Alliance announced it had parted ways with its entire Dota 2 roster early on September 30th
Alliance has dropped its entire Dota 2 roster according to an announcement released on social media on September 30th. The storied Swedish organization parted ways with all five members of its roster, and announced a full rebuild of its lineup.
Alliance’s former roster consisted of Nikolay “Nikobaby” Nikolov, Aliwi “w33” Omar, Yaroslav “Limitless” Parshin, Adam “Aramis” Moroz, and Andrey “Dukalis” Kurpatkin. Alliance’s announcement was coupled with an emotional montage video.
The release comes weeks after a heartbreaking end to the 2022 DPC season. Alliance, seeded into the upper bracket of the The International 2022: Western Europe Qualifier, lost their opener to eventual winner Entity. The team would then fall to the lower bracket, losing 2-1 to lower division squad Team Bald Reborn. With the loss, Alliance were knocked out of contention for TI11, concluding a tumultuous season for the organization.
The Alliance roster's struggles
Alliance’s fall from grace has been stark and surprising. TI attendees in 2021, a rebuild later that year seemed to put them in a strong position for the upcoming season. However, after a disastrous Tour 1, the team fell to Division II. But the team eventually bounced back up to Division I for the final Tour. After an eight place finish though, the organization will start the next DPC season in Division II again.
The roster reshuffle also means the departure of Nikobaby, the teams longest tenured player. Having joined the team back in 2019, as the only non-Swede on a new roster, Niko quickly rose to become the star player of that roster, and staple in the team's success.
Alliance's highlight during Niko's time as the primary carry of the team was likely the summer of 2021, where Alliance scored podium positions in DreamLeague Season 14, ESL One Summer 2021, and claimed victory in the DreamLeague Season 15 DPC Western Europe Upper Division.
Loda's remarks
In a statement within the announcement. CEO Jonathan “Loda” Berg detailed some of the reasoning behind the drop: “Releasing the full roster was not a decision we made lightly, especially since we have a history of developing and overcoming struggles. To say it’s not been an easy season would be the understatement of the year, but there has been much good as well. Every mistake is a chance to learn and we’ve made a lot of mistakes.
Loda goes on to explain that Alliance is doubling down on its commitment to Dota 2. He thanked sponsors and fans, and ended on a hopeful note: “...remember, rats survive everything.”
The post concluded by saying that the process of putting together a new roster has already begun. Alliance will compete in Division II of the WEU DPC League next season. However, what format the season is likely to take has not yet been revealed.