Alliance releases two players, 33 joins OG as ESL One LA sub

Alliance has been one of the biggest surprises in Dota 2 to this point in the season, but that apparently isn’t enough to keep the team together.

The organization has announced the releases of Adrian “Fata” Trinks and Neta “33” Shapira. The news was revealed in a statement on the team’s official site.

“I’m very thankful for everything Fata and 33 has achieved with our team. When they joined us in September last year, we knew they wanted to prove themselves and we could not have asked for more with the performance and results they have achieved so far with Alliance…It was not an easy choice to make but our goal is to become the best Dota 2 team in the world, nothing less,” Alliance CEO Jonathan Berg said.

This leaves Alliance with the following three players:

• Nikolay “Nikobaby” Nikolov
• Linus “Limmp” Blomdin
• Simon “Handsken” Haag

News of the roster change was immediately met with questions.

“WTF? I hope this is April Fools,” Evil Geniuses coach Sam “BuLba” Sosale said.

The timing is somewhat strange for the team. Alliance most recently competed in the StarLadder ImbaTV Dota 2 Minor Season 3, finishing in second place behind Team Aster. Though the performance was technically a disappointment due to the team’s failure to qualify for the following major, the team still looked solid during the event.

Ahead of this, Alliance posted a fourth-place finish at the DreamLeague Season 13 major. This put the team in a strong position when it came to the Dota Pro Circuit, putting them in sixth place ahead of the ESL One LA Major.

33 lands with OG, but Alliance shakeup still remains a mystery

In the hours following the news of the players’ releases, OG announced that 33 would serve as a substitute for the team during the ESL One Los Angeles regional leagues. The event was stripped of its major status over COVID-19 concerns, and was reinvented as a series of regional leagues.

OG’s roster is currently scattered across the globe and is unable to come together for the upcoming league, with 33 serving as the team’s mid laner in lieu of Topias Miikka “Topson” Taavitsainen. Sébastien “Ceb” Debs will also play for OG as a stand-in for Yeik “MidOne” Nai Zheng.

It is unclear if 33 playing with OG played a role in his split from Alliance, or if OG was quietly dealing with some sort of internal turmoil that played a role. Answers on Alliance’s status should come in the near future, as the team is schedule to compete in the ESL One Los Angeles EU and CIS league, which begins on April 4.