Topson

- The International 2018 Champion

- The International 2019 Champion

Topias "Topson" Taavitsainen (born April 14, 1998) is a Finnish former professional Dota 2 midlaner, last playing for Tundra Esports before retiring in 2024. At 28 years old, Topson is a two-time TI champion and one of the most genuinely important players in the history of the mid lane — not because of the trophies alone, but because he changed how the entire role was understood. Before Topson, mid was about farming and scaling. After Topson, it became something else entirely. He is, in the most literal sense, the father of playing "support heroes" and off-meta picks in the mid lane at the highest level.

Early Life & Origins

Topson was born in Haukipudas, Finland, into a massive family — seven older siblings and four younger ones. His brothers got him into DotA at eight years old. His parents, from a construction-owning Laestadian family, doubted that playing video games could ever be a real career. That doubt aged poorly. He grinded lower-tier European Dota through 2016 and 2017 — Oogway, SFT e-sports, 5 Anchors No Captain, WESG 2017 — as a high-MMR pubstar with an unusual hero pool and no real reputation. Before TI8, he was considered one of the weaker midlaners available, criticized for his strange picks, questionable strategic choices, and tendency to lose his lane.

Then N0tail called.

The OG Miracle

In June 2018, OG — a team in crisis after losing Fly and s4 to Evil Geniuses — signed the unknown Topson as their new mid just before the TI8 qualifiers. Nobody expected anything. What followed is the single greatest underdog run in Dota 2 history.

OG qualified through open qualifiers, entered TI8 with rock-bottom expectations, and won the entire thing — beating Evil Geniuses, then PSG.LGD 3-2 in the grand final after rallying from the brink. Topson, the mid nobody rated, was central to it, playing heroes and lanes that made no sense on paper and dominating anyway. OG won $11.2 million.

Then they did it again. TI9, 2019. Many called the first win a fluke. OG reverse-swept Evil Geniuses and PSG.LGD in the playoffs, then beat Team Liquid 3-1 in the grand final. In Game 2, Topson scored the first-ever rampage in a TI grand final on Monkey King. OG became the first back-to-back TI champions in history, a feat that has never been repeated. Topson was a two-time TI winner before he turned 22.

The Later Years

After TI10 — where OG's three-peat dream ended against Team Spirit — Topson stepped back. He stood in for T1 in the SEA TI11 qualifiers, played for Old G with Ceb and No[o]ne for family/lifestyle reasons in 2023, then joined Tundra Esports for TI 2023. Tundra got upset by Entity in the group stage. He stayed for 2024, and Tundra finished 3rd at The International 2024 — a strong final run.

That was it. Tundra announced his retirement on September 24, 2024, immediately after TI13. He cited fatigue and family, and in January 2025 he left to complete Finland's mandatory military service. In a July 2025 interview he put it plainly: "No, never again. Career is done."

Playstyle & Legacy

This is the part that matters most. Topson didn't just win — he rewired how people think about mid.

Traditional midlaners maximized farm and scaled into the late game. Topson thrived on chaos. He played heroes nobody brought to mid — Monkey King, Pugna, Zeus, Riki, even actual support heroes — and made them work through sheer mechanical skill and game understanding. He specialized in taking unfavorable matchups and winning them anyway, in creating space for his teammates by drawing pressure, in refusing to play the role the way it had always been played. Zai said it best: "Topson plays the way he wants on any team, in a way that no one can really replicate."

Every time you see a modern mid pick a weird hero and make it look genius, that lineage traces back to Topson. He gave the entire role permission to be creative.

Fun Facts

He holds the record for the most professional matches played on Arc Warden — 31 games, one of the hardest heroes in the game to execute. Of course he does.

The first rampage in a TI grand final belongs to him — Monkey King, TI9, Game 2 against Team Liquid. He picked a fight-heavy carry hero in the mid lane at the biggest moment of the biggest tournament and got a five-man kill streak with it.