Alliance

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No Tidehunter

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The Alliance practicing hard under Loda's watchful gaze during their bootcamp in Stockholm.

Photo from Loda's blog on TV6.se

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Na`Vi

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Achievements

The Players

s4

Lions eSportsKlubb

Team Empire

The Tough Bananas

Loda

Team_Team

Jukes on You

Meet Your Makers

SK Gaming

Roskilde Ravens

The Last Try

Ducky's Dream Team

Online Kingdom

KD-Gaming

eXperience

DK

Akke

Druidz

AdmiralBulldog

EGM

Druidz

Emocore

Turtle Masters

Strategy

Predictions for the International

Na`Vi

Previous Team Presentations

How far do you think The Alliance will go at this years International?

Following the second International and the underwhelming performance ofJonathan '' Berg left Singapore and moved back home to Sweden. Still wanting to play professional Dota 2, he started shopping around for a sponsor, supposedly attracting the attention of, who were in the process of losing the core of their team due toPer Anders '' Olsson Lille looking towards creating . But CLG weren't the only team interested, as North American organizationalso 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 person to join this team was Loda's lifelong friendJoakim '' Akterhall, who had chosen not to join Pajkatt in moving to China. Next up the pair set their eyes on a promising Swedish solo mid player fromGustav '' Magnusson, who suggested taking onJacky '' Mao andHenrik '' Ahnberg in order to round out the roster.As the Alliance was not yet ready 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, especially as the announcement of their sponsor ended up being delayed all the way until mid-April, just shy of six months after the initial roster was put together.This team made their first big splash at, where they surprised a lot of people by beating out , 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 period 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 behalf they got a lot of undue flack for this decision, which may have helped spurr the team on as they rapidly began finding results once more with their new trial Jerry '' Lundkvist, who leftand 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 first place in theWestern Qualifiers and going to represent Europe against the might of Chinese Dota on their home soil, in Shanghai, China. Going undefeated through the entire competition, not dropping a single game even in the finals against, The Alliance made history as the first ever team to defeat the Chinese on LAN on their home soil , and still the only team to do so (did follow The Alliance in defeating the Chinese in the, but this tournament 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 overin the finals of2nd Place -- $5001st Place -@Jönköping, Sweden - 100,000 SEK (~$15,500)2nd Place -@Stockholm, Sweden - 20,000 SEK (~$3,100)3rd Place -- $1001st Place -- $6001st Place -- $6001st Place -- $6001st Place -- 1,250€3rd Place -- $5001st Place -@Kiev, Ukraine - $8,0001st Place -- Invite to LAN Finals1st Place -- $5,0001st Place -- $5,0001st Place -@Shanghai, China - 250,000 RMB (~$40,200)1st Place -@Jönköping, Sweden - 140,000 SEK (~$21,700)1st Place -@Kiev, Ukraine - $12,0001st Place -- $9,000(Captain)Signature heroes: :d2_magnus: s4 started out playing competitive in Heroes of Newerth with a team calledalong withAdrian '' Kryeziu, gaining some early LAN success during his almost six month stay with the team, which ended in late 2011. After being replaced on LION, he moved on to Dota 2, at first trying out as a carry player forduring their rebuilding phase due to his friendship with fellow ex-HoN playerRoman '' Sadotenkov, before moving on to joinas their offlane player from May until September of 2012, during which time TTB attracted sponsorship byIn September s4 joined EternaLEnVy in creating No Tidehunter, going through various promising free agents of the scene as they aimed to build a successful team from the ground up, including the likes ofDominik '' Reitmeier playing with them for a short while during September-October and their strong run in the, which caught the attention of Loda and Akke, who needed further players for their team. As Loda approached s4 to join what would become The Alliance, he brought along his teammates EnVy and AdmiralBulldog, and has since been the solo mid player of the team, as well as their Captain and strategic mastermind since early 2013.In addition to gaining acknowledgement as one of the premier drafters of Dota 2, s4 has become famous for his supreme mid and late game decision making and near perfect execution. His patience in playing out teamfights and waiting for the opportune moment to strike has made him a legend on Magnus, the hero for which he has been retroactively renamed by the Swedish government.s4 is however a lot more than a one hero player, being equally dominant on heroes such as Puck and Batrider, capable of running the map with his heavy ganking Night Stalker and recently showing great ability to play a more damage dealer style of hero with Dragon Knight. One of the most interesting recent heroes which s4 has added to his hero pool is the solo mid Timbersaw, which shows great promise as a ganking and pushing/counter-pushing early game dominance hero.Signature heroes: :d2_gyro: The history