Topson shines as Tundra win craziest match of TI 2023's Group Stage vs PSG.Quest

Reigning The International (TI) champions Tundra Esports are off to a good start on their campaign for a repeat title in TI 2023's preliminary Road to The International Group Stage. And arguably the best example of Tundra's signature championship resilience is their crazy last match of phase one against PSG.Quest on Saturday (14 October).

After locking up the top seed of Group D in day one, Tundra's last match was a mere formality versus a struggling PSG.Quest. But while Tundra didn't need any more wins to advance to the next phase of the Group Stage, PSG.Quest made them work for it in a series that totaled a whopping 155 minutes of action.

Against such stubborn resistance, Tundra having a two-time TI champion in Topias "Topson" Taavitsainen is definitely the difference-maker.

Game one of the Tundra-PSG.Quest series was by far the longest game of the TI 2023 Group Stage at a whopping 87 minutes, and may end up being the longest of the entire tournament once it's all said and done.

While both teams were on relatively even footing through the early to mid game, Tundra started pulling ahead at the 30-minute mark as Topson's Zeus and Oliver "skiter" Lepko's Sven dominated in teamfights while Leon "Nine" Kirilin's support Spirit Breaker gave the team full map control.

However, PSG.Quest managed to stall things out thanks to Aybek "TA2000" Tokayev's Naga Siren relentlessly split-pushing across the map. With Tony "No!ob" Assaf's mid Earthshaker also making it very difficult for Tundra to push up PSG.Quest's high ground, the game pushed past well the hour-mark.

While PSG.Quest were able to hold their base, their map control was non-existent, which allowed Tundra to take over and start building up a net worth lead that exceeded 50,000 to help them break through their opponent's defenses.

Despite PSG.Quest's best efforts to defend, Tundra's net worth advantage meant they had more items and more buybacks to throw into the siege. After 87 minutes of action, Tundra finally destroyed PSG.Quest's Ancient to take the first game of the series.

Surprisingly, game one only saw a total of 68 kills, with Tundra edging out PSG.Quest 36-32. Skiter led the way for Tundra with 11 kills and 11 assists on four deaths while Topson had eight kills and a game-high 25 assists on five deaths.

Even after that marathon game one, both teams still had it in them to play in a 68-minute game two. But while Tundra were in full control of their previous meeting, PSG.Quest were in position to force the series to a tie before their opponents mounted a late game comeback.

After another close start, PSG.Quest flipped the script from game one and got to a dominant position thanks in large part to TA2000's Luna and No!ob's Primal Beast dominating the teamfights. However, Tundra managed to stay in it thanks to Topson's mid Pugna relentlessly split-pushing and keeping his teammates alive in clashes, even if he had to tank a lot of deaths.

The turning point of game two came around the 42-minute mark, when Tundra repelled what would have been the game-ending push for PSG.Quest by scoring a huge teamwipe with multiple buybacks forced. In this pivotal clash, Topson's Pugna somehow tanked through all of PSG.Quest's cores with Life Drain before scoring an incredible Ultra Kill.

With PSG.Quest's economy hamstrung by that disastrous fight, Tundra took the lead and never looked back. As the game pushed past the hour-mark, skiter's Spectre proved to be an unstoppable force, especially with Topson lurking in the backlines to heal him with Life Drain.

In PSG.Quest's last stand of the series, once again made good use of their gold advantage to throw as many bodies as possible to break their opponents' defenses. Topson once again shined in the closing seconds of the game, tanking through PSG.Quest with Life Drain before dealing the finishing blow on their Ancient with Nether Blast.

Game two had significantly more kills than game one despite being much shorter, with Tundra leading 44-41. Skiter once again topped the charts with 15 kills and 20 assists on seven deaths while Topson had 13 kills and 17 assists on 10 deaths.

TI 2023's Group Stage features an all-new format with two distinct phases.

The first phase will take place from 12 to 13 October and will split the 20 participating teams into four groups of five teams each, who will then go through a single round-robin with best-of-two matches. The bottom team of each group will be eliminated after the first phase while the remaining 16 teams will advance to the second phase.

The second phase will be held from 14 to 15 October and will have the remaining teams play in eight head-to-head, best-of-three matches to determine placement in the Main Event.

In this phase, the Top 2 teams from each group in phase one will get matched with either the third or fourth-placed teams from the opposite group. The winners of the eight head-to-head matches will then earn upper bracket berths in the Playoffs while the losers will have to start from the lower bracket.

TI 2023 will be hosted from 12 to 29 October in Seattle, the United States and will see 20 of the best Dota 2 teams in the world fighting to claim the coveted Aegis of Champions and the lion's share of a growing prize pool.

For everything you need to know about TI 2023, check here.

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