Another international team has joined EPIC.LAN 45, as the Swedish team Alliance have agreed to travel across the North Sea to Kettering.
Summer EPIC.LANs are often considered the “lesser” tournaments in the EPIC.LAN calendar, with hot temperatures and a lack of stage meaning fewer teams compared to the winter editions. However, with Valve Ranking System (VRS) points on offer, we first heard rumours of international teams coming to visit before EPIC.LAN 44 in February, and now we see six full international rosters coming, with potential for more, as 16 tickets remain. With LAN match wins benefitting from a points multiplier in the VRS, a number of teams – most notably Ninjas in Pyjamas – have been jet-setting, playing local LAN events around the world in a bid to climb the rankings.
Alliance are the biggest organisation announced for EPIC.LAN so far. Founded in 2013, they are most famous for competing in MOBA titles, winning The International 2013 in DOTA 2 and competing in the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS). They entered Counter-Strike two years ago, picking up Swedish roster 4160isk, who had qualified for BLAST Premier Spring Showdown following the disqualification of Victory Zigzag.
They have achieved only middling results so far in Counter-Strike 2, with their best results coming in domestic LAN events. They won the Swedish qualifier for ESL Challenger Jonkoping 2024, but finished bottom of their group, and have otherwise failed to qualify for any significant LAN events. However, a 5th-6th place finish at Glitched Masters and second place at the Elisa Nordic Championship have boosted them to their highest ranking so far, 62nd in the world, so a solid chunk of points in Kettering may tip them over the edge into making bigger events.
We also await the announcement of their new fifth player, as the Swedes benched Niclas “PlesseN” Plessen this week.
Coincidentally, Alliance played EPIC.LAN defending champions NXT this week in PlesseN’s last game, losing 2-0 in the opening round of Winline Insight Season 7. Will the next time these two sides meet be in the LAN halls of Kettering?
Alliance accompany Preasy and WildLotus, who have also signed up in their search for precious VRS points.
