Alliance (esports)

Alliance is a professional gaming and esports organization based in Sweden that was formed in April 2013. They have teams in TrackMania, Dota 2, Hearthstone, the Super Smash Bros. series and Fortnite,[2] and previously had teams in League of Legends and StarCraft II.

The Alliance
DivisionsDota 2
Fortnite
Super Smash Bros.
Apex Legends
Call of Duty
Founded2013
LocationGothenburg, Västergötland, Sweden
Managing directorKelly Ong (CSO)
ManagerJonathan "Loda" Berg[1]
Henrik "AdmiralBulldog" Ahnberg[1]
Joakim "Akke" Akterhall[1]
Jerry "EGM" Lundkvist[1]
Adam "Armada" Lindgren[1]
PartnersMonster Energy
Twitch
GG.Bet
Websitehttp://thealliance.gg

In December 2016, the organisation announced that it had become player-owned[3] after parting with its parent organisation, GoodGame agency which was owned by Amazon through its subsidiary Twitch. The Dota 2 team won The International 2013, then the largest single prize money payout in esports history. The League of Legends team is the only team except Fnatic and G2 Esports that won a season of European League of Legends Championship Series.

History

The organization was founded in April 2013, picking up the Dota 2 team No Tidehunter as well as StarCraft II player Naniwa.[4]

The organization expanded into League of Legends in December 2013, which competed in European League of Legends Championship Series.[5] They entered Super Smash Bros. in November 2014 with the signing of Armada, a Fox and Peach player.[6]

Alliance left StarCraft II in July 2014 with the release of their last player, SortOf.[7] The League of Legends team was rebranded as Elements in January 2015[8] due to the team ownership rules in the League of Legends Championship Series preventing GoodGame Agency from owning multiple teams.

On December 12, 2016, Twitch spun Evil Geniuses and Alliance into player-owned organizations.[9] According to Alliance member Jonathan Berg, all original members in addition to Armada got a percentage of the company.[1]

Dota 2

A few months after being picked up by Alliance, the Dota 2 team won The International 2013, defeating former TI champions Natus Vincere in the grand finals 3-2. The team finished the group stages with a perfect 14-0 record, and only lost 3 games throughout the whole tournament (losing 1 game to Team DK, and the aforementioned 2 games to Na'Vi).

At The International 2014, the defending champions failed to make it out of the group stages, finishing tied for 11th place with a 6-9 record. After the tournament, their long stable roster fell apart, with the departure of Gustav "s4" Magnusson, Henrik "AdmiralBulldog" Ahnberg, and Jerry "EGM" Lundkvist.

While Starladder i-League is ongoing, Alliance announce the departure of MyNuts and use Kebap as a Standin for their series against Virtus.Pro[10]

The team welcomes their previous teammate EGM back to Alliance[11]

They would go on to win both WCA,[12] the biggest prize pool event that was not directed by Valve,[13] beating LGD in a best of 5; with a score of 3-2.[14] Following this they went to Starladder almost missing the tournament due to weather complications.[15] Despite a rocky start the team beat out TI reigning champions Evil Geniuses 2-0 in a best of three in the final.[16] After their back to back victories at lans[17] the team decided to drop out of the upcoming tournaments and focus on the Shanghai Major.[18]

The team split up after the sixth rendition of the International, which resulted in AdmiralBulldog retiring to pursue streaming full-time, and Akke retiring to pursue a career in programing and S4 joining OG. S4 went on to win the Boston Major[19] and the Kiev major, after leaving Alliance for OG.

The post TI6-shuffle squad featured former Ninjas in Pajamas players Limmp, Handsken and Jonassomfan as well as Loda and EGM. This squad had mediocre success failing to qualify for any major events during the TI6-TI7 season; ultimately leading to EGM being kicked on the last day of the "Drop period" before TI7 rosters had to be locked. They picked up Pablo as his replacement.[20] After The International 2017, for which Alliance did not qualify, the team announced that they would part ways with its players Simon “Handsken” Haag, Linus “Limmp” Blomdin and Jonas “jonassomfan” Lindholm.[21]

League of Legends
See also: Elements (League of Legends)

The team formed in December 2013, and were granted the spot vacated by Evil Geniuses in the European League of Legends Championship Series due to Evil Geniuses moving to the North American LCS.

2014

In the Spring Split, Alliance finished 3rd in the regular season with a 16–12 record, behind SK Gaming and Fnatic. Alliance mid-laner Froggen was voted as the MVP of the Spring Split with 28% of the vote.[22] In the playoffs, they finished 4th, losing to Fnatic in the semifinals 2–1, then lost to ROCCAT 2–0 in the 3rd place game.[23]

In the Summer Split, Alliance topped the regular season standings with a 21–7 record.[24] They then won the playoffs with a 3-1 over Fnatic in the finals, giving the team a spot in the 2014 League of Legends World Championship. At the World Championship, Alliance finished 3rd in their group, failing to advance to the knockout stage. The team was upset by Brazilian team KaBuM! e-Sports, which denied them a chance to play in a tiebreaker for a chance to progress to the knockout stage.

