With the Qualifiers of The International 2022 just a few weeks away, a Southeast Asia Dota 2 team surprised a lot of fans with a roster shakeup. The team has released not only Kim "Gabbi" Santos but also Karl "Karl" Baldovino.
What makes this move even more surprising is that no other reason was given by the team. In a post on Twitter, it just said that "all good things come to an end" and that they thank the two for everything they've done.
Karl had been part of the team since 2020 while Gabbi was brought in February of this year. During Tour 2, the team managed to qualify for the Stockholm Major though they were eliminated at the first round of the Lower Bracket. In Tour 3, they had to settle for fifth place.
Anyway, this means that the team now has to look for players to fill up Position 1 and Position 2. This is going to be difficult considering that the Qualifiers are just around the corner.
Is it the Godson?
The decision by T1 to let go of Karl and Gabbi has fueled interesting rumors in the community. One of these is the possibility of Topias "Topson" Taavitsainen being signed to the team. It's not that far-fetched when you think about it though.
After winning TI9, Topson made the decision to take a hiatus from the competition. He later went back to active status in hopes of getting a third TI win. However, when that didn't happen, Topson announced he was taking the season off to be with his wife and kid. Since then, he has gone back to playing Dota 2 but streaming instead of competing,
During that time, he was mainly playing on servers in Southeast Asia. Then last week, it was revealed that Topson had asked to be released to compete with a new team. OG agreed and this started a discussion among fans on which team Topson was joining.
Thus, when this T1 roster change was announced, a lot of fans in the community immediately speculated that Topson could be headed to T1. If that happens, it won't take long for him to make the adjustment. After all, he already has an idea of the playstyle of the SEA region. It's also advantageous for him since he now resides in the region.
If Topson does indeed sign with T1, the next question would be who is the second player the team will sign?
What do you think? Do you agree that Topson would sign up with T1?
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