Topias “Topson” Taavitsainen, a Finnish profesional Dota 2 mid-laner, has a dream to come back to the EU. He’s currently playing in SEA for the team T1. Since they didn’t manage to qualify for the International and Topson’s contract expired, he’s in search of a new team.
As he said in an episode of the OG’s Monkey Business podcast, he prefers Europe because it’s a benchmark for this kind of competition, in his opinion. However, if he doesn’t land an opportunity in Europe, he’s open to other regions, too.
Topson as a Stand-in Player in T1
Before joining T1, Topson wasn’t actively looking for a team. He was actually approached by a friend, Anathan “ana” Pham, who suggested they both join T1 for the qualifiers. He agreed, but while ana joined the team as an official member, Topson decided to be a stand-in player. This doesn’t make any difference in-game, but it shows his intentions. He wasn’t going to devote himself to the team, and he is probably leaving SEA already.
“I’m on a break, I never said I was retired”
OG is Topson’s first pro team and first great success. He joined them in 2018 and won the International the same year and the next year, too. Thanks to OG, Topson became very popular as an excellent mid-laner who lifted Aegis twice.
But after these achievements, he decided to step back for a while and went back home to Finland. He actively streamed, and in one of the live streams, he answered a fan’s question about retirement: “I’m on a break, I never said I was retired!” Not long after, the whole T1 story came along. Now, we’re waiting to see Topson’s next step!
Team Liquid Needs One More Player
On October 30, one of the best carries in the history of this game retired. Team Liquid’s Lasse “MATUMBAMAN” Urpalainen decided to finish his eight-year-long esports career after third place on the TI11.
The team’s coach, William “Blitz” Lee, is looking for a player to fill Matu’s place – and this won’t be an easy job to do. Also, Blitz noted that the new member doesn’t have to be a carry. Even though they intend Michael “miCKe” Vu to hold the mid, it’s still subject to change. If miCke gets back to his carry role – mid could be Topson’s.
Apart from Matu’s replacement, there won’t be any other roster changes for the Dota Pro Circuit 2023.
MATUMBAMAN Was a Scary Opponent for Topson
There was a live stream in April this year, where Topson mentioned his experience with Matu, who played with the likes of KuroKy and MinD_ContRol. He said those were the rare situations when he was actually scared of the enemy.
Picking the heroes was the worst part: “What if he picks Venom when I play Amber, what if he picks Dazzle when I’m Amber, what if he does Long Druid when I play Invoker… I don’t know, there was always something that he could do to ruin me, so I just played heroes like Troll, Pango, strong laners.”
When Matumbaman was kicked out of his team in 2019, Topson and his teammates from OG felt relieved. He later said in the stream:”…Okay, they lost their star player – the one who makes them scary. And then playing into them was so fun and easy.”
Matu Will Do Military Service
Now that he’s retired, this legendary Dota 2 player is probably going to do the mandatory military service in his home country Finland. We won’t hear from him for at least five months next year if he decides to complete the service. Despite his claims that he’s retired for good, many fans and teammates hope he’ll be back – this has happened before. Many Dota 2 pro players couldn’t resist competing in big tournaments after allegedly retiring.
Is Blitz giving us hints?
On November 7th, Team Liquid’s coach, Blitz, talked about MATUMBAMAN’s replacement on Cap Casts’ livestream. The stream was actually about the team’s plans for the next season and about the experience from International 2022. When he was asked about the replacement, he said that a few players were an option, but it didn’t work.
Stormstormer, Timado…
“For example, I approached Stormstormer. We really like him, obviously, and he fits the bill perfectly as a person & a teammate. However, he said that “I would really like to stay loyal to my team and see how things unfold next season.” And that’s the end of the conversation. No pushing.”
Then, he meant to approach Enzo “Timado” O’Connor when he heard he was out of TSM. It was false information, so he didn’t even try. But then, as the stream was ending, Blitz said that the rest of the roster stays the same, and “Yeah, it’s going to be a TOP season,” he added, “Just cut it there!” This might be a hint that TOPson is going to be the chosen one, but we need to wait and see!
More About Topson
Topias Miikka Taavitsainen celebrates his birthday on April 14. He was born in Haukipudas, Finland, in 1998 in a big family: with seven brothers and four sisters. His older brother introduced him to Dota when he was 8 years old, and it became his hobby. The brother said that Topias sees the bigger picture and does unimaginable things in the game, which makes him stand out from the rest of the players.
His parents were initially skeptical if video games could provide him with a good living but were proud when they saw how successful he was. Topson studied to be an electrician for one year, but he changed his mind and went to cooking school afterward.
Topson’s Wife
Mawar Remy Taavitsainen from Kuala Lumpur became Topson’s wife a few years ago. They met long before he became a famous eSports player, and she has been very supportive of him ever since. On September 17, 2020, they welcomed a baby girl into this world. Her name is Riina Azalea. Topson took some time off in 2021 to be with his family but quickly came back to the scene and continued playing as if he had never left.
Topson keeps proving his skills and his immense talent, and if Team Liquid decides he’s the one for them – he’ll prove again that he truly is!