Alliance are through to the semi-finals at XSE Pro League Guangzhou after beating Nemesis 2-1 in the quarter-finals (8-13 Nuke, 13-7 Inferno, 13-7 Ancient).
The Swedes had made a late charge up the VRS in recent months and just barely missed out on qualifying for the IEM Cologne Major after winning ROG JOURNEY Spring and placing third at Roman Imperium Cup VI and DraculaN Season 6.
They suffered a setback in June after failing to secure the permanent transfer of Liam "MaiL09" Tügel, who had been their best player, from Metizport, but haven't missed a beat since signing Jonatan "bobeksde" Persson.
A win at ROG JOURNEY Summer three weeks ago and a strong run at XSE Pro League, where the team only dropped its opener against PARIVISION and beat Ninjas in Pyjamas, B8, and 9z to make the playoffs, is a testament to that, and bobeksde ensured that run would continue by demolishing Nemesis in the quarter-finals.
The 22-year-old's efforts weren't enough to make up for a limp showing from Alliance on Nuke to kick off the series, but he helped his team bounce back on Inferno (1.86 rating) before transcending on the Ancient decider (2.22 rating, 27-11 K-D, 6-1 in openers, and eight multi-kills) to earn a rematch against 9z in the semis.
Metizport
Peter 'stanislaw' Jarguz
Nicolas 'Plopski' Gonzalez Zamora
Maciej 'F1KU' Miklas
David 'forsyy' Bílý
Vincent 'vinS' Jozefiak
Alliance
Simon 'twist' Eliasson
Sean 'eraa' Knutsson
Jonatan 'bobeksde' Persson
Markus 'upE' Johansson
Arvid 'avid' Åberg
Simon 'Hawk' Vävinggren
Liam 'MaiL09' Tügel
PARIVISION
Abay 'HObbit' Khassenov
Dzhami 'Jame' Ali
Vladislav 'xiELO' Lysov
Ivan 'zweih' Gogin
Vyacheslav 'slaxejezzz' Vinokurov
Dastan 'dastan' Akbayev
Ninjas in Pyjamas
Marco 'Snappi' Pfeiffer
Martin 'stavn' Lund
Rasmus 'sjuush' Beck
Roman 'n0te' Hamze
Kacper 'xKacpersky' Gabara
Richard 'Xizt' Landström
Jonatan 'bobeksde' Persson
9z
Maximiliano 'max' Gonzalez
Franco 'dgt' Garcia
Ignacio 'meyern' Meyer
Luciano 'luchov' Herrera
Matias 'HUASOPEEK' Ibañez Hernandez
Bruno 'BIT' Fukuda Lima
B8
Alexey 'alex666' Yarmoshchuk
Andrii 'npl' Kukharskyi
Artem 'kensizor' Kapran
Dmytro 'esenthial' Tsvir
Danylo 's1zzi' Vinnyk
Ivan 'maddened' Iordanidi
Nemesis
Ivan 'SELLTER' Miroshnikov
Evgeny 'r3salt' Frolov
Alemkhan 'mag1k3Y' Moldakamalov
Philipp 'tex1y' Moskvitin
Daniil 'Sdaim' Tupov
Maksim 'NMV' Naumov