Alliance: The Dream Team
Riot·8/5/2014, 12:12:32 AM·1 votes·6,521 views
Fans love to talk about “dream teams,” and for good reason. Seeing five of the world's best players coming together on the same team has obvious appeal. The start of the 2014 LCS season was heralded by a deluge of rumors about an incoming “EU Super Team” featuring the best Europe had to offer. It took them a split to work out the kinks, but as Playoffs – and Worlds – draw closer every day, Alliance is poised to live up to the hype.
An 0-4 Week 1 wasn't exactly what people had in mind. Alliance started off the Spring split disastrously, and sat at the bottom of the table for more than half the split. Somewhere around Week 8, however, things began to click for the team. An 8-0 winning streak catapulted them to first place, with Froggen named EU MVP in back-to-back weeks and Nyph taking the title the next. In the end, they dropped to third in the final week of the regular season due to incredible performances by SK and Fnatic, with the latter also eliminating them from the Spring Playoffs. Alliance finished Spring in 4th, but with Froggen named the Spring season MVP and their 8-0 streak fresh in everyone's mind, Alliance's status as the scariest team in Europe was undeniable.
When you talk Alliance, inevitably Froggen's name comes out first. 2014 All-Star, Spring season MVP, Europe's most feared mid-laner, second highest KDA in the region, known Arctic birdwatcher; there's no arguing that Froggen isn't the heart of the team. Consistent, oppressive, smart, and unrelenting, Froggen can play a variety of champions and styles and still look like the best in the world. In fact, Froggen has not played a single champion more than four times in the Summer season. Responsible for bringing Anivia back to the LCS and currently making Xerath look stupid strong, Henrik “Froggen” Hansen deserves every bit of his fame.
Alliance is anything but Team Froggen, though. Every one of Alliance's players is equally important to their success. In fact, this Summer split, Froggen has not been named MVP once while both Tabzz and Shook have had their weeks, and Nyph earned one last split as well. Each member of Alliance has had his turn to “carry” the team.
At 5-1 on his trademark Irelia and 6-3 on Shyvana, Wickd continues to anchor the team from the top lane, providing his brand of consistent aggression and pressure that he's been known for over the past two years. Meanwhile, Shook's Lee Sin and Elise have been constant thorns in their opponent's side all season, but recently he's added a stellar Riven to the mix: bringing a little solo queue flavor to the LCS. Finally, the Tabzz and Nyph duo in the bottom lane is a gold mine of incredible mechanics and reliability. Nyph is 6-0 on Morgana with a KDA of 6.2, and his 8-2 Thresh isn't too shabby either. That's one bottom lane you'll want to swap out of.
Thanks to their top placing in the regular season, Alliance only has to win a single best-of-5 to earn a berth to Worlds: either their semifinal match or the 3rd place decider. Their first opponent will be the winner between 4th place SK Gaming and 5th place Millennium. Week 11 saw SK burst out of their slump to go 3-1, while Millennium couldn't grab a single win, so the momentum may be clearly in SK’s favor to manufacture an upset. Earlier in the season, SK seemed to be one of the few teams that might've been capable of making Alliance look mortal. If they can recapture that form here they certainly have a chance, but Alliance's season-long consistency gives them the clear edge in a five game series.
If Alliance gets through the semifinals, the finals will hold one of Supa Hot Crew, ROCCAT, or Fnatic for them to take on. Considering their form, and the fact that they've won every single European LCS split thus far, Fnatic seems to be the obvious candidate - a match no one will want to miss.
The last time they met, the match was frighteningly even. Alliance may have won in the end, but if things had gone just slightly differently it would've gone completely the other way. Fnatic struggled to show their top form throughout most of the season, often leaning on Rekkles to close out games that dragged on too long, but they worked it out as they always do. At 12-2 since Week 7, Fnatic is looking like the European champions they tend to become. A 3-1 edge over Fnatic would seem to say Alliance is the favorite, but Fnatic's never lost a split. That's pretty hard to argue with.
If they do make it to Worlds, things become a whole other story. Korea, China, and Taiwan all have teams Alliance has virtually no experience against, and the teams from North America are nothing to sneeze at either. Fnatic wasn't able to get past Royal Club last year, and the competition has only gotten fiercer. Alliance has the skill to make a run at Worlds, but they're going to have to play the best League of Legends any Western team has ever played to take the title. If they pull it off, “super team” would be a bit of an understatement, wouldn't it?
