After being subjected to a barrage of negative rumours over the past few days, Tommy “Taiga” Le ultimately disclosed that he decided to take a short break from the Dota Pro Circuit Western Europe Tour 3 Division 1 to deal with his mental health problem.
A day prior to the DPC WEU Tour 3, OG announced that they would be competing in the Dota 2 Pro Circuit (DPC) Western Europe (WEU) 2023 Tour 3: Division I without Taiga. Adam “Aramis” Moroz was picked as his replacement in position 4. OG explained at the time that Taiga was departing due to personal problem.
This sparked some speculation about Taiga’s absence from the OG team. Some social media users speculated that Taiga was the one behind OG’s poor result in the Berlin Major competition. Some went further and suspected Taiga was dismissed because he was “gambling against himself” in the competition. One of them was Yaroslav “Limitless” Parshin, a former professional who last played for Alliance, who stated that Taiga suspiciously got first blooded too often back then.
Yesterday, Taiga finally showed up and issued an apology via his personal Discord channel. He confessed that he has not yet recovered from depression and anxiety after OG’s lost in The International last year. He told his fans that he is currently undergoing therapy to restore his mental health.
Dota fans and pundits responded favourably to his statement on social media. Taiga’s mental health issue shows that organisations and management should pay attention to mental health of their teams who frequently face intense matches and pressure outside of competition.
What’s next for OG
Taiga’s absence has been severely impacted OG as they are struggling without him in DPC WEU Tour 3 Division 1; with two defeats and one win so far. His replacement, Aramis, does not appear to fit his team’s strategy. If this situation doesn’t improve, OG might not be able to play in the last Major of this season in Bali next month.
Additionally, OG must consider restrictions governing stand-in players. The rules stated that Stand-in players are only permitted to play four times in seven matches. This means OG can only put Aramis in one more match or they risk being kicked out of the DPC. However, Valve once stated that players with mental or physical issues in DPC are eligible for exemptions.
According to one of OG’s representatives, Taiga is expected to return for a match against Team Liquid tomorrow. Taiga and the Dota OG team’s management have yet to confirm this report.
