The foundation of what would later become the Alliance Dota 2 team was laid when Swedish DotA veteran Loda, who had just left Singaporean Team Zenith after their dissolution following The International 2012, was approached by a sponsor (which would later become the Alliance organization) asking him if he was interested in putting together a team.[1] Looking back at the glory days of his early career, his decision was to try to go with an all-swedish lineup in the same spirit as his oldest and most successful team, SK Gaming of the 2008 era. He and fellow Swedish support veteran Akke's, eyes fell upon rising Swedish solo-mid star s4, whom Loda had noticed during their HoN days. s4 and AdmiralBulldog were playing for the new upstart team No Tidehunter created by s4 and Canadian support player EternaLEnVy. In late October 2012, it was announced that Loda and Akke had joined team No Tidehunter, only one month before Dreamhack Winter 2012 which the team had qualified for with a mixed roster including German carry Black^.
Winning the DreamHack Winter tournament in such short time after the Swedish veteran duo's inclusion surprised many and established the team as one of the best teams in the west. During the finals, in which they were trailing 0-1, they managed to bait the entire EG squad into checking the Roshan-pit with an ingenious suicide by AdmiralBulldogs Natures Prophet, and subsequently getting the first blood and eventually turning the finals in front of the home crowd.[3] Alliance did not exist as an organization as of yet, but the team confirmed during the event that they were under contract by an unknown organization and that all the players had their trip to Jonköping paid for, including current captain EternaLEnVy who was flown in all the way from Canada.
