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Alliance CEO and co-owner Jonathan "Loda" Berg has confirmed that the team's carry player, Nikolay "Nikobaby" Nikolov will continue to be a part of the team. Initially, Loda made a surprising tweet announcing that he himself would be returning to competitive Dota 2; however, he discounted it as "Just kidding" in the second half of the tweet. Loda made a second tweet a few minutes later, confirming that Nikobaby would remain on the team, seemingly using his own fake return as a teaser. This confirmation comes during a turbulent time in the determination of Alliance's Dota 2 roster as it has parted ways with three players within these past two weeks.
Nikobaby to remain on Alliance’s Dota 2 roster
“Though something that is confirmed is that the SHARK (Nikobaby) returns,” tweeted Loda.
Before he announced Nikobaby would remain with Alliance, Loda had tweeted he was going to return to competitive Dota 2 as the position five player and captain of Alliance. He, however, added that he was just joking.
In the past few months, since Nikobaby's GamerzClass promo video went viral, he has been dubbed as a 'Shark' among his fans. In the video, while discussing the fundamentals of a carry player, he said, "You want to be like a shark & make them feel scared for their lives.”
The Dota 2 players on Alliance's roster include Nikobaby and Simon "Handsken" Haag. Midlaner Linus "Limmp" Blomdin and position five player Artsiom "fng" Barshak were the first to depart, followed by Gustav "s4" Magnusson, the offlaner and captain. These five players had been together for a long time and went through a bittersweet Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) season. Alliance did incredibly well in the two regional leagues, coming in at second place in one of the leagues and in first place in the other. But Alliance did not perform well in the two LAN Majors. When it came to TI10, the team's performance at yet another LAN event in 2021 was in doubt. While the team did show some promising signs in some of its matches, the overall finish of 9th-12th was largely disappointing.
While Nikobaby's continued involvement with Alliance has been confirmed, it is not yet known if Handksen will also remain on the team. In addition, little is known about the two support postions and the remaining three players in midlane.
Alliance is finalizing its Dota 2 roster for the upcoming DPC 2021-22. According to a leaked schedule from the organization, the season will kick off on 29th Nov 2021 with the first regional league. However, a formal announcement from Valve about the 2021-22 DPC schedule is yet to be made.
