While Natsumi helped Talon earn their first Dota 2 LAN tournament victory last year, disappointing results in 2025 prompted his departure from the team.
Talon Esports seem set for an overhaul of its Dota 2 roster after they parted ways with Filipino carry player 
John Anthony “Natsumi-” Vargas on Friday (25 April).
Natsumi joined Talon in mid-December 2024, shortly after he helped the team earn their first Dota 2 LAN tournament victory in the MESA Invitational 2024 as a stand-in. However, the team was unable to replicate that success, leading to Natsumi's departure after just four months as a full member of Talon's roster.
While Talon have cemented themselves as arguably the top team in Southeast Asia in the first four months of 2025, they have struggled mightily against international competition.
Talon's best result in 2025 thus far has been a Top 6 finish in FISSURE PLAYGROUND #1 at the start of February, though everything went downhill from there. Four days after FISSURE PLAYGRROUND #1, the team bombed out of BLAST Slam II in 9th-10th place after only managing to win one game in the Group Stage.
Talon only played in one tournament in March, FISSURE Universe: Episode 4, where they finished 12th-14th out of 16 participating teams. While the team did qualify for DreamLeague Season 26 to start April, their disappointing results only continued after they finished dead last in ESL One Raleigh 2025 and PGL Wallachia Season 4.
Following Natsumi's departure, Talon's Dota 2 roster is now down to just four players:
Rafli Fathur “Mikoto” Rahman
Chung “Ws`” Wei ShenTalon have yet to announce who will replace Natsumi as their carry player, though his replacement is expected to be revealed before their next tournament appearance in DreamLeague Season 26 on 19 May. It also remains to be seen if this is the only roster move Talon will make before the next iteration of DreamLeague, as a more significant overhaul may be required if Talon are hoping for a drastic improvement in results.
With tournament results in the first half of the year playing a huge factor in determining which teams receive direct invites to The International 2025 in September, the pressure is mounting for teams all across the world to improve their performance if they hope to get invited or qualify to this year's Dota 2 world championship tournament.
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