One of the oldest and most well-known Dota franchises, [A]lliance seems to be on the path back to glory as of late. They’re a huge part of Dota2’s history – here’s their background.
Quick Stats:
- Founded in 2013 after Alex Garfield, Evil Geniuses’ CEO, was revealed as the sponsor of Swedish team No Tidehunter
- TI3 Champions (2013)
- Part of Good Game Agency, along with Evil Geniuses (and now-defunct Team Tinker)
- Current Roster: Loda, EGM, Akke, AdmiralBulldog, s4
- Managed by Erik Barge and Kelly Milkies
Alliance basically started out as No Tidehunter, a team that formed in the latter half of 2012. Originally, both EternalEnvy and Black^ were on the roster, although Black left fairly soon after. EternalEnvy played with No Tidehunter until February of 2013, when he was kicked in the interest of finding a 5th Swedish-speaking player. EGM joined the team and they were soon signed as Alliance.
With the addition of EGM, Alliance began placing well in tournaments, winning DreamHack Summer and Starladder Season 6. During The International 3, Alliance only lost one game leading up to the grand finals. They beat NaVi in a close 3-2 series to take home the Aegis.
After TI3, Alliance placed well in a couple of mid-level tournaments but started to fall off in mid 2014. After a disappointing 11-12th place finish at TI4, EGM and s4 left for Tinker and Secret, respectively. After this, Alliance’s roster was unstable for a while. Chessie and MiSeRy joined for a while, but the team failed to find any real success. They cycled through a number of players, including bringing back EGM briefly. Alliance was knocked out of the TI5 qualifiers much to the disappointment of fans. Pajkatt and 7ckngmad left in August of 2015. After adding and then dropping MyNuts, S4 returned to Alliance from Team Secret and EGM was brought back for a third time in December. Reverting back to their TI3 roster seemed to do the trick. Alliance won World Cyber Arena and went on to win Starladder 13 the next month. While they placed 7-8th at the Shanghai Major, they seem to be back on form again.
Alliance’s players are world famous and have large followings. AdmiralBulldog remains one of the most popular Dota 2 streamers and Loda/Akke are pretty active on social media. Manager Kelly Milkies has been praised for her work in the scene, especially for taking on extra duties and assisting with translation during WCA 2015.
Signature Alliance Dota:
