Topson on Tundra Esports: "Easier to Play with Younger Players"

Tundra Esports is on a roll at the Elite League Swiss Stage, with a score of 2-1 and one win away from securing a spot at the group stage.

After taking down Nigma Galaxy in a clean sweep, Topias "Topson" Taavitsainen sat down for a quick post-game interview to discuss the team's drafting, the younger players, and his feelings on the Swiss format.

Tundra Esports at the start of the year.

Topson: "I'm just chilling"

Topson is the only member of Tundra to survive the 2024 roster shuffle. The team focused on rebuilding around the two-time International winner and the results have been promising.

Among the recruits are two 20-year-olds, Ivan "Pure" Moskalenko, and Edgar "9Class" Naltakian.  When Topson joined OG in 2018, he was 19 years old and seen as a young pubstar.

Now that he's older at 25, Topias appreciates the energy his younger teammates bring to the table.

"It's great having young people in the team, they have a lot of energy and passion, so it feels much easier to play with younger players. I feel like I'm just here to play the games and they're doing the hard work, I'm just chilling."

Yeah, good luck facing his army. (Credit: Valve)

During their first game against Nigma, Tundra rolled over them thanks largely to the strength of their Chen and Sniper combo, with Chen picking up eight kills.

The casters picked up on the strength of that duo and asked Topson about it.

" Chen is just a broken hero, not sure why people let us pick it but we'll happily take it every time. And Sniper is one of our more popular picks, so of course, if we get them both together it's going to look pretty good."

The prize-winning distribution for Elite League Dota 2.
Image Source: Twitter.@fissure_eng

Unlike most tournaments that begin with a group stage, Elite League is split into three divisions, starting with a Swiss format.

The Swiss format pairs teams with others that have the same current record. A team with one win and no loss faces another team with one win and no loss.

When asked about the Swiss format, Topson found it to be good but it does come with timing issues.

"I guess the only downside I have is that we don't know our opponent [until] end of the day, and we don't know what time we're playing so like yesterday at 11 PM we know that we're playing at 11 AM but other than that I think it's been great."

Tundra Esports is one win away from making it to the group stage. Fans can catch all the action live on Twitch.

READ MORE: Five reasons you should be playing Disruptor in Dota 2

Featured Image Source: Valve