Alliance — The Summit 10 Champion: Victory for the first time in 3 years

In The Summit 10 grand final, the Swedish squad swept paiN Gaming 3-0. The best-of-five series was decided in three games.

The winning roster includes: miCKe, qojqva, Boxi, Taiga and team captain iNSaNiA.

On one hand, this is a crucial victory for the team ahead of The International 2019, hopefully boosting their morale. On the other, a similar scenario played out tragically for another team previously:

In 2016, Natus Vincere won the StarLadder i-League StarSeries Season 2 right before The International, only to spectacularly crash out of the main event:

By revealing all their key heroes (like GeneRaL's Sand King) and strategies, "Born to Win" failed to perform well and were eliminated, finishing 13th-16th.

While Alliance's current hero pool is certainly not small, this will be their first International as a team. The "big stage jitters" are a real concern. Hopefully, the experienced Loda can instill confidence in his squad.

Alliance hasn't won a tournament since 2016. Their last victory was with the "golden" roster (Loda, s4, AdmiralBulldog, Akke, and EGM), which famously defeated Ukrainian Na'Vi in the legendary The International 2013 final.

This year, the fabled "El Clásico" could well return, making the dream of a "Na'Vi vs. Alliance" grand final a reality for many fans.

All that's left is to congratulate the Swedish squad on their well-deserved victory and wish them the best of luck at the upcoming The International 2019!