Team Liquid’s new Dota 2 roster knocked out of ESL One Hamburg

When Team Liquid signed Alliance’s former Dota 2 roster, many wondered if the risky choice would pay off. At the moment, fans seem to be getting their answer: not yet. 

Team Liquid was knocked out of the group stage at ESL One Hamburg 2019, along with lesser known teams Quincy Crew, Fighting PandaS, and Vikin.gg. Teams Liquid once would have easily defeated these opponents without much of an effort, but things have changed.

Instead, Liquid lost to Quincy on the final day of groups. While the North American team wasn’t able to completely roll Liquid’s new squad, it seemed like Team Liquid was unable to make a dent in the Crew’s defense. In the second game, Liquid couldn’t keep up thanks to Jonas “SabeRLight-” Volek’s Beastmaster. A 2-0 sweep eliminated Liquid from the tournament. 

This has become the norm for Liquid’s new squad ever since they qualified for the MDL Chengdu Major at the beginning of the month. They were recently eliminated early from DreamLeague Season 12, and that seems to be the trend now that they’ve also faltered at Hamburg.  

Team Liquid’s ex-Alliance Dota 2 roster struggles

In mid-September, Team Liquid’s Dota 2 team announced that they were leaving to form their own organization. While the organization stated that they were “genuinely happy” that their Dota 2 squad were “taking the leap” to becoming team owners, it did leave Liquid without a Dota 2 roster just as the new Dota Pro Circuit season was starting up. 

Around the same time, Alliance’s Dota 2 team announced that they were leaving the organization to “try a new environment.” Not many fans speculated that Alliance had been talking about Team Liquid when they said that. 

Liquid’s Dota 2 roster was a tier one team that had recently come in second place at The International 2019 and second at the MDL Disneyland Paris Major. Meanwhile, Alliance’s Dota 2 team had placed 13th at TI9. 

Despite Alliance’s lesser performance, many within the Dota 2 community felt they had sold out by leaving Alliance for Team Liquid. 

One Redditor even addressed this, explaining that “moving for a bigger paycheck” is something “anybody would do.” 

“Why do they have to be loyal to alliance? I’m sure Alliance made out decently, and they have a really decent squad now. Ex alliance won’t be the first people ever that leave for a bigger pay day… It happens everyday in every walk of life,” they continued. 

An Alliance fan explained that the organization had put a lot of “effort and passion into turning those players into a tier 1.4 team.” They felt that they “suddenly left” once they even remotely saw results. 

“I’m sure they have their reasons, but if you are an Alliance fan I can understand being a bit salty,” they concluded.