This season’s competitive season is shaping up to be a great year for Matthew “Whitemon” Filemon, the only Indonesian player competing in England with Tundra Esports. For the second time, he’s teaming up with Topias “Topson” Taavitsainen in a DreamLeague-level tournament in Europe, just like he’s always wanted.
Whitemon has been a solid player for Tundra since he moved from the competitive scene in the United States to England last December. He earned the trust of coach David “MoonMeander” Tan when all his TSM buddies left the team and were replaced by European players.
Then in January, he linked up with Topson again, who once joined as a stand-in for Tundra back in September 2023. Together, they carried Tundra through a series of qualifiers for big competitions like ESL DreamLeague Season 22 and the upcoming One Birmingham.
Despite their success in the qualifiers, Tundra hasn’t clinched a major win that would put them back on par with their 2022 performance. Nonetheless, Whitemon admits he’s content playing alongside Topson. At the start of DreamLeague S22, he spilled the beans in an Indonesian Dota exclusive channel, praising Topson’s knack for lifting the team during difficult situations.
“Well, you know we were teammates at T1. And I always like his gameplay, he is not a static mid laner. For example, he does not just stick to his own lane. He knows how to improve the game even when we’re losing. He knows how to recover from the game not just by farming, but from his positioning too.”
Looking ahead, Tundra will concentrate on rebuilding the team before the ESL One Birmingham competition kicks off on April 22nd. Shortly after their defeat, Whitemon hinted that finding a new player to fill the offlaner position, which was abruptly vacated by Ivan “MinD_ContRoL” Ivanov, would be their top priority.
