Or as most of us call him – Loda. This is gonna be about him, but before i write about one single player i need to make few things clear. People still think that what i say about Loda or Alliance is biased. I mean, if i have hope i have hope. But i will keep this without hope and be as honest as i can. Truth is, me and Loda once played together. One of the reasons we didnt continue doing that, at that time, was that me and him couldnt get along. We are extremely different people. I do love him for what he did to my channel (Alliance is very popular) and as a person, but i’m not fanboying him. Respect that, before reading on.
So i read this article made of Will Partin. It’s extremely well written, and i suggest you read it. But its also not really the correct way of looking it. Atleast not completely. Will talks about what the twitchchat says first of all – which in my opinion never should be the ground for anything serious. Twitchchat generally is just a bunch of people who havent learned how to behave. Grown men and women use their right to speak their mind in a much more senseful way. And i seriously believe that if you cant share your opinion because you are afraid about what people might say, then you should either grow some beard or shut the fuck up. But hey, thats just my opinion.
So Loda. Dear Loda. Once in time i might have been considered a decent player, hey even good, Loda was at that time one of the best players in the world. The scene was easier you might say, but he still really dominated with his gameplay. I remember when we played versus extremely good players like vigoss or lightofheaven, and many of us werent good enough to handle these players, but Loda was able to. Loda had this aura around him that made people either forced to, or atleast feeling forced to help him out. Back then you didnt wanna put Loda in a bad situation. If there was a poor gank made towards his lane it affected the whole team mentally. You didnt wanna make those misstakes with him. And in a way that was a part of hes leadership. We won alot of games around him. The ”Global strat” was one of the most famous strategy that we had. Spectre, Natures prophet, Sandking, Zeus and Shadow Fiend. Many people had issues finding out what the real thing with that strategy was. Sure Spectre was a really strong hero, but the real power in that strategy was actually Loda and hes way of playing Shadow Fiend. I didnt wanna tell him, but i think he knew. Back then i didnt wanna feed his ego too much. He started out the bottletrend pretty much. I mean when he played shadowfiend with bottle i dont even know if people understood how good bottle was. Loda did tho.
As time has passed, and its not a few months, or even a few years. Its 10 years. Loda has gotten himself alot of impressive wins in different tornaments and leagues. And Loda was back then considered sortof a playboy. He had attitude and that was the way he delt with alot of fans online and maybe also offline. But 10 years should make people mature, and so it did with Loda. The player and the person he is now, is so much better then the 10-year-old-ago Loda. And he brings completely different things to the table these days. I mean you cant say hes equally as good as 10 years ago – for sure hes much better – but the scene has also at the same time developed and Loda is no longer an obvious topcontender for this role in the game, for sure not. And Loda is no longer a ”cocky kid” if you would like to put it that way, hes a grown man with alot of different responsibilitys such as beeing a father to a Kid and having a longterm relationship with his girlfriend. These things makes you older and wiser, but the question is, does it make you too old?
Thats where alot of people are right now, thinking maybe that Loda has gone past his chances of beeing great again, and i belive its dumb. I mean seriously dumb. Loda has the winningmind, no doubt. And the only real sincere argument regarding his role and how he plays it that i can respect is the fact that his heropool might be abit to small. I will agree on that, but i also think it has a very understandable reason behind it. Ever since ti3, a tornament where Alliance won it all, Loda and Alliance have tried to go ”be great like ti3 again”. They have been forced, by the community, by commentators and by themselves. Trying to accomplish that again is not only very hard and stupid, its impossible. The meta has changed, the players has changed, but Alliance have for some reason tried to play the Ti3 Alliance but with variations ofcourse. Lone Druid, Natures Prophet, Juggernaut. Chaos Knight. They have, in my opinion just tried to do the same thing, again. Instead of trying something new. All the time with S4, and Bulldog ofcourse, they spent just trying to get back to the same kind of game as it was during TI3. Or try to come as close to it as possible. Thats why i dont feel like the ”new” alliance with Limmp and Jonas and Handsken is in a bad place. Because i believe they finally try to make up their own game. Not splitpushing or picking Prophet all the time. And i believe this might be something that opens up Alliance as a new team.
Loda has never been the reason that Alliance lost a game. This is something i say and people are always considering me beeing fanboyish or just afraid of stating my mind regarding Loda. But i still believe its true. I still think Loda has a very balanced performance, one of the most balanced performances in the world if you look over 10 years of period, but also if you look at his team and the last couple of years. Hes not the best player in the world, anymore, but hes far from beeing even one of the worst players around the topscene. Hes really good. But i do believe that something that might be lacking in Loda, as he also said in the interview is motivation. First of all he won it all. But second of all, hes been working way hard to manage this Alliance that never will happen again. The TI3 Alliance. And i believe he lost alot of motivation during this. Maybe even some ingame skill. Most definently did his heropool get smaller. You cant really argue that.
And i actually believe when Loda says he would quit if someone took over and made what hes doing today better. I sincerely believe that.
Problem right now is to manage to get some results. To get the motivation back. I would surely be glad to see Loda and Alliance find their own performancetop, and show off people their strenghts. Its not far away in my opinion. But its gonna be rough. Its gonna be even harder in the position they are in right now, since they are forced to play qualifyers and wierd BO1’s. Its the worst position they are in as a team right now. When they lost the other day to GG it was a disaster in my channel. People dont understand how rough BO1’s are. But they did loose to a team that they shouldnt loose versus. Easy as that. Still the game was not bad, and it was a ok loss in my opinion. But fans, i dont even know if i should call them fans, but these people have so much heart in Alliance. So much heart in Loda. So much memories with TI3 that they forget how to be nice.
I dont know if i believe in Alliance making it back to the top anymore either at times. But i know for sure, if Lord Of Dol Amroth believes it to be possible. Then i know it is.