Photo Source: Valve
Australian team N9, formerly known as aL, was one of the stronger teams early 2012, earning themselves a direct invite to The International 2012. Due to internal issues, the team has decided to part ways.
The Australians had many ups and downs in the past year, most notably the invite to TI2 and getting dropped by their sponsors after poor perfomances. Core players r1sk, Shatan and Godot sticked together and have tried to assemble an international line-up. Now, they disbanded abruptly due to internal issues among players. As reported, XoYnoZnU was just recently announced as their fourth. According to rumours, one of the reasons for the disbandment was the decision on their fifth member.
A statement by David 'r1sk' Arnous:
We had a great run but unfortunately this is the end of N9. We were unable to string together five Australian players and then had little success in completing an international roster that melded well. This simple problem became our downfall, as people who were previously committed to the team lost hope and the will to try out others.
I’d like to thank all of our supporters for sticking by us through both the good times and the rougher patches. We especially appreciate our fellow Australians that would wake up early to watch our matches. Big thanks to Pandepic for his assistance over the last month and last but not least to GoDz who has been with us since the start of our Dota 2 journey. It is fantastic to see him making his dreams a reality with BTS.
We had a great run but unfortunately this is the end of N9. We were unable to string together five Australian players and then had little success in completing an international roster that melded well. This simple problem became our downfall, as people who were previously committed to the team lost hope and the will to try out others.
I’d like to thank all of our supporters for sticking by us through both the good times and the rougher patches. We especially appreciate our fellow Australians that would wake up early to watch our matches. Big thanks to Pandepic for his assistance over the last month and last but not least to GoDz who has been with us since the start of our Dota 2 journey. It is fantastic to see him making his dreams a reality with BTS.
The team was initially formed as an Australian-Singaporean line up. With impressive performances when they first debuted - most notably when claiming the title of BenQ Dota 2 Clash Season 2 hosted by joinDOTA, ItsGoSu Monthly Madness and more - the team was soon picked up by Absolute Legends.
The team received an invite to the The International 2 and was considered top tier in the scene. It has however been downhill for them ever since they had been invited, leading into a poor performance in Seattle, after which aL decided to drop them. Later on, Natural 9 parted ways with Musica, bleek and Snoopy to rebuild a new team.
The future of the players are currently unknown, however, XoYnoZnU is expected to join a European team.
Former N9 Roster:
David 'r1sk' Arnous (C) Darcy 'Godot' Jose Alex 'BlackShatan' Chang
Tim 'XoYnoZnU' Lundell Johansson David 'GoDZ' Parker (Manager)