Ti3 Team Presentation: The Alliance
Today's massive piece takes a quick glimpse at the team which has dominated the Dota 2 scene for much of 2013, the combination of experience and talent that creates Alliance one of the most feared teams for this year's The International 2013. Coming up next will be the South-East Asian hope, my Orange NeoES.
Following the second International and the underwhelming performance of Zenith, Jonathan 'Loda' Berg left Singapore and moved back home to Sweden. Still desiring to play professional Dota 2, he started looking around for a sponsor, supposedly attracting the attention of CLG, who were in the course of losing the core of their team due to Per Anders 'Pajkatt' Olsson Lille looking towards creating world LGD.Int. But CLG weren't the only team attracted, as North American organization Evil Geniuses also showed an interest in Lodas new team.
Eventually it was EG who were able to provide the better deal, which would eventually lead to the creation of their sister organization The Alliance. The first individual to join this team was Loda's lifelong friend Joakim 'Akke' Akterhall, who had chosen not to join Pajkatt in moving to China. Next up the pair set their eyes on an encouraging Swedish solo mid player from No Tidehunter, Gustav's 4' Magnusson, who recommended taking on ca Jacky 'EternaLEnVy' Mao and Henrik 'AdmiralBulldog' Ahnberg in order to complete the roster.
As the Alliance was not yet prepared to be launched to the world, the team retained the name of Envy and s4's old team, as there was no reason to change it up with the name change only a short while away, causing quite a bit of initial confusion around the origins of the team, particularly as the announcement of their sponsor turned out being postponed all the way until mid-April, just shy of six months after the preliminary roster was put together.
This team made their first big splash at DreamHack Winter 2012, where they surprised a lot of people by beating out Evil Geniuses, their secret brothers, in front of the home crowd in a 2-1 finish which catapulted them to international attention. However over the next few months, the team stagnated into playing the heavy farming and stacking game which they had first found success with, with internal strife also slowly causing the team to grow silent, as they hit a slump in early 2013.
During this time the role of Captain moved from Envy to s4, before the team eventually decided that they needed to replace Envy entirely in order to find the right balance within the team. As the team still lacked a voice to speak on their part they got a lot of undue flack for this decision, which may have helped spur the team on as they rapidly began finding results once more with their new trial Jerry 'EGM' Lundkvist, who left QPAD Red Pandas and moved from playing offlane to being the hard support for his new team.
With this new lineup The Alliance quickly became a dominant force in the West, claiming top in the G-1 Champions League Season 5 Western Qualifiers and going to represent Europe against the might of Chinese Dota on their home soil, in Shanghai, China. Going undefeated through the whole competition, not dropping a single game even in the finals against LGD. Cn, The Alliance made record as the first ever team to defeat the Chinese on LAN on their home soil, and still the only team to do so (Na 'Vi did follow The Alliance in defeating the Chinese in the Alienware Cup, but this competition was played online, even though Na 'Vi were bootcamping in China at the time).
Since then the team has followed this up with their second DreamHack title in a row as well as their second StarLadder title in a row, being well on their way to creating a dynasty on LAN in Europe. While the team experience a short spell of inconsistent results after the start of their bootcamp on July 10th, they ended their pre-TI3 season on a high note with their victory over de mousesports in the finals of The Premier League Season 5.
Achievements
2nd Place - AVerMedia Dota 2 Cup (2012) - $500
1st Place - DreamHack Winter 2012 @Jnkping, Sweden - 100,000 SEK (~$15,500)
2nd Place - THOR Open 2012 @Stockholm, Sweden - 20,000 SEK (~$3,100)
3rd Place - RaidCall EMS One Spring Cup #1 (2013) - $100
1st Place - RaidCall EMS One Spring Cup #2 (2013) - $600
1st Place - RaidCall EMS One Spring Cup #3 (2013) - $600
1st Place - RaidCall EMS One Spring Cup #4 (2013) - $600
1st Place - EIZO Cup #2 (2013) - 1,250
3rd Place - Ritmix Dota 2 League (2013) - $500
1st Place - StarLadder Star Series Season 5 (2013) @Kiev, Ukraine - $8,000
1st Place - G-1 Champions League Season 5 Western Qualifier (2013) - Invite to LAN Finals
1st Place - The Premier League Season 4 (2013) - $5,000
1st Place - WePlay Dota 2 League (2013) - $5,000
1st Place - G-1 Champions League Season 5 (2013) @Shanghai, China - 250,000 RMB (~$40,200)
1st Place - DreamHack Summer 2013 @Jnkping, Sweden - 140,000 SEK (~$21,700)
1st Place - StarLadder Star Series Season 6 (2013) @Kiev, Ukraine - $12,000
1st Place - The Premier League Season 5 (2013) - $9,000
Following the second International and the underwhelming performance of Zenith, Jonathan 'Loda' Berg left Singapore and moved back home to Sweden. Still desiring to play professional Dota 2, he started looking around for a sponsor, supposedly attracting the attention of CLG, who were in the course of losing the core of their team due to Per Anders 'Pajkatt' Olsson Lille looking towards creating world LGD.Int. But CLG weren't the only team attracted, as North American organization Evil Geniuses also showed an interest in Lodas new team.
