Alliance is a professional gaming and
esports
Esports, short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, individually or as teams. Although orga ...
organization based in
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...
that was formed in April 2013. They have teams in ''
TrackMania
''TrackMania'' is a series of racing games for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Nintendo DS and Wii developed by Nadeo and Firebrand Games. Instead of following the usual trend of choosing a set car and track to ...
'', ''
Dota 2
''Dota 2'' is a 2013 multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) video game by Valve. The game is a sequel to ''Defense of the Ancients'' (''DotA''), a community-created mod for Blizzard Entertainment's '' Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos.'' ''Dota 2' ...
'', ''
Hearthstone'', the ''
Super Smash Bros.'' series, ''
Fortnite
''Fortnite'' is an online video game developed by Epic Games and released in 2017. It is available in three distinct game mode versions that otherwise share the same general gameplay and game engine: ''Fortnite Battle Royale'', a free-to- ...
'', ''
Apex Legends
''Apex Legends'' is a free-to-play Battle royale game, battle royale-hero shooter game developed by Respawn Entertainment and published by Electronic Arts. It was released for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One in February 2019, for Nintendo ...
'' and ''
VALORANT
''Valorant'' is a free-to-play first-person tactical hero shooter developed and published by Riot Games, for Windows. Teased under the codename ''Project A'' in October 2019, the game began a closed beta period with limited access on April 7 ...
'', and previously had teams in ''
League of Legends
''League of Legends'' (''LoL''), commonly referred to as ''League'', is a 2009 multiplayer online battle arena video game developed and published by Riot Games. Inspired by ''Defense of the Ancients'', a Mod (video games), custom map for War ...
'' and ''
StarCraft II
''StarCraft II'' is a military science fiction video game created by Blizzard Entertainment as a sequel to the successful ''StarCraft'' video game released in 1998. Set in a fictional future, the game centers on a galactic struggle for dominance a ...
''.
In December 2016, the organisation announced that it had become player-owned after parting with its parent organisation, GoodGame agency which was owned by
Amazon
Amazon most often refers to:
* Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology
* Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin
* Amazon River, in South America
* Amazon (company), an American multinational technology c ...
through its subsidiary
Twitch
Twitch may refer to:
Biology
* Muscle contraction
** Convulsion, rapid and repeated muscle contraction and relaxation
** Fasciculation, a small, local, involuntary muscle contraction
** Myoclonic twitch, a jerk usually caused by sudden muscle co ...
. The ''Dota 2'' team won
The International 2013
The International is an annual world championship tournament for the five-on-five esports video game ''Dota 2''. Produced by the game's developer Valve, the International is the final event of the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) and consists of 20 teams ...
, then the largest single prize money payout in esports history. The ''League of Legends'' team is one of the five teams that won a season of
European League of Legends Championship Series
The ''League of Legends'' EMEA Championship (LEC) is the professional ''League of Legends'' esports league run by Riot Games in the EMEA ( Europe, the Middle East and Africa) region, in which ten teams compete. Each annual season of play is divi ...
with
Fnatic
Fnatic (pronounced "fanatic"; also stylized as fnatic or FNATIC) is a professional esports organization headquartered in London, United Kingdom. Founded 23 July 2004, the team has players from around the world, across a variety of games, such ...
, G2 Esports, Mad Lions and Rogue.
History
The organization was founded in April 2013, picking up the Dota 2 team No Tidehunter as well as
StarCraft II
''StarCraft II'' is a military science fiction video game created by Blizzard Entertainment as a sequel to the successful ''StarCraft'' video game released in 1998. Set in a fictional future, the game centers on a galactic struggle for dominance a ...
player Naniwa.
The organization expanded into ''League of Legends'' in December 2013, which competed in European
League of Legends Championship Series
The League Championship Series (LCS) is the top level of professional ''League of Legends'' in the United States and Canada. The esports league is run by Riot Games and has ten franchise teams. Each annual season of competition is divided i ...
. They entered ''Super Smash Bros.'' in November 2014 with the signing of
Armada, a
Fox
Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush'').