Alliance at DreamHack Summer 2015

The team picked up Martin "Rekkles" Larsson on November 24, 2014.[25] After a Riot Games rules change concerning sponsorship, Alliance LoL left the organization and rebranded itself as Elements.[26]

2015

Elements went 7–11 in the EU Spring LCS regular season to finish 7th, failing to make the playoffs.[27]

They later changed four of the players on the roster revealed on their Facebook and Twitter.[28]

Roster

Dota 2
ID Name Nationality
Nikobaby Nikolay Nikolov  Bulgaria
Limmp Linus Blomdin  Sweden
s4 Gustav Magnusson  Sweden
Handsken Simon Haag  Sweden
fng Artsiom Barshak  Belarus

Apex Legends
ID Name Nationality
hakis John Håkansson  Sweden
Vaifs Simon Bellini  Sweden
iPN_k0u Kha Nguyen  Norway

Super Smash Bros. Melee
ID Name Join date
Armada Adam Lindgren November 6, 2014 (retired) [29]
Android Andreas Lindgren October 5, 2016[30]

Fortnite
ID Name Join date
Powder Harald Gimre August 11, 2018[31]
Tickeling Gustav Hogland

Organization

Management
Alias Name
Loda Jonathan Berg
Kellymilkies Kelly Ong
Caramon Marcus Lundberg
Ombaq Pontus Bengtsson
Kevato Kevin Lindgren

References
  1. Garcia, Aedan. "Alliance Now an Independent Esports Organization". 12up. Retrieved 2016-12-13.
  2. "Divisions & Players". thealliance.gg. Retrieved 2015-11-01.
  3. "Alliance". thealliance.gg. Retrieved 2017-08-23.
  4. "Alliance picks up NTH and Naniwa". Retrieved 2015-04-25.
  5. "Alliance unveils League of Legends team". Retrieved 2015-04-25.
  6. Barker, Ian J. "Alliance signs Smash powerhouse Armada". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on 2015-02-13. Retrieved 2015-04-25.
  7. Bergman, Rickard (31 July 2014). "@DrAeromi yes". Retrieved 18 August 2017.
  8. "Elements". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 18 August 2017.
  9. Wolf, Jacob. "Evil Geniuses and Alliance become player-owned organizations". ESPN. Retrieved 2016-12-12.
  10. "Nuts Departs from Alliance". thealliance.gg. Retrieved 2015-12-03.
  11. "EGM joins Alliance". thealliance.gg. Retrieved 2015-12-13.
  12. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2016-02-04. Retrieved 2016-02-03.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  13. "Dota 2 Event: WCA 2015 - GosuGamers". www.gosugamers.net. Retrieved 18 August 2017.
  14. http://www.gosugamers.net/dota2/...wca.../95458-alliance-vs-lgd
  15. "Power Rangers replace Alliance at SL i-League LAN Finals". Retrieved 18 August 2017.
  16. "Alliance defeat Evil Geniuses 2-0, win SL i-League". Retrieved 18 August 2017.
  17. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2016-02-03. Retrieved 2016-02-03.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  18. "Alliance replaced by Tornado RoX in Dota Pit Season 4 EU Qualifier". Retrieved 18 August 2017.
  19. "Boston Major: OG triumphant in third Major title". Retrieved 18 August 2017.
  20. "Alliance". thealliance.gg. Retrieved 18 August 2017.
  21. "Alliance". thealliance.gg. Retrieved 2017-08-23.
  22. Fields, Frank 'Riot Mirhi' (April 16, 2014). "LCS MVP and All League Team". Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved October 27, 2015.
  23. Lingle, Samuel (April 16, 2014). "Fnatic top Alliance, seal third consecutive finals appearance". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on March 5, 2016. Retrieved October 27, 2015.
  24. Lingle, Samuel (August 15, 2014). "Alliance are going to Worlds". The Daily Dot. Retrieved October 27, 2015.
  25. Lingle, Samuel (November 24, 2014). "It's official: Rekkles joins Alliance". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved October 27, 2015.
  26. Lingle, Samuel (January 8, 2015). "By their powers combined, Alliance is now Elements". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on March 5, 2016. Retrieved October 27, 2015.
  27. Arran (March 28, 2015). "EU LCS Spring W9: Elements Fail to Qualify for Playoffs". News of Legends. Archived from the original on May 6, 2015. Retrieved May 18, 2015.
  28. Elements (May 13, 2015). "Element's Facebook post". Facebook.
  29. "Armada joins Alliance". armada.thealliance.gg. Retrieved 2018-08-11.
  30. Chen, James. "Alliance Now Sponsors the Literal Smash Brothers". PVP Live. Archived from the original on 2016-10-06. Retrieved 2016-10-05.
  31. "Alliance". thealliance.gg. Retrieved 2018-08-11.
Awards and achievements
Preceded by
Invictus Gaming		 The International winner
2013		 Succeeded by
Newbee
Preceded by
Fnatic		 League of Legends European Championship winner
Summer 2015		 Succeeded by
Fnatic
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