Alliance struggles in Div II opener against a motivated MonaspA

Storied Dota 2 organization Alliance has hit the first hurdle in its campaign to return to Div I of the WEU DPC. The squad lost its opening game to MonaspA in a 2-1 series that saw both teams show off their style of Dota. But ultimately, a hungry MonaspA team was able to triumph after three games of tense action.

Alliance struggled in game one, hitting the wall against a MonaspA team with some frankly scary carry players. The Georgian duo of Lasha "Nande" Narsia and Irakli "W1sh-" Peranidze dominated. But perhaps the most impressive players in the game were Giorgos "SsaSpartan" Giannakopoulos and Sakis "dEsire" Kartsampas. Both supports had incredibly strong performances, with dEsire grabbing kills, and SsaSpartan causing havoc on Silencer.

Game two saw Alliance refocus though. Against a MonaspA draft that really had little to no scaling potential, Alliance buckled down and waiting until late. Great warding and patience paid off, and the team slowly ground down their opponents so that Charlie "charlie" Arat’s Ursa could rip them to shreds.

But even this turnaround in the second game couldn’t stop the momentum of MonaspA. Deciding in game three to actually pick heroes that can right-click on people, their carries once again dominated. Alliance tried to staunch the bleeding, but instead found themselves in a long, slow, 36-minute loss.

With the loss, Alliance falls (hopefully) temporarily to the bottom of the division. On Feb. 3 they face Ooredoo Thunders, who had an impressive showing against the Ancient Tribe to kick off their season. 

MonaspA on the other hand, head to face a weaker-looking IVY, who struggled in their own opener against D2 Hustlers. We'll have to find out if both Alliance and MonaspA have already set the tone for their seasons, or if the former can course-correct.