinstated the ban on coach communication during games, apologized and confirmed that Alliance had broken no rules. Later, ppd claimed that after the incident OG canceled scrims with Alliance.

Esports.gg ranked “NoMail and the 6-Man Dota” fourth among the Dota 2 memes of 2021. The phrase “6-man Dota,” meaning a game where the coach effectively becomes a sixth team member, stuck as a second joke from the same story.

A laughing N0tail in the photo

The card shows a photo of N0tail laughing with his head down, wearing a dark T-shirt with the OG logo against a dark background.

It is not a screenshot of the tweets or a frame from the Alliance match but a portrait of the player. The image connects to the meme through N0tail himself: it shows the person who took on the nickname with “I accept NoMail.”

Example captions and related memes

People bring up “NoMail” when someone loudly complains without having read the rules or the newsletter. These examples are made up for illustration: “Posted in the group chat that we missed the deadline, but it was moved back on Monday. I accept NoMail,” “When you show up to a canceled class because you didn’t check your email,” “‘Why didn’t anyone warn us?’ ‘The email went out Friday.’”

Related memes include the Ceb vs. MidorMeepo story and “6-man Dota,” which lives on as a separate joke about a coach who is effectively playing as the sixth man.