Whitemon Talks About Move to TSM, Playing with Two Time TI Winners and More

TSM’s support player Matthew "Whitemon" Filemon recently talked about his move to North America amongst other things in an interview. Following the disbandment of T1’s Dota 2 roster, Whitemon was forced to look for new opportunities during the off-season before ultimately making a bold move to North American (NA) team TSM.

Before his departure to Lima, Peru for the upcoming Major, Whitemon was interviewed by Indonesian journalist RosesaGaming where he talked about the reason behind his move as well as his experience playing alongside certain players.

Whitemon credited MoonMeander for helping him adjust to TSM

TSM’s support player Matthew "Whitemon" Filemon started off the interview by talking about his adaptation to TSM’s strategies, as he spent his career so far only in Southeast Asia (SEA). While he admitted that he was scared at first playing in a new region, he credited team coach David "MoonMeander" Tan for helping him adapt to the new environment.

“If I can be honest, at first I felt scared. I was afraid that I can’t follow their gameplay but then Moon said to me, “Just play like how you usually play.” And then I just play normally and I feel like it’s not that different because we also got some experience, so I feel like it’s easier as time goes on. Also, Moon is the veteran of the team since the rest of us are young so it’s easier to shape us into becoming a cohesive unit. It’s easier to adapt if you can listen to the coach, ” said Whitemon.

He then talked about how his move to TSM came to be in the first place. He noted that he was initially offered to join TSM along with former teammate Nuengnara "23savage" Teeramahanon. However, 23savage ultimately opted to stay with Talon Esports after Anucha "Jabz" Jirawong’s arrival to the squad while Whitemon opted to gain new experience with TSM.

“Me and 23savage were initially on the fence at first. However, 23savage told me he would stay with Talon if Jabz was confirmed to be joining the squad, which ended up happening. He did say to me that he wanted me to join Talon as well, but I feel like I wanted to try something different and new because I already played with him before at T1.”

Finally, when Whitemon was asked about his experience playing with two-time TI (The International) winners Anathan “ana” Pham & Topias "Topson" Taavitsainen during T1’s TI11 (The International 2022) campaign, he simply responded by saying that he had zero pressure playing alongside them.

“I think Ana seems to be having more fun. I don’t know to be honest if he was tryharding, but to me it seemed that he was having fun. But Topson definitely was trying hard at the time, I learned a lot from Topson”

Whitemon and TSM will play their first matches in the group stages of the Lima Major later today. However, TSM will face immediate challenges as it will face Team Spirit & PSG.LGD.