Tundra Esports will be playing with two-time TI winner, Topson, and prodigy, Nightfall, in a BetBoom Universe series.
The ongoing BetBoom Universe Eps 1: Comics Zone sees an interesting twist in its Upper Bracket Final. A matchup between WEU warriors, Tundra Esports and Gaimin Gladiators, is already as hyped as it is. But two core players in Tundra, Leon "Nine" Kirilin and Oliver "skiter" Lepko, are not playing in the series. They are instead replaced by two-time TI champion, Topias "Topson" Taavitsainen, and offlaner prodigy, Egor "Nightfall" Grigorenko.
Topson makes an appearance since Old G
Star midlaner, Topson has been away from the radar of Dota 2 competition for a while. He last played the Western Europe (WEU) Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) qualifier in December 2022 alongside Sébastien "Ceb" Debs and Johan "N0tail" Sundstein on Old G. However, they fell short in the deciding series, losing against Monaspa. After the short stint, Topson was barely active and sparsely streamed on his Twitch channel. But he is finally here for some action.
The ongoing BetBoom Universe tournament pits many notable names in the European region. A few hours before Tundra's match against Gaimin Gladiators for the Upper Bracket Final, Tundra dropped surprising news. The org revealed that Nine is sick and Topson is to fill in his shoes. With his scarce presence in competitive Dota, Topson's appearance in this tournament is extremely exciting for fans.
Alongside the TI winner, Nightfall from BetBoom Team is also a substitute in the series, who fills in the shoes of skiter. This information was only revealed on Liquipedia and then announced by BetBoom Team. Nightfall, who is a current offlaner, will go back to his carry roots in this series.
Nightfall had a prominent carry reputation with Virtus.pro in 2020 before switching to the offlaner role in Evil Geniuses. He undoubtedly aces both roles but fans are excited to see him shine as a carry once again.
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Can Tundra secure victory against WEU runner-up, Gaimin Gladiators?
Tundra Esports charge into the BetBoom Universe tour UB Final with stand-ins and their journey isn't going to be easy. Gaimin Gladiators is currently in a scary form as they recently secured a convincing 2nd place finish in WEU DPC. They scored higher than teams like OG, Entity, and even Tundra Esports, who were all dragged into long tiebreakers.
UPDATE: Tundra Esports demolished Gaimin Gladiators 2:0 to advance to the Grand Final of the BetBoom Universe Eps 1 tournament. In the post-match interview, Sneyking said that skiter has food poisoning and Nine is experiencing fever. If both players don't recover anytime soon, Tundra might have to play with stand-ins in the Grand Final.
Sneyking revealed that Topson is available to play with them but Nightfall might have schedule issues due to scrims with his team. The Finals of the tournament are set to happen tomorrow.
Where to watch
You can spectate the broadcasts on BetBoom's official Twitch channels. Here are the English language channel and the Russian language channel. Keep track of the BetBoom Universe Eps 1 schedule and results here.
Stay tuned to Esports.gg for more Dota 2 news and updates!