of Loda in competitive Wc3 DotA begins in the Summer of 2006, when he for the first time moved on from playing in-house leagues to take part in official competitions with his friends under the name of. While the team showed some promise, Loda was enticed away together with his friend Akke to join the Danish squad ofas they had recently gained a sponsorship after winning, becoming the legendary, where he played support alongside Akke.While the first incarnation of MyM did well and managed to capture DreamHack Winter 2006, the only LAN tournament in the early days of DotA, Loda and Akke realized that they still wanted to play with a Swedish roster of their own making, causing them to resurrect Team_Team, who eventually gained sponsorship of their own in 2007, becoming the legendary, where Loda would help to invent the global strategies which were his first claim to fame.During this period Loda was also immortalized by the Chinese community, who named him L-God, beginning the Chinese love affair with this Swedish carry player. His team reached the pinacle of Wc3 DotA during 2008, even overpowering MyM in multiple competitions, however due to the slow churn of players leaving the scene and having to keep on replenishing the lines of SK-Gaming, the team eventually came to a halt in March of 2009, at which point Loda rejoined MyM, having only time to win one tournament before MyM disbanded as well, with half of the team ending up merging intoThis caused Loda to create, winning DreamHack Summer 2009, being picked up byonly to leave again over a contract dispute in January of 2010 and reform along with some ex-MyM players as, eventually being sponsored byto attend ESWC 2010, where the team finished 5th-6th. This was however the end of the road for Loda in Wc3 DotA, as he moved on to HoN, where he spent the rest of 2010 and half of 2011, playing for teams such asandLoda made his return to Dota within December of 2011, bringing over Akke andJesper '' Nyhlén and eventually joining forces with Pajkatt, earning themselves a sponsorship from CLG before Loda ended up departing for Singapore in order to be together with his girlfriend. While in Singapore Loda became good friends withBenedict '' Lim Han Yong and ended up joining Zenith, with whom he attended the second International, coming in 5th-6th place before heading back to Sweden and starting the process of creating the team we now know as The Alliance.Loda is famous not only for his farming abilities, but also for his versatility, as years of playing the game have made him able to perform solidly for his team on almost any carry in the game. This has been the backbone for his team's style of drafting, prioritizing specific carry heroes low in the draft at a time when teams such ashave been known to first pick their carry hero in most games.However, the crowning achievement of Loda's careeer is without a doubt making former SK-Gaming teammateKim '' Larsson come out of retirement in order to compose a ballad in his honor Signature heroes: :d2_chen: The history of Akke in Wc3 DotA begins together with Loda in the Team_Team of 2006 followed by their time in MyM and return to T_T, as the two were inseparable for the next two years. This came to a halt at the tail end of SK-Gaming, as Akke decided to quit Wc3 DotA in order to focus on his University studies in late 2008, thus missing out on the final chapters of the Wc3 DotA scene.Akke returned to competitive play in 2010 with Swedish HoN team, then joining KD-Gaming together with Loda in August of that year and moving on to Online Kingdom later on, being one of the few teams who were able to upset Fnatic during their dominance of the HoN scene, coming second atand eventually beating Fnatic out to win thein September of 2011. At the end of his HoN career Akke was honored by sharing the win for best support in the yearly community vote along withJascha '' Markuse, ending on exactly the same amount of votes.Akke returned to Dota 2 with Loda in xP and later CLG, forming one of the most impressive support pairings of the period between the first and second International together with Mirakel. Although the pair was eventually broken up after having attended the second International together with CLG, Akke has since found his groove again with EGM after joining NTH/The Alliance in late October of 2012.With the Alliance, Akke has in particular staked his claim as not just one of the best Chen players in the world but arguably the very best on this hero, to the point where at times his team has even bought extra Helm of the Dominator's in order to expand his creep army, because no mere three creeps is enough for this man. He is also the team's go-to Visage player, and when looking for a slower pace of game, his fallback with Alliance has been the Keeper of the Light. He also plays the most complex hero in all Dota, the highly skill dependent Ogre Magi.Fun Fact: Akke is kind of awesome at Nintendo games as well, what with winning the Swedish Nintendo Championships in 2004, 2006 and 2012 and coming in second three more times.Signature heroes: :d2_ld: AdmiralBulldog is the madman who perfected Lone Druid by playing the hero exclusively in public matchmaking, catching the eye ofDanil '' Ishutin who ended up giving him a chance to stand-in for Na`Vi during the second half of 2012. This ignited Bulldog's taste for competitive Dota 2, as he ended up joining Envy and s4 in the newly created team NTH in