TI14: Tundra’s Whitemon unable to attend, replaced by Tobi

A bit of news that has become all too familiar this Dota 2 season: Tundra Esports‘ Matthew “Whitemon” Filemon will be missing from the roster at The International 2025 (TI14). This was announced by Valve community manager Wykrhm “Wyk” Reddy this afternoon on his X account, simply saying that Whitemon will be “unable to compete” at TI14.

An unfortunate turn of events, for sure, as Whitemon has been a seriously important piece in Tundra Esports’ overall consistency this season. He has improved as a player at a rapid rate since joining in December 2023, and has cemented himself as one of the best and most valuable supports in the world.

Curse you, visas

Although neither Tundra nor Wyk have confirmed the reason why as of the time of writing, as someone who hails from the same region as Whitemon, I’d say it’s likely due to visa issues. Southeast Asian Dota 2 pros have had to deal with this many times in the past, as the region isn’t really home to countries that have strong passports, with the exception of Singapore.

Team Tundra's Whitemon is unable to compete at The International. He has been replaced by Tobias 'Tobi' Buchner. #TI14 #Dota2 pic.twitter.com/8f6Ifmf8Hd

— Wykrhm Reddy (@wykrhm) August 30, 2025

Hardly the news that we want to hear right now, especially after Gaimin Gladiators announced last week that they would be withdrawing from TI14 entirely. The Gaimin roster are currently grappling with contract disputes, and so they were unable to come to an agreement with the parent organization about them not playing under the org’s banner at TI.

A suitable subtitute

Standing in for him is Tobias “Tobi” Buchner, who twice stood in for Team Liquid this year at PGL Wallachia Season 5 and FISSURE Universe Episode 5. This isn’t Tobi’s first rodeo as a stand-in for Tundra, as he also played for them at ESL One Birmingham last season after Ivan “MinD_ControL” Ivanov was suspended from the team.

It’s sad that Whitemon will have to watch his team compete at The International from the sidelines, but fortunately for Tundra, Tobi is more than capable of subbing in for him. He was actually a big reason why Liquid won FISSURE Universe to begin with. And since he’s been to The International before with Entity in 2022 and PSG Quest in 2023, he knows what it’s like to play at the most prestigious event in Dota.

Personally, I think it’s going to be a similar situation to when Marat “Mirele” Gazetdinov stood in for Team Spirit at FISSURE Universe Episode 6 just over a week ago. Since Denis “Larl” Sigitov skipped out on that event, Mirele got called up from Yellow Submarine, Spirit’s junior squad. He performed way beyond anyone’s expectations at the event, helping Spirit get to the grand finals before being swept by Team Falcons.

With any luck and adequate preparation, Tobi should slot in pretty much seamlessly when the team arrives in Hamburg, Germany. I’ll have to think a bit harder about where I might place them in the eventual power rankings for TI14, but this outcome is in no way, shape, or form a significant downgrade in the hard support position. I know they’ll be fine.