“Closer to spring”, — RAMZES666 on returning to the professional scene

Roman RAMZES666 Kushnarev has once again spoken about a possible return to the professional Dota 2 scene. Unlike his previous statements, this time the player gave an approximate timeframe and explained what it would take to resume his career. He shared his thoughts during a personal Twitch stream.

I was thinking that this might be the last season when I can try playing professionally. Overall, I feel like I still have an unfinished opportunity. But it would probably be closer to spring. Again, I already need to start grinding Dota all day.

Overall, I think I would give it a try in spring. I've earned good money from casting over the past year and a half. So it wouldn't really be about the money.

In 2026, Kushnarev had already started considering a return to the professional scene. In spring, he linked such a possibility to the return of Majors with large prize pools, while during The International 2026 he spoke about a prize pool of more than $10 million.

In December 2025, RAMZES666 explained that streaming provided him with a similar or higher income while requiring significantly less effort, so returning to the professional scene no longer made as much sense to him.

Kushnarev last competed professionally in September 2024 as part of Tundra Esports. Together with the team, he finished third at The International 2024, after which his loan ended. At the time, the player emphasized that he was not retiring but taking a break and planned to return a few months later.

However, a full return never happened. Kushnarev focused on streaming and covering professional tournaments.

Earlier, CyberScore shared comments from Dmitry Fishman Polishchuk about the sale of the Entity roster to Cloud9 for $1 million.