Is Tundra Esports Paving The Way For A New Era?

The newly-minted Tundra Esports squad took home their second title in a row, this time being BLAST Slam II. The Western European mix utterly swept the Gaimin Gladiators 3 – 0 in the Grand Final, and it looked like they didn’t break a sweat.

With their newest trophy stored in the cabinet, Tundra have won two S-Tier tournaments in two weeks, which is simply mind-boggling. Having to travel right after performing a reverse sweep at Fissure Playground to perform even better at Blast Slam is a true testament to the team’s resilience.

2 tournaments. 2 Sundays. 2 Trophies…1 Tundra. pic.twitter.com/zYUdzTAkWU

— TUNDRA (@TundraEsports) February 9, 2025

And we must remember that this team was only formed 40 days ago, and with fine-tuning and some more time together, I truly believe they are on track to form a new dynasty. But what makes these blokes so good?

Cheating The Lanes

Sometimes, you’ll pick a core hero early on in the drafting stage, and it’ll most likely be countered by a following pick in lane. However, this 33 and Saksa duo-lane does not give two hoots about potential counter picks. These two have always “cheated” the lanes. Whether it’d be stealing the wave and forming a new lane in the river, or having 33 go into the jungle on Lycan at level 2 and have Saksa farm the lane. 

No matter how hard the lane matchup is, this pair always finds a way to come out of their lane with the maximum. On the other hand, you have bzm, an extremely solid mid-laner, and the safe lane duo on the team isn’t too shabby either. 

You will rarely see Tundra get stomped due to their sheer prowess in the lanes, and it’s almost disgusting how good they are in the early game. 

Peak Creativity

You can pretty much count on 33 to nerd things out and figure out something new. Tundra abused Glimmer Cape throughout BLAST Slam II, inspiring others, including myself, to try it out. 

I’ve seen players in my pubs pick up a Glimmer on Huskar months ago, which makes a lot of sense. But starting to grab the item on Bristleback and eventually Phantom Assassin? This is just unheard of – and it works. 

Dyrachyo was also pulling off a neat trick on Gyrocopter. This hero’s innate ability allows him to disassemble most items. So he would always purchase Drum of Endurance, pop its stacks non-stop for farming and fights, disassemble it, and reassemble the item with all its charges refreshed.

These are only two examples of many. Tundra, mainly 33, are always finding something new to abuse. It’s actually beautiful to watch. 

MMR Is Just A Number

My favorite part about this Tundra roster is that they don’t even have high-ranking players. You’ll see PARIVISION or BetBoom Team having all five players within the top 50 in the world, but Tundra doesn’t.

Arguably the two best performers on the team, dyrachyo and 33, are sitting in the top 400. To put this into perspective, these two are lower ranked than our favorite streamer – Gorgc. 

I’d like to give huge props to dyrachyo in particular. Though dyrachyo may not have the mechanical skills to match Nightfall, Satanic, or Pure, he’s never afraid to make risky plays on the main stage, even if it might result in him feeding instead. This is a characteristic that I believe pubstars lack in the professional scene, and is also why dyrachyo is an incredibly valuable asset in the Tier 1 space.