Tundra Esports announce Topson as their TI12 stand-in

Just several days ago, Tundra Esports announced that their position 4 player, Martin “Saksa” Sazdov, will be benched and will not compete at The International 12. The reasons seem to be related to the player’s mental health.

After years of competing under an enormous amount of stress, Saksa mentioned back in July that he feels the need to take a break and focus on his personal problems. He didn’t take part in Riyhadh Masters, which caused Tundra to finish 9^th-12^th, and he probably hasn’t been training properly for months.

Given this situation, it’s understandable why Tundra decided to bench him. But the question was: who will replace such a formidable player? Will it be a support player? Or perhaps a core that would force one of the existing Tundra members to switch his role?

Very recently, we learned that the stand-in will be Topias “Topson” Taavitsainen, who practically retired nearly two years ago after competing for OG for three and a half years and winning The International twice.

⚠️ You’ve all been saying it, and now we’re saying it.

Welcome two-time TI champion, the myth, the legend,@TopsonDota for TI12 #TundraTopson pic.twitter.com/XSbljEJPYs

— TUNDRA (@TundraEsports) September 7, 2023

Topson’s prowess

Topson is known to be one of the best midlaners in the game. His ability to win his lane and then make moves that result in a big advantage for his team is phenomenal.

Topson continues to play Dota regularly, sometimes even 8-10 matches per day. But he’s no longer the player he was back in 2018-2019. That aside, his experience is still extremely valuable and his knowledge of heroes like Invoker, Earth Spirit, and Monkey King is exceptional.

He has more than 1000 Invoker games just on his main account and around 900 Earth Spirit games. He’s also known to be a fantastic Monkey King player, who can exploit any weakness in the enemy lineup.

Topson will obviously play mid for Tundra at The International, which means that one of his teammates will switch to position 4.

The expectations of the team are probably high given that they’re the TI11 winners, as well as the winners of Western Europe’s Division I in Tour 3 of Dota Pro Circuit 2023.

At the Lima Major, Tundra finished 9^th-12^th. But at the Berlin Major they were 5^th-6^th, and at the Bali Major they were 3^rd. These results clearly suggest that under optimal conditions, Tundra could obtain a top six result at The International.

Topson was in a similar situation back in 2018, when he joined OG right before the TI Qualifiers. So he knows how to adapt quickly.

Header: OG