Dota 2 ends a legend: L-God, Loda retires

Jonathan “Loda” Berg, the living legend of Dota 2 with the nickname L-God awarded by the Chinese community, has officially hung up the mouse after 12 years of playing professionally.

Loda is one of the most famous names in this esports, as he has been competing in DotA since 2006. He has won almost every tournament a professional gamer dreams of and has created a great legacy for those who have won. next generation. Loda started his career with his sidekick Joakim “Akke” Akterhall and together they built one of the most successful and powerful Dota 2 teams. Before forming the legendary Swedish team Alliance , Loda has developed careers in China and Singapore. However, Loda did not participate in the first The International tournament in 2011, but the following year, he joined the Singapore team – Team Zenith with Daryl Koh “iceiceice” Pei Xiang as the coach.

In late 2012, Loda returned to Europe and joined No Tidehunter, which soon became one of Dota 2’s biggest success stories. A few months before TI3, No Tidehunter changed to an all-Swedish roster and became Alliance, champion of The International 2013.

“Alliance has always been a dream, a dream of achieving the impossible and the journey begins there. My journey as a pro is now over and I feel very fulfilled. In a lot of ways, I feel like my time in Dota 2 has always been superfluous, since my peak was in early DotA, everything that happened after that was just a bonus. I knew that Aegis would be mine one day, and of course I had no doubts about it, but I never planned it that far. 🙂 It’s been a while, I’ve been chasing after the fire and thirst in me. It sometimes comes back but never lasts forever. Whatever the outcome, I’m happy and proud that I’ve created something new for this team. And with themselves leaving the team, they no longer feel overshadowed by Alliance’s past results, they are new generation players and will write their own stories,” Loda told fans in farewell letter.

The living legend tried to retire almost a year ago. On June 9, 2017, Loda announced her decision and let the then Alliance players compete through the TI7 Open Qualifiers. This journey didn’t work out and L-God later returned to the competition and built the Alliance legacy with four young talents that he believed would bring Alliance back into the limelight.

“About a month ago, I knew the team wasn’t progressing the way it was supposed to and that the team needed to change. I asked people about their passion and enthusiasm for improving themselves and the team. I asked myself the same question and felt like I couldn’t answer yes right away.

It’s funny how I wanted to compete last year, but had to take a break to remind myself why I chose esports in the first place. This year, I already know why. Now, I know where I want to be. Belongs to where. To be honest, I realized sometime last year that if I didn’t stay the organization might just disappear. In many ways, I am Alliance. I don’t want to admit this, but now I can. […] I’ll be the team’s coach right away and will bootcamp with everyone to prepare for the open qualifiers for The International 2018. I’m confident that the team can rise again.

I will always play Dota, and there is a good chance that I will play in an open tournament in the future. But I won’t go back to being a pro. However, this is not the end of me with Alliance. I will live and die with the Alliance, that is what I now know.

It has been a wonderful journey.” – Jonathan “Loda” Berg

In place of Loda, Miche “miCKe” Nguyen will move from mid to carry and Max “qojqva” Bröcker will join the team in core position 2.

Current Alliance roster from position 1 to 5:

– Michael “miCKe” Vu
– Maximilian “Qojqva” Broecker
– Samuel “Boxi” Svahn
– Tommy “Taiga” Le
– Aydin “iNSaNiA” Sarkohi
Coach: Jonathan “Loda” Berg

In less than 2 weeks, the open qualifiers for The International 2018 will kick off on June 14 in Europe. This open qualifier will feature a lot of teams, including the new OG.

According to vpesport