The first All-national Dota 2 Champions 2013: Team Alliance then and now

The International 2012 established the tradition for the location of the championship for the next 6 years. With that being done, The Dota 2 International 2013 also took place in Seattle, Washington state in the USA, started August 8 with the Grand Finale August 11 at the Benaroya Hall.
16 teams traditionally took part in the event: 13 invited by Valve, 2 from Eastern and Western qualifiers and the winner of the wildcard match (the bout between two second-place finishers from the Eastern and Western qualifiers). The championships geography included China, Netherlands, Malaysia, Sweden, United Kingdom, Ukraine, Singapore, Russia and Germany.
The tournament set a couple of records, in particular, most online views and the biggest prize pool for that time. The record-breaking prize pool of $2,874,380 USD consisted of $1,6 millions from Valve and the rest ($1,274,380), generated by 25% of the interactive Compendium sales.
The Interactive Compendium is a thematic e-book for Dota 2 players and fans to purchase. For $9,99 players could receive increased experience in Dota 2, courier customizations, unique game interface, the chest with the immortal class item and the ability to choose players for the all-star bout. The compendium sales started May 7th, 2013.
Also, August 10th, at the semi-finals day, the “Free to Play” Dota 2 documentary movie was premiered.
And for the first time, the Aegis of Immortal was taken by the team of single nationality: the Alliance team from Sweden. The team was created by No Tidehunter team members as the all-Swedish Dota 2 team. Being formed in 2013, the Alliance dominated the western Dota scene, took the 1st place at the G-1 Champions League Season 5 and eventually won The International 2013 title and $1,4 million prize pool.
During TI 2013 playoffs, Alliance beat LGD gaming and Team DK. In the semifinals Alliance dropped Na Vi to the losers brackets. But 1st TI champions managed to beat Orange Esports and clash Alliance in the Grand Finals on August 2nd. Swedes managed to become champions after 5 rounds of a hardcore clash, winning Na Vi with a 3:2 rate.
Here’s who brought the Alliance to the victory:
“Akke” Joakim Akterhall
All-famous Swedish support started playing Dota in 2005, after his friend and classmate Jonathan “Loda” Berg introduced him to this discipline.
Loda took part in multiple Swedish and European teams, including SK gaming. Akke managed to qualify his team for the ESL in 2006 and DreamHack 2007. Won DreamHack Winter 2006 and DreamHack Summer 2008. Later in 2008, he had to leave the competitive Dota scene due to studying at the university.
In 2010 he found passion in playing Heroes of Newerth along with Loda in KD Gaming team, later to be moved to Online Kingdom team. Won the HoN Super Series in September 2011 received a 2011 GosuGamers HoN Award in the Best Support Player category.
Later in 2011 Akke and Loda decided to try Dota 2 and joined eXperience Gaming team, which later been consumed by Counter Logic Gaming organization. Took part in The International 2012.
After a while, Akke and Loda moved to the No Tidehunter team, where they met s4, AdmiralBulldog and EGM. Later these five became famous as the Alliance team and 2013 World Champions in Dota 2.
Shortly after winning TI 2013, Alliance took over WCA 2015 and StarLadder i-League StarSeries Season 1 championships. Unfortunate for them, the Alliance suffered a drop in their gaming form and only managed to take a 9–12th position at The International 2016.
Akke announced his retirement from the competitive Dota 2 scene August 28th 2016. Nevertheless, he took part in The International 2017 as the game analyst.
Akke is famous for his passion for Nintendo games, especially Super Smash Bros. 26th September 2017 he added one more achievement to his collection: Akke became a father.
“Loda” Jonathan Berg
Known as one of the biggest veterans of the sport, Jonathan Berg is a famous Swedish carry player. He is considered to be one of the best players in the world during the 2007–2008 era.
Along with Akke, Loda plays Dota professionally since 2006. Loda’s 1st team was called Team_Team. There he managed to win MYM Prime Defending #5 in 2007. During this championship, Loda’s team developed to Global Strat strategy, which didn’t let the opponent outnumber the Loda’s team by utilizing the heroes with global abilities. The community still refers to MYM Prime Defending #5 as to the event that turned Dota to the real e-Sport discipline.
Loda joined SK Gaming team in 2007. One year later he had a famous rival with Danish captain Maelk in the multiple championships. Loda gained a lot of respect from Maelk and even joined his team Meet Your Makers.
Along with Akke, Loda switched to Heroes of Newerth in 2012, where he played in ButtonBashers, Druidz, KD-Gaming and Online Kingdom teams.
Loda returned to Dota 2 to join all-Swedish No Tidehunter. He Lost to Evil Geniuses in the AVerMedia Dota 2 Cup but took revenge in DreamHack Winter 2012 finale.
Apart from the No Tidehunter/Alliance experience, Loda spent a part of his career with Experience team in 2012. Switched to Team Zenith later same year.
Loda is currently coaching the Alliance Dota 2 team.
His primal heroes are usually Shadow Fiend, Slardar, Rikimaru, Juggernaut and Spectre. Loda is one of not so many European Dota 2 players, popular in the Chinese community. It even gave him L-God nickname. loda is also well known for reborning non-popular Dota characters.
“s4” Gustav Magnusson
Born in 1992, Gustav is the youngest Alliance player at TI 2013. He is considered to be the best Swedish offlaner and solo mid.
Gustav switched to Dota 2 after first successes in professional Heroes of Newerth. joined Team Empire in 2012, and switched to No Tidehunter (future Alliance) later same year.
After taking part in TI 2014 s4 decided to leave the Alliance. He created Team Secret, together with Clement “Puppey” Ivanov and won ESL One Frankfurt in 2015. s4 rejoined Alliance after a poor performance at TI 2015. Passed TI 2016 qualifiers, but ended up with 9th place for Alliance, which made s4 leave the team again.
s4 joined OG team and won both Boston and Kiev Majors. In May 2018, he left OG to join Evil Geniuses where he is currently playing.
s4 is referred as one of the authors of Roshan bait strategy.
Gustav is famous for playing Magnus and Puck: his cast of Dream Coil as Puck in TI finals against Na VI was called “Million-Dollar Dream Coil”, and the character Magnus is even reflected in his surname and can be translated as Son of Magnus, which drives fans crazy. In 2013 s4 was the highest earning eSports player alive.
Gustav Magnusson is the first Dota 2 player to set up a major tournaments winning record: TI 2013, Kiev Major and Boston Major. The record is now only matched by Miracle and Puppey.
Henrik “AdmiralBulldog” Ahnberg
Henrik started his professional Dota career as a stand-in for Na Vi, invited by Dendi. Joined No Tidehunter (later to become Alliance) in 2012.
His signature characters are Broodmother, Nature’s Prophet, Bounty Hunter, Clockwerk and Lone Druid. Henrik was criticized by the community for playing the strictly limited amount of characters, but he puts his high adaptivity and metagame experience on the other hand.
At the moment AdmiralBulldog is one of the most popular Dota 2 analysts and streamers.
Jerry “EGM” Lundkvist
Started the Dota career in 2012 mostly playing the support role for the Druidz team. He was famous for the performance as the Visage and Earthshaker in Dota and Io, Rubick and Shadow Demon in Dota 2.
Jerry joined No Tidehunter in February 2013 and won TI 2013 with the Alliance. After a disappointing 11th-12th place at TI4 with Alliance EGM joined Team Tinker. Last time he played for the Crescendo.
Jerry is appreciated by team and community for his charisma and soft skills like growing into the team
His gamer nickname EGM is an abbreviation for “Enter God Mode”.