Twelve sp ...
and
Peach
The peach (''Prunus persica'') is a deciduous tree first domesticated and cultivated in Zhejiang province of Eastern China. It bears edible juicy fruits with various characteristics, most called peaches and others (the glossy-skinned, non-fu ...
player.
Alliance left ''StarCraft II'' in July 2014 with the release of their last player, SortOf. The League of Legends team was rebranded as Elements in January 2015 due to the team ownership rules in the
League of Legends Championship Series
The League Championship Series (LCS) is the top level of professional ''League of Legends'' in the United States and Canada. The esports league is run by Riot Games and has ten franchise teams. Each annual season of competition is divided i ...
preventing GoodGame Agency from owning multiple teams.
On 12 December 2016,
Twitch
Twitch may refer to:
Biology
* Muscle contraction
** Convulsion, rapid and repeated muscle contraction and relaxation
** Fasciculation, a small, local, involuntary muscle contraction
** Myoclonic twitch, a jerk usually caused by sudden muscle co ...
spun
Evil Geniuses
Evil Geniuses (EG) is an American esports organization based in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1999, the organization has fielded players in various fighting games, ''Call of Duty'', '' Counter-Strike: Global Offensive'', ''Dota 2'', ''Fortni ...
and Alliance into player-owned organizations. According to Alliance member Jonathan Berg, all original members in addition to Armada got a percentage of the company.
''Dota 2''
![Loda (Jonathan Berg) at ESL One Frankfurt 2014 (original) (cropped)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/Loda_%28Jonathan_Berg%29_at_ESL_One_Frankfurt_2014_%28original%29_%28cropped%29.jpg)
A few months after being picked up by Alliance, the ''Dota 2'' team won
The International 2013
The International is an annual world championship tournament for the five-on-five esports video game ''Dota 2''. Produced by the game's developer Valve, the International is the final event of the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) and consists of 20 teams ...
, defeating former
TI champions
Natus Vincere
Natus Vincere (Latin for "born to win"), abbreviated NAVI (formerly Na`Vi), is a Ukrainian esports organization based in Kyiv. Founded in 2009, the organization has teams and players competing in various games, such as ''Counter Strike: Global ...
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 International 2014 (TI4) was the fourth edition of The International, an annual esports ''Dota 2'' championship tournament, which took place at the KeyArena in Seattle. Hosted by Valve, the tournament began on July 8 with the Playoffs phase ...
, 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
The team welcomes their previous teammate EGM back to Alliance
They would go on to win both WCA, the biggest prize pool event that was not directed by Valve, beating LGD in a best of 5; with a score of 3–2. Following this they went to Starladder almost missing the tournament due to weather complications. Despite a rocky start the team beat out TI reigning champions
Evil Geniuses
Evil Geniuses (EG) is an American esports organization based in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1999, the organization has fielded players in various fighting games, ''Call of Duty'', '' Counter-Strike: Global Offensive'', ''Dota 2'', ''Fortni ...
2–0 in a best of three in the final. After their back to back victories at lans the team decided to drop out of the upcoming tournaments and focus on the
Shanghai Major
The Shanghai Major was a '' Dota 2'' tournament that took place in Shanghai from March 2–6, 2016, and was the second Major of the 2015-2016 professional '' Dota 2'' season. 16 teams competed in the tournament; eight were given direct invitations ...
.
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 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. After
The International 2017
The International 2017 (TI7) was the seventh iteration of The International, an annual ''Dota 2'' esports world championship tournament. Hosted by Valve, the game's developer, the tournament began with the online qualifier phase in June 2017, a ...
, 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.
''League of Legends''
The Alliance ''League of Legends'' team formed in December 2013, and was granted the spot vacated by
Evil Geniuses
Evil Geniuses (EG) is an American esports organization based in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1999, the organization has fielded players in various fighting games, ''Call of Duty'', '' Counter-Strike: Global Offensive'', ''Dota 2'', ''Fortni ...
