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Alliance has made another notable change to its Dota 2 roster, signing former HellRaisers offlaner Yaroslav “Limitless” Parsgin alongside ex-PuckChamp mainstay Audrey “Dukalis” Kuropatkin on August 2. They will fill the void left by the departure of Moiez “symetricaL” Lin and former captain Nikolai “CTOMAHEH1” Kalchev.
The decision to bring in new players was due to the team’s poor Division I showing during the Western Europe Dota Pro Circuit (DPC), where they went head-to-head against the top teams in the region. The organization was unable to win any of the seven series or games played in the Western European DPC.
As a result, Alliance was moved to Division II after the team came in last place. After the regional league ended, offlaner symetricaL was taken off the team, and CTOMAHEH1 has followed suit as the franchise looks to rebuild.
Although the Swedish team performed poorly, it received an invitation to ESL One Malaysia 2022. The tournament is an independent competition with a US$400,000 prize pool and is scheduled to be held on August 23. ESL One Malaysia 2022 will reportedly not give any DPC points and will take place after the Arlington Major.
Both symetricaL and CTOMAHEH1 are being replaced with new players in preparation for the ESL One Malaysia and the TI qualifiers. The duo became players in Alliance in February after the team previously made major changes to its roster. Jonathan “Loda” Berg, the CEO of Alliance, revealed that a major reason for the team’s poor performance this season was the inability of the players to connect effectively, as the team chemistry continued to suffer.
“With a poor season behind us in Div 1 we are making changes to the core of the Dota 2 team to better prepare for ESL and later TI qualifiers,” he said.
“There is a lot that can be said, but the core issue in my eyes has been a lack of connection between the players on the team as well as us never being able to find and agree on our identity inside the game.”
Alliance’s other changes to its roster include bringing in Kirill “Alagon” Pavlik as the team’s new head coach. Alagon had previously coached HellRaisers and Rune Eaters Esports in 2019 and 2021, respectively. The franchise hopes that the addition of two-time Dota 2 Champions League winner Limitless and 20-year-old Russian player Dukalis, alongside Alagon, will help improve results. Dukalis will take over CTOMAHEH1’s previous position in the team as the in-game leader for the fast-approaching ESL One Malaysia 2022 tournament.
With the rest of the team, which includes Nikolay “Nikobaby” Nikolov, Aliwi “w33” Omar, and Adam “Aramis” Moroz, Alliance looks forward to having a shot at improving its record from the disheartening 2021-22 DPC run. While the team was not among the 12 directly qualified through the Dota Pro Circuit points to join The International 11, Alliance still has a chance to participate.
The WEU qualifiers is currently the only way the team can get into TI 11, but the franchise would need to compete against more prominent teams like Nigma Galaxy, Team Secret, and several others for an opportunity.
