Bulldog with the TI3 winning line-up of Alliance - Photo from blogdota2.ru
Will he rediscover his passion?"We did try out a few other players in between, and in the end, we were most comfortable with this line up," said Kelly "Kellymilkies" Ong Xiao Wei, "and most confident in the growth of both the team and players in this roster. Loda also likes to groom new players and bring them into the competitive scene so I guess mynuts fulfill this role."
Although many considered the line-up for the upcoming DAC a temporary solution, the Alliance manager points towards it possibly becoming more. "This is the short term roster for now, which I hope will become the permanent iteration of Alliance until at least TI5," said Kellymilkies.
However, the most important insights came from addressing the status
Henrik "AdmiralBulldog" Ahnberg, the Alliance offlaner who took a unexpected hiatus from competitive play. Kelly stressed that "we have not kicked or removed Bulldog...we tried to keep him in the team but he has chosen to focus on streaming for now to rediscover his passion for Dota 2." AdmiralBulldog's last competive match for Alliance was quite a while back, during Star Ladder Star Series Season 11, over 2 months ago.A timeframe for Bulldog's competitive return was not given in the interview, although the Lone-druid fanatic will continue streaming under the Alliance label and will technically still remain part of Alliance, given Alliance’s announced roster for the DAC his appearance to competitive will predictably not be seen at-least until February— or after the DAC is finished. Nevertheless, Kelly explains the possibility that "he might end up returning to us, or he might choose to ask for a transfer to another team if he finds the opportunity to. (...) As of now, he will still be part of Alliance and might stand in occasionally but there is no definite promise that he will return to compete in the near future."
AdmiralBulldog has not been idle however, and recently made a lot of fans very very happy after he did a commentary of all five matches from Alliance's grand finals at The International 3. The video for which is below.
Bulldog's TI3 commentary
Furthermore, Kelly shed some light of the situation of
Rasmus "Chessie" Blomdin, the previous and promising standin for Alliance who had to cut their partnership short due to a back injury. Unfortunately, Chessie "has done all he can to try to get better. He has been meeting up with various different specialists and his most current update and advise from his doctor is to take a complete break." The full interview including information on who is currently the drafting mastermind and EGM's role transition can be found here.
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