Alliance: the Dota 2 International’s Champions

DotA 2‘s International championship took place this past weekend, and it seems like it was a great time.  Several teams were in competition to become the best DotA 2 players in the world. The team that took the distinction is known as Alliance. But who are they?

Alliance is a team made up of all Swedish players that was formed in April 2013. Their membership is comprised from a team of already veteran DotA 2 players that had formerly played under the moniker No Tidehunter, a team that had several victories under it’s belt already.  Since their renaming to Alliance, they have played in 10 tournaments, and took first in nine of them, including The International.

The Alliance is made up of five Swedish players, the captain Gustav “s4” Magnusson, Henrik “AdmiralBulldog” Ahnberg, Joakim “Akke” Akterhall, Jerry “EGM” Lundkvist, and Jonathan “Loda” Berg.  Loda and Akke have been playing together since 2005, and are both considered highly skilled old school players that have been around since the original DotA. The team seems to have some pretty great synergy, with Loda and s4 both being capable of playing Solo Mid, though it is s4’s specialty, as he likes to play characters that fall within that role.  Loda and Admiral Bulldog both tend to play Carry, and Bulldog is the teams only player who plays Offlane every once in a while, which makes him one of the team’s effective Hero Killers.  Akke and EGM tend to fall under support or utility roles, helping out the others while not focusing mainly on damage output.  The team seems to like to switch up characters often, with the exception of AdmiralBulldog, who is known for his Lone Druid play, though he stuck with Nature’s Prophet for most of The International Finals.

Alliance seems to have a bright future in the DotA 2 scene. They have a lot of wins under their belt, and a pretty great team composition.  Hopefully they’ll bring the level of competition in DotA 2 to a higher standard, and we’ll see a whole new level of competitive play in future tournaments. They’ve definitely put out a call for their competition to step their game up.

So what do you guys think? Will you be following Alliance? Sound off in the comments, and stay tuned to GameSkinny for more esports news!