Tundra Esports has its team for the next Dota 2 season, though it likely isn’t the lineup fans thought the organization would field. Topson isn’t sticking around and all of the former TI-winners are gone, with Tundra bringing the majority of TSM’s former roster over to Europe.
TSM announced its “departure from NA Dota” on Dec. 5 despite qualifying for ESL One Kuala Lumpur 2023 and very recently bringing in Immersion as the team’s new support player. This surprise move continued the trend of sponsors leaving NA and SA Dota over the last several months and now MoonMeander’s Tweet saying “RIP NADota” makes perfect sense—because he and his squad are moving to Europe.
After a brief return to the Team Undying banner, Tundra has confirmed the signing of Timado, Bryle, kasane, Immersion, Whitemon, and coach MoonMeander. Only Saksa remains from Tundra’s lineup that won The International 2022, though he is still listed on the inactive roster after announcing an extended break due to undisclosed health reasons.
Along with this, Topson has been officially removed from the org’s roster, leaving the former OG star without a team again. Some Tundra fans were holding out hope the team’s next lineup would incorporate him, but, as Nine said before TI12, the team “didn’t make any long-term plans” with Topson at the time and his contract likely ended after the team’s early upset at the event.
It is unclear if this move was in the works as early as Moon’s cryptic Tweet on Nov. 28, but Tundra now has its lineup locked in for ESL One Kuala Lumpur and whatever comes after. However, this roster has a lot more to prove than the previous lineup. Under TSM, the majority of these star players were considered one of NA’s best teams but eventually peaked with a second-place finish at the Stockholm Major in May 2022 and never really reached those same heights again. A ninth-place exit after falling to the underdog Nouns may have finally sealed TSM’s fate—even if the NA org did not confirm it is entirely exiting Dota just yet.
Whether TSM moves into a different region like South America or does eventually decide to pause its Dota operations completely is still up in the air, but Tundra will be competing at ESL One Kuala Lumpur from Dec. 11 to 17.
