Back home from Starladder today! We actually wanted to go back yesterday but there were no good tickets so we decided to stay and practice in Kiev instead. We ended up playing against MVP which was nice, they are always very serious so really good to practice against.
Going back to the tournament, we started out winning against VP but then lost to LGD in the semi finals and eventually to OG in the loser bracket. I haven’t watched the replays yet so hard to say what went wrong but the game that annoys me the most is the loss when we had Chen, LC and Sylla. It really felt like we had the game where we wanted after the early game but then we got too eager to push and just went in and died and lost our advantage. In a way I’m very happy that we at least won one game in both the series that we lost because it shows that we are very close to winning as well, but at the same time it’s very annoying to be so close but yet so far away. Both series we lost at the Shanghai major was also 1-2.. ^^
When we got eliminated we went to a restaurant we got recommended from Starladder that was quite close to the hotel we were staying at. We really enjoyed it, especially the desert! We had ice cream that they made in front of us while we were there in a way they used in the 17th or 18th century. They told us that back then it would take someone like 8 hours to make this ice cream but today they can make it faster (in about 10 minutes) because instead of using snow to make it cold they can use liquid nitrogen. Was a really cool experience and the food was very good!
Watched NiP play vs Navi in the Dreamhack Masters grand finals yesterday (CS:GO event). Really happy to see NiP win their first major tournament in 18 months! They’ve been practicing hard to try to get back into shape so very happy for them that it finally paid off. Even though I hardly play any CS:GO it’s still very fun to watch!
Hopefully a new patch comes out soon along with the invites for the Manilla Major. Even though we didn’t perform well at Starladder I still hope we get an invite because we won 2 big LAN events the past 4 months as well as finishing top8 in the last Major. Not very likely but one can hope at least! 🙂 If we don’t get an invite the next official is gonna be the qualifiers, otherwise the next official is in Moscow when we are playing the Epicenter tournament.
Cheers,
Akke
Joakim Akterhall 
Hi Akke. I’m a big fan of your Chen, and u are Right. It looked like u guys were going to win. I think it Was cause s4 got rekt in mid. But anyway, ill never Stop supporting u guys! Long live Alliance!
Greetings from Perú.
PS. That ice cream looks awesome.
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Hello, massive fan here!
I really like the effort you put into your blog posts, it makes it more engaging to follow you guys as a team and it kinda feels “allianceish” for a lack of better word.
As a spectator of your performance at starladder, and with the caveat that I’m a 4k MMR scrub, I made the following observations:
1. I agree with you that you guys kinda threw that game you had with sylla/chen/lc. I think S4 was a little off this tournament but that can happen to anybody and its nothing to linger on, in my opinion.
2. Once again I noticed, and I’m sure everyone else did too, that you guys seem hesitant to play meta-heroes (ESPECIALLY S4). This is worrying, ember spirit (as was shown by Miracle), OD and invoker (who CAN be a playmaker the way S4 likes his mid heroes) are completely absent from your drafts yet they are without a doubt very strong in this patch. Elaborating on S4 a bit more; ember spirit can obviously be played in the sort of aggressive manner that S4 is so masterful at, as was once again shown by miracle and invoker, gods, that hero whose skill cap is immense just seems tailored for S4.
3. It was really nice to see bulldog on bat in offlane again.
4. Hats off to Loda who literally seems to be able to play every carry in the game!!
All in all I think you guys need to acknowledge the meta-aspect of the game a bit more, especially S4. He is basically godlike with every hero he plays, but sometimes the heroes he plays are not godlike in themselves depending on draft/meta etc. Since his hero pool is quite narrow at the moment, this seems to me to be somewhat of a flaw.
Lastly, I really hope you guys get an invite since the scene is so stacked atm and a qualifier could be brutal to say the least. That being said, us alliance fans are so starved for games so maybe we wouldnt mind qualifiers anyway 😀
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1. I don’t think it’s fair to say s4 was off. s4 played as one of the better “mids” at that tournament. (I put quotation marks on mid because I don’t think you can label all players who play in the middle lane the same. Play style differentiates them so much)
2. I have a theory: Alliance doesn’t change their style the meta, like many other teams. They adapt so that they can play their style in every meta. Why? Because then they will be relevant ALWAYS. And because it is, arguably, the most stable and safe style in Dota.
