Alliance expand into South America, sign former Hokori roster into Alliance LATAM

After weeks of speculation about their new team, Alliance recently revealed their 2023 Dota 2 roster, which included players from Southeast Asia for the first time.

However, the Swedish organisation weren't done experimenting yet.

Not only is their Western Europe squad full of surprises, but Alliance are also planning to compete in two regions for the 2023 Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) season by recruiting the players of Hokori into Alliance LATAM.

The Alliance LATAM roster consists of Edward "Lumière" Valencia, João "4nalog" Giannini, Pablo "Vitaly" Roman, Thiago "Thiolicor" Cordeiro, and Brayan "Gardick" Cárdenas.

Alliance weren't the only Western team to invest in the South American region for the upcoming DPC season.

Evil Geniuses (EG), one of the biggest names in esports, recently disbanded their Dota 2 team in North America and decided to head south for the 2023 DPC season. The new EG consists of several members from Thunder Awaken and Beastcoast.

It's easy to see why South America is on everybody's radar. During The International 11 (TI11), the region broke several records.

For the first time in history, three regional teams made it to the playoffs.

Thunder Awaken became the first South American team to start the playoffs in the upper bracket and proceeded to make it to the top six at the event, the best placement for the region so far.

One of the biggest surprises at TI was the performance of Hokori. The team made it through the brutal regional qualifiers, besting favourites Infamous in an impressive 3-0 showing.

Hokori were one of the underdogs at TI11, as they were the only Division II team to make it to the event.

They turned out to be one of the biggest surprises of the tournament, going toe-to-toe against powerhouses such as OG and PSG.LGD and ending the group stage with a score of 9-9, one victory away from the upper bracket.

However, Hokori's TI11 ended in the first round of the lower bracket after losing to regional rivals Beastcoast.

After such a promising showing in the biggest Dota 2 tournament of the year, Alliance decided to invest in the members of Hokori and pick the team up for their second roster.

It's quite rare for an organisation to have two Dota 2 teams, the most recent example being Nigma Galaxy, which had their main roster in Western Europe while also operating another in Southeast Asia.

The DPC rulebook doesn't allow one organisation to send two teams to TI, so it will be interesting to see how the two squads compete in their respective regions.

For now, Alliance's expansion into South America further cements the region's growing prestige after being ignored for years.

Alliance South America roster:

1. Edward "Lumière" Valencia

2. João "4nalog" Giannini

3. Pablo "Vitaly" Roman

4. Thiago "Thiolicor" Cordeiro

5. Brayan "Gardick" Cárdenas

Otomo is a long-time gaming enthusiast and caster. He has been playing games since he was 10 and is the biggest Dota 2 fan.

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