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
SK Gaming is a professional esports organization based in Germany that has teams across the world competing in different titles. SK is particularly known for their success in ''Counter-Strike'' (CS) tournaments. SK's Brazilian ''CS'' team won ...
and
Fnatic
Fnatic (pronounced "fanatic"; also stylized as fnatic or FNATIC) is a professional esports organization headquartered in London, United Kingdom. Founded 23 July 2004, the team has players from around the world, across a variety of games, such ...
. Alliance mid-laner Henrik “Froggen” Hansen was voted as the MVP of the Spring Split with 28% of the vote. In the playoffs, they finished 4th, losing to Fnatic in the semifinals 2–1, then lost to
ROCCAT
Roccat GmbH is a German computer accessories manufacturer based in Hamburg. It was also the titular sponsor of former German professional esports organization Team ROCCAT.
Since 2019, the company belongs to Turtle Beach Corporation.
History ...
2–0 in the 3rd place game.
In the Summer Split, Alliance topped the regular season standings with a 21–7 record. 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
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
ian team
KaBuM! e-Sports
KaBuM! is a Brazilian e-commerce company specializing in electronics and information technology. It was founded in May 2003 in the city of Limeira, São Paulo, by brothers Leandro Ramos and Thiago Ramos. The company is one of the largest of its ki ...
, which denied them a chance to play in a tiebreaker for a chance to progress to the knockout stage.
At
Intel Extreme Masters
The Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) is a series of international esports tournaments held in countries around the world. These Electronic Sports League (ESL) sanctioned events, sponsored by Intel, currently host events in '' Counter-Strike: Global ...
San Jose, the team was eliminated by
Cloud9
Cloud9 Esports, Inc., or simply Cloud9 (C9), is an American professional esports company based in Santa Monica, California. The company was originally founded as a professional ''League of Legends'' team by Jack and Paullie Etienne in May 2013 ...
.
The team picked up
Martin "Rekkles" Larsson on 24 November 2014. After a
Riot Games
Riot Games, Inc. is an American video game developer, publisher and esports tournament organizer based in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in September 2006 by Brandon Beck and Marc Merrill to develop ''League of Legends'' and went on t ...
rules change concerning sponsorship, Alliance LoL left the organization and rebranded itself as Elements.
2015
Elements was created in January 2015 from the ''League of Legends'' roster of Alliance after rebranding itself due to a new sale of sponsorships rule established after the 2014 season.
The initial starting roster of Elements included Wickd, Shook, Froggen, Rekkles, and Nyph.
After a 4–4 record at the end of the fourth week of the spring split, Elements replaced Wickd with former Millenium top laner Kevin "kev1n" Rubiszewski. In the sixth week of the split they replaced Nyph with former Evil Geniuses support Krepo, who had previously played with Froggen on
CLG.EU and EG. Nyph stayed in the team as an assistant coach. One week later, Wickd returned to the toplane position while kev1n became a sub. Nyph replaced Mart as the new head coach, joining the team during the picks and bans.
Elements went 7–11 in the EU Spring LCS regular season to finish 7th, failing to make the playoffs.
Rekkles left the team in April and was replaced at AD Carry by Erik “Tabzz” Van Helvert.
Elements changed four of the players on the roster for the Summer 2015 Split.
In early May 2016, German football club
FC Schalke 04
Fußballclub Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04 e. V., commonly known as FC Schalke 04 (), Schalke 04 (), or abbreviated as S04 (), is a professional German football and multi-sports club originally from the Schalke district of Gelsenkirchen, North Rhi ...
bought Element's LCS spot.
Roster
''Dota 2''
''Trackmania''
''Apex Legends''
''Super Smash Bros. Melee''
''Fortnite''
''VALORANT''
Organization
''Management''
References
External links
Official website
{{Professional Dota 2 competition
Esports teams based in Sweden
2013 establishments in Sweden
Defunct and inactive FIFA (video game series) teams
Former European League of Legends Championship Series teams
Dota teams
Super Smash Bros. player sponsors
StarCraft II teams
Amazon (company)
Player-owned esports teams
Esports teams established in 2013