Cover-Credits:
In recent months, Entity has grown into one of the strongest teams in Western Europe (WEU). However, the players have been around for quite some time with their roots going back to Creepwave, where the majority of them met. Creepwave's roster had always been filled with talent, but multiple young players came and went, creating instability. Despite the roster moves, Dzmitry "Fishman" Palishchuk has proven to be a key member throughout. He revealed in OG’s Monkey Business podcast that at one point in 2021, Creepwave was in line to be signed by a large organization, Alliance. According to Fishman, Alliance's co-founder Jonathan "Loda" Berg had tried signing Creepwave but dropped the idea because of their lack of recognition.
Fishman says Creepwave might have been signed by Alliance
During a discussion about Creepwave with Fishman, Entity's midlaner Daniel "Stormstormer" Schoetzau, and OG CEO JMR Luna on OG’s Monkey Business podcast Episode 42, Fishman recounted an incident from the past which could have resulted in Creepwave becoming Alliance.
The plan failed to materialize, even with an Academy team option in mind, because Loda opted to continue with the roster centered around Nikolay "Nikobaby" Nikolov, which Fishman said was reasonable at the time.
“Loda had a good chance to sign Creepwave. When we had a lot of offers, if he (Loda) rated us more than the Nikobaby roster, we could have been Alliance now. But we were nobody then and it is understandable that he chose the Nikobaby roster because it was TI roster of course. We were speaking with a few organizations and we almost went to Academy - Alliance Academy, the full Creepwave roster.”
[relevant section begins from 17:20]
This incident occurred around the time Ammar "ATF" Al-Assaf was also a Creepwave member. Prior to the start of the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) 2021-22, Creepwave had to reassemble after some of its players, including ATF, left for OG. Entity then decided to step in and sign the roster.
In light of how Entity has grown this season, Fishman and other Creepwave teammates on the roster will not be inconvenienced by the fact that they couldn't forge a relationship with Alliance back then. They have gone from being a Division 2 team to qualifying for The International 11 (TI1).
Additionally, as a result of the team's win in the WEU regional qualifier where it surpassed household names such as Team Secret, Liquid, and Nigma, the team finds itself heading into TI11 as one of the scariest, if not the best, teams.
Entity's journey in TI11 begins from the group stage which kicks off on 15th Oct.