September of 2012.Bulldog plays the offlane for his team, and although initial critique pointed out his limited hero pool this is far from the case these days, as his hard work has payed off and he has now mastered a wide array of offlane heroes, although the sheer perfection of his signature Lone Druid and Nature's Prophet still causes the illusion of weakness on the other heroes, if only by comparison.Bulldog is in many ways the modern day heir to the throne ofDmitriy '' Kupriyanov. He has the same qualities of a selfless offlaner who sacrifices his own early game in order to disrupt the opposing teams trilane and then punishes any space he is given in the mid game in order to become a powerful secondary carry player for his team. The main difference between the two is LighT's greater focus on split-pushing, while Bulldog is more inclined to join teamfights and to push together with his team.Signature heroes: :d2_rubick: The unassuming player behind the nickname of "EnterGodMode" began his career in Wc3 DotA within 2010, who after dropping leaving their sponsor took up the name ofunder the leadership ofNiklas '' Högström when moving into Dota 2 in late 2011. This team would later become sponsored and better known as, and he played with them until September of 2012, when he left the competitive scene for a short while.EGM returned to competitive Dota 2 playing for the mostly Swedish stack calledalong with other semi-active Swedish players, before he was called upon by Wagamama to start his trial with QPandas in later December of 2012. EGM was all but set to join the team when Envy was removed from NTH and a trial for the now all-Swedish roster offered to him. After strong performances on support as opposed to his traditional offlane solo role, he was eventually established as the new fifth for what would later be revealed as The Alliance around May of 2013.EGM has since become a very stable lane support, often tasked with protecting Loda while he farms up, as Akke is in his jungle (or the opponents), making his enemies question their life choices. Over time his amazing plays on heroes such as Io and Windrunner have come to bring him the attention he deserves, saving Loda from many deaths through many small strokes of genius which we've come to expect from him.Notably the way the Alliance plays the game, EGM's support Windrunner often ends up resembling more of a fourth core hero in games, as the team allows EGM the space to farm up key items, knowing that he will repay this trust ten fold each and every time.The Alliance are one of the most consistent teams on the scene, and a lot of if comes from their exceptional drafting and their near unbeatable strategies. Unlike many other teams, the Alliance seem to always know exactly when they will win the game, as every strategy is built not to do something gimmicky but to win the game by a certain point in time. This is far more remarkable than it sounds, and explains a lot of their successes.More to the point, the strong individuals who make up the team have allowed them to build these varied strategies, which tend to grow out of a number of basic drafting positions, like a chess game building to a number of different ends based off of just a few choice opening gambits. In particular the versatility of Loda has been the backbone of the Alliance strategy, as they seem capable of winning with nearly every carry hero in the pool.The strategies of Alliance tend to be timing pushes with a dual physical damage dealer fallback. This used to be largely Loda and Bulldog with s4 providing the teamfight control and utility, but has recently been changed around a bit, with an option for s4 to play the secondary damage dealer role while Bulldog provides the utility with heroes such as Bounty Hunter or Batrider.In accordance with their love of pushing strategies, the Alliance often utilizes fairly survivable lineups, either through tanky heroes or heroes with evasion mechanics such as Windrunner for EGM and Phansom Assassin for Loda. On top of this the team loves healing setups which allow them to live through the burst damage which has been common over the previous half year, with especially Akke's Chen being highly useful in providing clutch heals.The beauty of the Alliance is that even when you know what's coming, it rarely seems to matter.Does it even need to be said? Consistently the most dangerous team in Dota 2 since the addition of EGM to the roster, this team has a proven track record on LAN, against both scenes. They have some of the most creative and precise strategies and are highly goal-orientated. There's not enough superlative to describe how great this team is at their best. Just this. This team has won about $124,000 since their formation in December of 2012. That comes out at a monthly income of $3,100 per player, or just shy of whathas earned outside of their International finishes over the last two years (Na`Vi has earned roughly $140,000 in addition to their $1,250,000 from the two Internationals).Sure, the start of their bootcamp corresponded with a slight dip in performance. Sure, a lot of these earnings were gotten on the back of their strategies for the 6.77 metagame. But to expect them not to be able to adapt, that these losses during the bootcamp have not been them working out the kinks in their new playstyle, to expect The Alliance to be anything shy of the favourites going into this years International? Don't be silly.