Jesse “JerAx” Vainikka is a former professional Dota 2 player who retired from competitive play in January 2020, but after more than a year away from the game, he is ready to make his return.
The two-time International Champion isn’t coming back to compete, but he is going to be around the scene more than he has been over the last year and change.
JerAx made this announcement earlier today, saying that he will be “back around Dota” and noting that he was aware returning to the game but not competing might disappoint some of his fans.
He might be playing through the game’s tutorial while he talks, saying that he “might need it” after spending so long away. JerAx did not specify if he meant the actual Dota tutorial or the newly released community tutorial that was created by SirActionSlacks and the Dota community at larger ahead of the Dota: Dragon’s Blood anime releasing on Netflix on March 25.
JerAx spent three seasons with OG from 2016 to 2020, winning back-to-back Internationals in 2018 and 2019 before retiring at the start of 2020 to pursue other ventures—though he has remained loosely affiliated with the organization in some capacity since then.
He will be giving more information about his plans to re-enter Dota on a stream he has scheduled for the March 27 at around 6am CT.
