A tragic Dota 2 story: Alliance

Around 10 years ago, Alliance were winning The International 3 against Natus Vincere in one of the most epic Grand Finals in TI history. Now, the same organization has a Dota 2 team that got eliminated from Western Europe’s Division II.

This means that Alliance will need to go through open qualifiers, qualify for Division II of WEU, and then finish in the top 2 in this division to get promoted to Division I. The earliest they can play Dota 2 again at the highest level will be almost one year from now.

The peculiarities of Dota 2’s professional scene

This is an esport in which teams come and go. Even Team Secret, who finished 2^nd at The International 2022, now find themselves playing in Division II of WEU. The competitive level is high, the game is constantly changing, and anyone who doesn’t keep up with the meta will get crushed, regardless of their previous results.

Having won The International two years or even one year ago is completely irrelevant. Few other esports have such a brief expiration date for greatness. Usually, prowess lasts for at least a few seasons. At worst, teams go from being the best in the world to being one of the top 10 teams in that esport.

To see a team that goes from being one of the strongest at the international level to struggling in regional tournaments is quite strange. But that’s exactly what happened to Alliance over the years.

And they are not alone in this: Natus Vincere, Nigma Galaxy, and other teams are also on the list of former giants that seem to have forgotten how the game works.

Things have a way of balancing themselves out🤷 https://t.co/RXSHHkichH pic.twitter.com/HX4MHyz42J

— Alliance (@theAllianceGG) June 27, 2023

A summary of Alliance’s Dota 2 story

Alliance started playing Dota 2 professionally in 2013 and won The International that same year. This doesn’t happen too often. Usually, teams need years to develop a play style that’s capable of winning the world championship. But Alliance did it in months.

In the next several seasons, Alliance continued to win important tournaments but no longer qualified for The International. Then they started a new adventure, with new players, who took the team to TI6 (9^th-12^th), TI9 (13^th-16^th), and TI10 (9^th-12^th).

The team’s management always wanted more, which led to a lot of uninspired roster changes. These changes completely destroyed the team and made it lose its Division I position. Now the lowest point has been reached: Alliance is just one of the many Dota 2 teams that are trying to compete professionally.

Header: Alliance