Zai: "Topson plays the way he wants on any team, in a way that no one can really replicate" Video
2024-08-02 12:16:00Tundra released a mini-documentary dedicated to their midlaner Topias "Topson" Taavitsainen. In it, the team General Manager and former pro Ludwig "zai" Wahlberg discussed what he thought made the midlaner such a strong player. He likes that the Finn has developed his own style and remained true to it.
Topson is a very stoic person, but very confident. Anyone who's watched him play, knows he plays his own style. He has a lot of self-belief, and he carries that with him in the game and also outside the game. What I appreciate about Topson is that he doesn't shy away from being himself. He's very true to himself and the way he plays. Every team he's been on he plays the way he wants, and he does it in a way that no one can really replicate. I think that's what brought him the most success. That's what makes him just just amazing as a player: his confidence in his own ideas and also, his confidence in himself to kind of carry them out,
Zai also discussed the difference between Topson's performance at TI8 and TI9. He thinks the midlaner reached his prime at the second TI, as his style became more refined.
From what I remember with Topson and about his prime, not TI8, it's obviously his first kind of splash onto the scene. I think he'd been around, you know, for quite some time before then, but I think he was nowhere near the heights. Later on, I think TI9 probably was when he came to his own the most. I think he still had the flashiness and kind of the unique creativeness from TI8. But he was much more refined and stable player. I think a lot of the times during TI8, there were many one-sided matchups. He would lose a lot of lanes and still crawl his way back and have a massive impact. But it would often be from a losing position. Whereas when TI9 came around, then all of a sudden, he was doing his own thing, and also smashing everyone in lane, so I think it was at TI9 when he was peaking
Topson at his core and at his best is a hyper aggressive mid player. His laning is really good. He plays a lot of matchups where he knows the ins and outs and most people don't. And I think he really excels when he gets to abuse the fact that he knows that stuff and can abuse his matchups and also be hyper aggressive, I think he's incredibly scary when it gets going. And a lot of the times, when we can get him in a position where he can snowball and just be aggressive. I think that's when he's at his strongest.
Topson is a two-time TI champion, who won both events with OG in 2018-2019. He joined Tundra in mid-2023, and next year, the organization rebuild the whole squad. The lineup has no wins yet, but latest events were better for them, as they reached 3rd place of ESL One Birmingham and top-4 of Riyadh Masters 2024.