Eventually it was EG who were able to provide the better deal, which would eventually lead to the creation of their sister organization The Alliance. The first individual to join this team was Loda's lifelong friend Joakim 'Akke' Akterhall, who had chosen not to join Pajkatt in moving to China. Next up the pair set their eyes on an encouraging Swedish solo mid player from No Tidehunter, Gustav's 4' Magnusson, who recommended taking on ca Jacky 'EternaLEnVy' Mao and Henrik 'AdmiralBulldog' Ahnberg in order to complete the roster.
As the Alliance was not yet prepared to be launched to the world, the team retained the name of Envy and s4's old team, as there was no reason to change it up with the name change only a short while away, causing quite a bit of initial confusion around the origins of the team, particularly as the announcement of their sponsor turned out being postponed all the way until mid-April, just shy of six months after the preliminary roster was put together.
This team made their first big splash at DreamHack Winter 2012, where they surprised a lot of people by beating out Evil Geniuses, their secret brothers, in front of the home crowd in a 2-1 finish which catapulted them to international attention. However over the next few months, the team stagnated into playing the heavy farming and stacking game which they had first found success with, with internal strife also slowly causing the team to grow silent, as they hit a slump in early 2013.
During this time the role of Captain moved from Envy to s4, before the team eventually decided that they needed to replace Envy entirely in order to find the right balance within the team. As the team still lacked a voice to speak on their part they got a lot of undue flack for this decision, which may have helped spur the team on as they rapidly began finding results once more with their new trial Jerry 'EGM' Lundkvist, who left QPAD Red Pandas and moved from playing offlane to being the hard support for his new team.
With this new lineup The Alliance quickly became a dominant force in the West, claiming top in the G-1 Champions League Season 5 Western Qualifiers and going to represent Europe against the might of Chinese Dota on their home soil, in Shanghai, China. Going undefeated through the whole competition, not dropping a single game even in the finals against LGD. Cn, The Alliance made record as the first ever team to defeat the Chinese on LAN on their home soil, and still the only team to do so (Na 'Vi did follow The Alliance in defeating the Chinese in the Alienware Cup, but this competition was played online, even though Na 'Vi were bootcamping in China at the time).
Since then the team has followed this up with their second DreamHack title in a row as well as their second StarLadder title in a row, being well on their way to creating a dynasty on LAN in Europe. While the team experience a short spell of inconsistent results after the start of their bootcamp on July 10th, they ended their pre-TI3 season on a high note with their victory over de mousesports in the finals of The Premier League Season 5.
Achievements
2nd Place - AVerMedia Dota 2 Cup (2012) - $500
1st Place - DreamHack Winter 2012 @Jnkping, Sweden - 100,000 SEK (~$15,500)
2nd Place - THOR Open 2012 @Stockholm, Sweden - 20,000 SEK (~$3,100)
3rd Place - RaidCall EMS One Spring Cup #1 (2013) - $100
1st Place - RaidCall EMS One Spring Cup #2 (2013) - $600
1st Place - RaidCall EMS One Spring Cup #3 (2013) - $600
1st Place - RaidCall EMS One Spring Cup #4 (2013) - $600
1st Place - EIZO Cup #2 (2013) - 1,250
3rd Place - Ritmix Dota 2 League (2013) - $500
1st Place - StarLadder Star Series Season 5 (2013) @Kiev, Ukraine - $8,000
1st Place - G-1 Champions League Season 5 Western Qualifier (2013) - Invite to LAN Finals
1st Place - The Premier League Season 4 (2013) - $5,000
1st Place - WePlay Dota 2 League (2013) - $5,000
1st Place - G-1 Champions League Season 5 (2013) @Shanghai, China - 250,000 RMB (~$40,200)
1st Place - DreamHack Summer 2013 @Jnkping, Sweden - 140,000 SEK (~$21,700)
1st Place - StarLadder Star Series Season 6 (2013) @Kiev, Ukraine - $12,000
1st Place - The Premier League Season 5 (2013) - $9,000
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