Taiga will compete in the North America TI12 Qualifiers with Wildcard Gaming

Taiga has just been announced on loan from OG to Wildcard Gaming, a North American team. The pos 4 player will compete alongside his new teammates in the North American (NA) TI12 Regional Qualifier on August 17, 2023.

Here is the complete roster of Wildcard Gaming that will compete in TI12:

Taiga is not the first prominent player to make the switch to the NA region. The former carry player of beastcoast, K1, had merged forces with nouns just after the Bali Major ended. And a revamped B8 with a promising all-CIS lineup seems to be a threat. The NA region and its once mild competition grow spicier than ever.

Taiga's time with OG started sour in 2023, with the team constantly falling short. OG had missed two Majors this year, the Lima Major and the Bali Major. Their best performance this year was a top-six finish at the Berlin Major However, that wasn't enough to secure OG enough DPC points for a TI12 invite.

The last tournament that Taiga competed with OG was in the $5 million Riyadh Masters championship. The team played with Ceb as a stand-in, yet again, but things didn't turn out well. OG bowed out at 13th-14th place, another dissatisfying performance by the prominent org.

But on top of team issues, Taiga was personally having a rough time. In Tour 3, the pos 4 player was absent in a few OG games. Following a nasty rumor that slandered Taiga of matchfixing, he opened up on his Twitch stream. He talked about his mental health and how he is prioritizing recovery.

With Taiga moved to the inactive bench, he opts to explore new territories. The Norwegian pos 4 will now play in North America and join hands with Wildcard Gaming. This will be Taiga's first time playing competitively in the region.

Wildcard Gaming has some notable names like Sammyboy but the team hasn't been promising in this season. The team fell to the Lower Division and successfully climbed up to Division I in Tour 3, but their performance with this new roster has question marks ahead.

The competition in NA is pretty stacked. Nouns is the biggest threat in NA, having even beaten TSM to qualify for the Bali Major. And in this TI12 Qualifier, Nouns brings in a strong contender in the carry position - K1 from beastcoast. Other than Nouns, B8 looks very promising and Team DogChamps has the potential to pull upsets.

Wildcard Gaming is certainly one of the dark horses of NA. With an already noteworthy lineup, Taiga's addition to the roster makes things more unpredictable - but very exciting. Taiga and his new team has one chance to qualify for TI12 and it will begin on August 17th.

Stay tuned to Esports.gg for more Dota 2 news and updates.