Alliance has already had a rough week but things haven’t really cooled down for the team since.
During a recent installment of the Side Pull Podcast, Dota 2 caster Austin “Capitalist” Walsh stated that Alliance management had issued a complaint to ESL and DreamHack regarding the broadcast team. In particular, the team allegedly set its sights on himself and Jorien “Sheever” van der Heijden for a recent interview with Linus “Limmp” Blomdin.
“Apparently some people were not happy with our interview, and that would be the Alliance management…and [they] decided to go ahead and talk to both talent and our superiors to file a complaint about…the way we conducted our interview,” Capitalist said.
He added: “This is actually the second time that management has filed a complaint with our bosses about the show. So I take my livelihood very seriously…and that obviously, you can tell, has made me really mad.”
Capitalist then claimed that Alliance tried to get him and other members of the broadcast team fired. He did not specify who, but was visibly frustrated over the matter.
During a broadcast for DreamLeague Season 15, Capitalist and Sheever conducted a post-match interview with Limmp after Alliance’s 2-1 win over Tundra Esports. This was Alliance’s first game since the team was accused of cheating by OG captain Johan “N0tail” Sundstein for having trial coach Peter “ppd” Dager in the team’s in-game comms during a match against Brame.
Sheever and Capitalist asked Limmp about the team’s comm use and whether this was allowed. Sheever initially asked questions regarding both the rationale for having ppd on comms and the legality of the decision, with Capitalist following up by asking if he knew whether other teams were doing the same.
The interview was somewhat awkward as Limmp was vague with his answers. DreamHack previously noted that Alliance had not broken any rules, but that the rules had been adjusted following the controversy.
Capitalist noted on the Side Pull Podcast that he called for Limmp to be the player interviewed because he expected that Limmp would be able to effectively answer questions over the team’s actions. He also noted that nobody on the desk pursued a hostile or confrontational line of questioning designed to make the team look bad.
Alliance never filed a complaint regarding talent predictions, this is a ridiculous lie.
I personally attacked the talents for making predictions like clowns, that is all.
— Jonathan ”Loda” Berg (@LodaBerg) May 14, 2021
The “Alliance management” in question was almost certainly Jonathan “Loda” Berg, who was a member of the organization’s The International 2013-winning lineup and today serves as a part-owner and coach for the team. Loda has been very vocal on social media regarding what he perceives as unfair treatment of the team, particularly when the team is picked to lose or not perform well.
Loda fired back at Capitalist and stated that these were his only complaints regarding the DreamHack desk and that he had not issued any sort of formal complaint.
Regardless, the latest drama surrounding Alliance comes at an inopportune time. It also casts Loda himself in a negative light, as the former pro player has been involved in a long list of controversies in the past with some escalating to physical violence.
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