A somber day for Alliance fans as the team lost it’s fifth game in a row in the DPC WEU 2021/2022 Tour 3: Division I. With the loss, Alliance is likely set to head back to Division II, ending the squads brief return to WEU’s premier league.
The game today, against Gaimin Gladiators was a last ditch effort to hold onto their position. However, in two hard fought games, Alliance were humbled by Gaimin. In Game One, Anton “DryachYO” Shkredov’s Chaos Knight and Miroslav “BOOM” Bičan’s Storm Spirit tore through the opposition, although Alliance managed to hold on for almost 34 minutes.
In game two, Alliance really battled with everything they could. But against the slowly growing power of an Alchemist, and an unstoppable Puck, the team could do nothing but watch as their Division I hopes disintegrated.
Following the losses, Alliance co-owner and founder, Jonathan “Loda” Berg, who has also acted as the team’s coach for the past two seasons posted a poignant message on Twitter.
In it he apologized to the fans and stated that going forward the team would be focusing it’s energy on TI qualifiers. Alliance would now have to qualify through Regional or Last Chance Qualifiers to head to TI. He also stated that change is needed, hinting at roster moves in the future.
A difficult journey for Alliance fans
Alliance had a respectable 9th-12th place finish at TI10, but this was perhaps disappointing for their own standards. In the wake of this, the team rebuilt around Nikolay “Nikobaby” Nikolov. But the their performance in the first tour of the 2021/2022 DPC saw them fall to Division II.
This meant that much of their remaining roster departed. But behind this a new core exciting group including Aliwi “w33” Omar was formed. The now reinvigorated squad swept through Division II before landing back in Division I for Tour 3.
However, now, after just four weeks back in the big leagues, Alliance will head back to Division II for the start of the 2022/2023 season. With a few caveats that is. There’s large amounts of speculation the format of the DPC will be altered for the 2022/2023 season, meaning perhaps there will be no lower division to return to. Additionally, as Loda alludes to, TI is on the horizon, and Alliance can still theoretically make it to the tournament. It’s a difficult job, but the TI3 champions could still make a miracle run.
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