The rumors were true and Tundra Esports just got a whole lot scarier: Two-time The International winner Topson is joining Tundra’s already stacked lineup for TI12 in October, the team announced today.
Topson joins Tundra just one day after the reigning TI champions announced Saksa will be taking an extended break from competing due to undisclosed health reasons. Now the team is shifting its structure for a second straight season to accommodate a new player they feel can help them bring home another title.
Dot Esports has confirmed that this means Topson will be taking his usual midlane role with Tundra while Nine swaps to playing position four. This is a more drastic change compared to last season’s role swap where Sneyking rotated to position five before bringing in Saksa to fill his old soft support spot.
This move has been floating around for quite some time now, dating back to at least early August when it looked like Old G was set to disband and Topson confirmed he would not be competing in regional qualifiers for TI12. Nine was spotted playing games with position four heroes and rotations, leading many to believe Saksa would take a break and the former OG star already knew he had a place to compete for his third Aegis.
This will be Topson’s first time back at TI since he stepped away from OG’s main roster in November 2021 to focus on family. He did return to the competitive scene as a stand-in for T1 during the Southeast Asian qualifiers and last chance qualifier for TI11 last season before coming back for a full Dota Pro Circuit run this year alongside Ceb with Old G.
It also won’t be the first time Topson has played with Tundra since he did stand-in for the team briefly at BetBoom Universe Episode One back in February—but that was just for a single series and not with this composition.
We should see Tundra field Topson and its shifted lineup at DreamLeague Season 21 on Sept. 18 in what will likely be the team’s final big event before flying out to Seattle and going heads down on prep for TI12, which begins on Oct. 12.
