Topson

Topias Miikka Taavitsainen — born April 14, 1998, in Haukipudas, Finland — is Dota 2’s most fearless innovator. Better known as Topson, the quiet Finn with the unorthodox hero pool won The International in 2018 and 2019 with OG — back-to-back Aegises of Champions, a feat no team had ever achieved — then walked away at the top, twice. His is the career that proved the meta is a suggestion.

The TI8 run was the fairy tale. In the summer of 2018, OG were a wreck: open-qualifier underdogs who had lost their roster weeks before the biggest tournament in esports. They picked up an unknown Finnish pub star as a stand-in — and the unknown promptly rewrote the tournament. Topson’s mid Monkey King, fearless and improvisational, became the symbol of the run: OG clawing through the bracket to beat LGD Gaming in a grand final for the ages. Dota’s greatest Cinderella story, written in real time, with a rookie mid laner at its heart.

The TI9 repeat was the dynasty. A year later, the defending champions returned — and nobody was calling them underdogs anymore. They were simply better. Topson’s hero pool had expanded into something absurd: the mid Gyrocopter with a Diffusal Blade, picks nobody else would dare draft, executed with a confidence that bordered on mischief. OG became the first team in history to win two Internationals, and Topson became the face of the unorthodox.

The hero pool is the art. Topson doesn’t follow the meta; he embarrasses it. The unconventional picks — the heroes nobody played mid, played brilliantly — forced the entire professional scene to reconsider what the mid lane could be. His fingerprints are structural: heroes he popularized became standard draft fare, and a generation of mid laners learned that creativity is a competitive advantage.

The ana partnership was the magic. His synergy with carry Anathan “ana” Pham — the trust, the timing, the telepathic understanding — was the engine of OG’s dominance. They played like two people sharing one brain, and the results were historic.

The Finnish sisu is the spirit. Raised one of twelve children — seven brothers, four sisters — in a Laestadian family, encouraged into DotA at eight by his older brothers, Topson studied to be an electrician before transferring to cooking school. His father owns a construction company; his parents doubted gaming could be a career until the trophies started arriving. On the biggest stages, he is famously, unnervingly calm: the soft-spoken superstar, the legend without the ego.

The post-OG journey kept the story going. After leaving OG in 2022, he stood in for T1, then joined Tundra Esports for 2023–2024 — helping them to a third-place finish at The International 2024. Then he announced his retirement: family reasons, and Finland’s mandatory military service waiting. The unorthodox mid was done. Or so it seemed.

The 2026 return was pure Topson chaos. He resurfaced in the open qualifiers for TI 2026 with the veteran “Team Retirement Home” stack alongside Artour “Arteezy” Babaev and Sébastien “Ceb” Debs. Then, days before the tournament, LGD Gaming — the very org OG beat in the TI8 final — lost their mid laner Santiago “TaiLung” Agüero Gustavo to a competitive-integrity ban and called the legend as a stand-in. The fairy-tale reunion fell short: LGD lost to Team Yandex in the elimination stage and missed the main event, a 9th–13th finish.

The homecoming is the headline. The short, strange return reignited the itch — and on September 23, 2026, OG announced Topson was coming home, headlining a rebuilt international roster with Natsumi, skem, SSS (on loan from PARIVISION), and OneJey, coached by kaffs. The debut: BLAST Slam VIII, September 29 to October 11, a $750,000 prize pool, and a date with the reigning TI champions. The chase for a third Aegis — unprecedented in Dota history — is officially on.

The pubs are the laboratory. Even at his peak, Topson’s ranked games were Dota’s R&D department: experimental builds, new ideas tested live, the hero pool forever expanding. Watch his pubs and you see the future meta, months early.

The OG brotherhood was the culture. The TI-winning roster — Topson, ana, Ceb, Notail, JerAx — played like friends first and teammates second, and the joy was visible: the fountain dives, the celebrations, the genuine affection. In an era of corporate esports, OG’s dynasty felt handmade — and Topson, the quiet Finn at its creative center, was its soul.

The mentoring shapes the scene. The advice shared on streams, the wisdom passed to the next generation of mid laners, the example of a superstar without the ego — the legend gives back. Young players don’t just copy his heroes; they copy his courage.

The legacy is the inspiration. Topson proved that unorthodox wins — that the courage to play your game, your way, on the biggest stage in esports, is not a gimmick but a strategy. Every creative mid laner working today owes him a debt. The fountain dives are legendary. The mid lane awaits — and the unorthodox has returned.