Despite being one of the most iconic organizations in Dota 2’s history, Alliance has been in a freefall ever since their entire roster was signed by Team Liquid in 2019, and they’ve hit rock bottom.
Last year, they competed at The International 2021 and placed between ninth and twelfth with three other teams. This year, they didn’t even come close to qualifying for The International 2022. Due to an abysmal DPC season, their hopes were vested in a lower bracket run at The International 2022 Western Europe Qualifiers, but they lost 2–1 to Team Bald Reborn in the first round.
Steve “Xcalibur” Ye, Team Bald Reborn’s mid laner, explained it happened because Alliance didn’t respect his team enough to bother looking into strengths and weaknesses.
“The one thing I want to say though is the Alliance guys didn’t research us. They underestimated us,” he said during his stream on Sep. 15. Then, he explained how in further detail.
“Like, there’s no way they give us Pango and they banned Enigma. Like, we don’t even play Enigma, bro,” he added in disbelief.
“Imagine banning a hero we don’t even play and leaving a Pango.”
Xcalibur is convinced whoever was in charge of scouting didn’t do their job. “They didn’t even look at our profiles. They didn’t respect us at all. They didn’t research us.”
The loss wasn’t huge a surprise since Alliance’s recent form hasn’t been good. However, the fact their run to qualify for The International 2022 is already over is a hot topic in the Dota 2 community.
Loda, ex-Dota 2 pro and current CEO and coach of Alliance, said: “It’s been the worst DPC season in the history of Alliance. I’m sorry to the fans for the pain we have shared.”