Heirs to a Legacy
The European CLG squad - the team that would become Evil Geniuses - long stood near the top of the scene. Though Wickd, Froggen, Snoopeh, Yellowpete, and Krepo never managed to win a Season Championship, their top-tier performances at tournaments all over the world, combined with their likable personalities, made them a consistent fan favorite. After a lackluster Season 3, the League world was devastated by the news that those five, who had stuck together for more than two years, would be going their separate ways. The two solo laners, Froggen and Wickd, were off to a new European team while the rest of EG moved to North America. While EG decided to pick up raw North American talent and attempt to nurture new stars, Alliance went for the opposite approach by picking up three of the best talents Europe had available: Tabzz, the former AD Carry for Lemondogs and S3 Worlds veteran, Shook, the jungler from Copenhagen Wolves who had been tearing up the amateur scene, and finally found their support in Nyph, coming off two years with SK Gaming. With this all-star roster locked in, fans waited excitedly to see what kind of splash they were going to make in Season 4.Tough Being Super
An 0-4 Week 1 wasn't exactly what people had in mind. Alliance started off the Spring split disastrously, and sat at the bottom of the table for more than half the split. Somewhere around Week 8, however, things began to click for the team. An 8-0 winning streak catapulted them to first place, with Froggen named EU MVP in back-to-back weeks and Nyph taking the title the next. In the end, they dropped to third in the final week of the regular season due to incredible performances by SK and Fnatic, with the latter also eliminating them from the Spring Playoffs. Alliance finished Spring in 4th, but with Froggen named the Spring season MVP and their 8-0 streak fresh in everyone's mind, Alliance's status as the scariest team in Europe was undeniable.
The Chosen Ones
I'm just going to go ahead and drop this bomb: Alliance has not been anything but first place for the entire Summer Split. There are no words for how ridiculous that is, especially in a region where “everybody beats everybody.” Cloud 9 did that last summer in North America, but Season 4 is longer, tougher, and has more parity than any in history. Here's another ridiculous statistic: Alliance is 3-1 against every single team in Europe. Even the best teams usually have more or less favorable match-ups. It doesn't seem to matter for Alliance. Whether they're out-maneuvering Fnatic in an hour-long grind or forcing surrenders at 20 minutes, they just don't seem to have any weak spots. They stumbled for a moment in the middle of the season to go on a 0-4 losing streak kicked off with a loss to bottom-ranked Copenhagen Wolves, but their cushion in the standings was so comfortable that even four consecutive losses couldn't move them from first place. Let that sink in for a moment.MVPs All Around
When you talk Alliance, inevitably Froggen's name comes out first. 2014 All-Star, Spring season MVP, Europe's most feared mid-laner, second highest KDA in the region, known Arctic birdwatcher; there's no arguing that Froggen isn't the heart of the team. Consistent, oppressive, smart, and unrelenting, Froggen can play a variety of champions and styles and still look like the best in the world. In fact, Froggen has not played a single champion more than four times in the Summer season. Responsible for bringing Anivia back to the LCS and currently making Xerath look stupid strong, Henrik “Froggen” Hansen deserves every bit of his fame.
Alliance is anything but Team Froggen, though. Every one of Alliance's players is equally important to their success. In fact, this Summer split, Froggen has not been named MVP once while both Tabzz and Shook have had their weeks, and Nyph earned one last split as well. Each member of Alliance has had his turn to “carry” the team.
At 5-1 on his trademark Irelia and 6-3 on Shyvana, Wickd continues to anchor the team from the top lane, providing his brand of consistent aggression and pressure that he's been known for over the past two years. Meanwhile, Shook's Lee Sin and Elise have been constant thorns in their opponent's side all season, but recently he's added a stellar Riven to the mix: bringing a little solo queue flavor to the LCS. Finally, the Tabzz and Nyph duo in the bottom lane is a gold mine of incredible mechanics and reliability. Nyph is 6-0 on Morgana with a KDA of 6.2, and his 8-2 Thresh isn't too shabby either. That's one bottom lane you'll want to swap out of.
The Warpath to Worlds
Thanks to their top placing in the regular season, Alliance only has to win a single best-of-5 to earn a berth to Worlds: either their semifinal match or the 3rd place decider. Their first opponent will be the winner between 4th place SK Gaming and 5th place Millennium. Week 11 saw SK burst out of their slump to go 3-1, while Millennium couldn't grab a single win, so the momentum may be clearly in SK’s favor to manufacture an upset. Earlier in the season, SK seemed to be one of the few teams that might've been capable of making Alliance look mortal. If they can recapture that form here they certainly have a chance, but Alliance's season-long consistency gives them the clear edge in a five game series.
If Alliance gets through the semifinals, the finals will hold one of Supa Hot Crew, ROCCAT, or Fnatic for them to take on. Considering their form, and the fact that they've won every single European LCS split thus far, Fnatic seems to be the obvious candidate - a match no one will want to miss.
The last time they met, the match was frighteningly even. Alliance may have won in the end, but if things had gone just slightly differently it would've gone completely the other way. Fnatic struggled to show their top form throughout most of the season, often leaning on Rekkles to close out games that dragged on too long, but they worked it out as they always do. At 12-2 since Week 7, Fnatic is looking like the European champions they tend to become. A 3-1 edge over Fnatic would seem to say Alliance is the favorite, but Fnatic's never lost a split. That's pretty hard to argue with.
If they do make it to Worlds, things become a whole other story. Korea, China, and Taiwan all have teams Alliance has virtually no experience against, and the teams from North America are nothing to sneeze at either. Fnatic wasn't able to get past Royal Club last year, and the competition has only gotten fiercer. Alliance has the skill to make a run at Worlds, but they're going to have to play the best League of Legends any Western team has ever played to take the title. If they pull it off, “super team” would be a bit of an understatement, wouldn't it?
