Tundra Esports is slowly rebuilding its Dota 2 roster, with the organization confirming two-time TI winner Topson’s return today, Jan. 8. The legendary mid laner previously helped Tundra out during TI 2023, and his future with the team was unknown until now.
Despite playing with Tundra at TI 2023, Topson was technically loaned from OG and Tundra had to get OG’s blessing before inviting the two-timer to its roster. For that reason, many anticipated Topson would either return to OG or take a break.
That wasn’t the case, however, and Topson’s involvement in Tundra was extended amid one of the more confusing Dota 2 roster shuffles of the 2024 season. After remaining with zero members twice in the last three months, Tundra acquired Whitemon from ex-TSM and 9Class from Team Sexy. With Topson joining, Tundra currently has three members in its roster and Dota 2 fans are already speculating who can fill the remaining two slots in the team.
The free agency market is hotter than ever, with Nigma Galaxy losing Mind_Control during its reshuffle. Controversial player Pure also departed from BetBoom Team recently, and the two can fill the offlane and carry positions, respectively.
Tundra is one of the invited teams for the closed qualifiers of Dota 2’s next LAN event. The team can also decide to play through the qualifiers with stand-ins, but getting together a full roster for a $1 million prize pool event would be ideal. The invites for The International in 2024 are expected to be different this year, and Tundra might want to pick up the pace as retaining a stable roster is also an important part of avoiding losing EPL points.