3. Agreed. But I have to admit that I was very scared. I didn’t think Henrik had it in him. Good to see that I was wrong (kinda)
4. I fanboyed so much when they picked Loda naix. Hats off to Loda for being so awesome.
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Nice point out bro. I dun know why [A] is so dwelling in the comfort zone so much and not trying out meta heroes. And akke and bulldog need to extend their hero pool as well ( not just LD, BM, chen , enchant , VS, WD) , though they can perform really well on their specialized heroes, esp: akke wardings are so good nowadys). S4 need to play more meta mid heroes as well as loda. However, team fight are still awesome as they did in TI3.
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Do you also feel like 2013 is back? 🙂
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you guys still rock ! im looking forward to seeing s4 playing with some new strats which suits more with this patch(like OD,invo) and good luck at qualifiers and Manila majors itself!
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Good luck future 🙂 🙂 from Bangladesh
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Make S4 practice new heroes if you ever wanna win a Valve event again.
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sadly is, nothing improved with ur strategy. u still use the same strategy since WCA. u need improve your strategy which suits more with this patch. hard to win something if you enemy know what will you doing because u nerver use new strategy since first time this patch out
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I’m sorry but you don’t know better than the pros. I get that you are probably invested in the scene but you don’t need to put them down when you can’t even understand most of their choices. Unless this is PPD or Puppey on a fake account I really don’t think you can say that you know better.
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Greetings from Singapore! 🙂
A ban fan of you and Alliance here!
This loss at Starladder seems very painful especially when you could have easily take 2-0 over both LGD and OG especially the first game vs LGD with the push strag and last game vs OG with the LC game! 🙂 But mistakes happens 😦
Hope that EGM, Loda and Bulldog don’t feel that depressed still!
It’s enjoyable having to see you playing Chen and also Bulldog and bat and Loda on LS!
I’m a 2.7k mmr noob but I feel that S4 is good enough to play quas we Invoker, TA, ember etc at a pro lvl. Mix a little more draft playstyle and it will work out 😀 (easy for me to say just like that 😦 I understand how much work it has behind the scene, you need the whole team synergy to execute with the draft etc)
Take care and hope to see you stream soon! 🙂 I’m skyraker_ on twitch!
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akke we want to see you at top position again.its been too long man just give your fans what they want already.i want to say a couple of things;
1) s4’s always been a great mid but these 2 years he never adapted to meta.he always playing with same style and heroes.
2)why loda cant play like other carry players? why cant we see him at top of networth charts
3)why other teams performing so good with furion or druid but you cant?even with bulldog.king of these heroes
thanks 🙂
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Hey Akke!
Greetings from Malaysia. Great to see you guys trying so hard. Keep up the good work.
I only managed to watch that game where EGM used relocate-tp strat. Sick moves 🙂
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Tjena Akke! Väldigt sura förluster i Starladder, tråkigt att se att ni inte gick längre 😦 Men ge inte upp hoppet! Se nu till att vinna ESL One Frankfurt så ska du se att ni får en direct invite till TI6 med! 😀 Hoppas nästa patch är till er fördel och att den kommer innan 🙂 Ha de fint!
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stop playing tiny + io, please.
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Please guy’s, you need to have a new strategy with different combination of heroes….we need to see new play style from you guy;s… #longlivealliance
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HEY ,Akke! I watched all the three games of Starladder, even though i was not watching any games and was focusing on my studies. I just felt like i have to give my energy.
The games were close, really close. As you said it was both 2-1,i dont think it is bad thing. I wanted Alliance to win, but watched a really high level of 6 dota games. So, i am okay with it.
I think it was a big loss for the team, but keep it up guys. Not as a fan, but as a third company person, i can say Alliance is now one of the top 3 teams. Just be confident guys, in the seris against Lgd, you guys seemed pretty nervous. Whereas in the second game, you had a new picks, almost like a pub one, and easily won the game. I feel like there is a pressure on you guys as you just cameback from 1 year of hardship, and just won 2 big tournaments against two top teams in the final. I mean WCA and Starladder made all the other team think that Alliance coming big now. And even for you, you dont wanna lose all the hope you brought to the fans and to yourselves as well.
I might be wrong about the pressure and stuff, and might be speaking a non-sense. But what i really wanna say is, just be cool guys. It is okay to lose, we the fans have seen a lot going last year but we are still here to give our energy for you, and the Dong :))).
I believe Alliance has the chance to win the International 6. I wish you guys can cool and shake off the stress or what not from the loss and show the world what you are capable of in the next tournament. Then after one more big tournament won, we can actually talk about ti6.
Best wishes, and good luck on Bulldog’s romance life. Kappa
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