How good is the new Alliance Dota 2 roster?

Alliance recently picked up a fresh line-up of players for their Dota Pro Circuit 2021-22 run. Alliance’s DPC2021-22 run thus far has been awful, to say the least. They lost their Division 1 bracket slot after placing bottom seeds, but the underwhelming results were somewhat expected.

Regardless, Alliance plans to make a comeback in the second Tour, and perhaps even qualify for the International 11.

Image source: Alliance

Alliance reforms ahead of DPC Tour 2

It’s the second time Alliance decides to retrench their players massively. Unlike the first iteration, where Alliance recruited several notable players, this time Alliance decides to pick up new faces. Besides Aliwi “w33” Omar, the other squad members are relatively young blood, namely Moiez “symetricaL” Lin Mahmood, Adam “Aramis” Moroz, and Nikolay “CTOMAHEH1” Kalchev.

Evidently, Alliance intends to take the opportunity to start anew with how they intend to compete sustainably in DPC2021-22. The new roster has wow factors in terms of what we can expect from the drafts and formation. Whereby, Alliance still wants the reformed team to play around Nikobaby, their star player.

While w33 takes up the role as midplayer, he often strays away from the typical flashy-styled midplayer. Instead, w33 is exceptionally good at making space for his carry allies to shine, while not crippling what he can contribute for the match. We have seen w33 played in former Team Liquid, now Nigma, where he diverges the attention off Amer “Miracle-” Al-Barkawi.

Alliance’s new leadership

The hard support player and new captain of Alliance, CTOMAHEH1 will be in the spotlight. Given Alliance’s poor drafting choices throughout the DPC season, he will be an important candidate to lead Alliance’s signature playstyle. Fortunately, both Alliance’s carry players are formidable veterans, making Nikobaby and w33 ideal chess pieces to execute their new captain’s tactics.

CTOMAHEH1, who previously played for Brame, got promoted to Division 1 in the upcoming Tour. Although he wasn’t the captain at the time, he has made somewhat of a reputation for himself by playing unusual support heroes, such as Queen of Pain, Weaver, and Earth Spirit. Thus, this showcases his limitless innovation for drafts, plus he’s more on the aggressive side.

Couple this with the recent Dota 2 Patch 7.31, and this Tour might just be Alliance’s best playing field. His unorthodox picks will be very effective against Division 2 teams, that often play by the book.

Nikolay “CTOMAHEH1” Kalchev

Much-needed rebound

It began with Nikobaby getting left hanging before their TI10 match by teammate, Linus “Limmp” Blomdin, and subsequently eliminated. Nikobaby’s career has since spiraled down terribly. Unfortunately, given the situation, and Kyle “melonzz” Freedman’s dissing on Alliance’s performance, it’s a tough time to be in Nikobaby’s shoes.

watching the postgame cams i thought Alliance had just 2-0’d Liquid and was like damn, then realized they were celebrating a 1-1 score ?

Much love guys but save the hugs for the real W damn

— Kyle #StandWithUkraine (@keepingitKyle) January 18, 2022

Alliance’s upcoming Division 2 will likely be in the bag, but it’s crucial for Alliance to take little steps to reach their goal. Hopefully, the Alliance line-up isn’t bummed out about playing in a lower-class bracket.

What to expect from Alliance’s new roster

All eyes on Nikobaby. The decision to pick w33 of the many options Alliance has in the Western Europe region, definitely gave it away. Nikobaby may be promising and full of potential, but he’s vulnerable to opponents who understand the need to shut him down early.

W33’s role coming into Alliance will be to redirect the hate and attention away from Alliance’s winning condition. On paper, w33 is the most established player in Alliance right now and has won first runner-up in two Internationals. Even though w33’s actual responsibility is to leverage Nikobaby as Alliance’s late-game assurance, w33 can still flex his skills. Considering CTOMAHEH1’s versatility in drafting, we could  see more w33 signature heroes, such as Invoker and Meepo.

On the offlane role, symetricaL remains a mystery, since this particular role often doesn’t shine well anyways. That said, if symmetricaL somehow manages to leverage his offlane position as a playmaker, this could be a Team Spirit‘s rival in the making.

A powerhouse picking up a stack of nobodies isn’t uncommon in the recent season after Team Spirit’s explosive success. However, a key takeaway for Alliance right now is to test the waters of what this line-up can truly bring. We mentioned how much of an innovator, CTOMAHEH1 is, and how the seasoned carry duo would easily pick up his unconventional drafts.

Even so, we wouldn’t be too confident on how well Alliance can fair up against the other regions’ top candidates. After BOOM Esports and Fnatic swept the floor with Team Secret and Team Spirit respectively at GAMERS GALAXY Invitational Series Dubai 2022, that’s a major power gap for Alliance to accomplish by end of DPC2021-22.