Swedish organization, Alliance, has announced the return of founding member and former mid-laner, Gustav “s4” Magnusson. He will be taking over the offlane position from Neta “33” Shapira, who was released by the team earlier this week.

s4 was part of the original Alliance roster that raised the Aegis of Champions back in The International 2013 (TI3), where he cemented his place in the history of the game with his legendary ‘Million Dollar Dream Coil’ play in their game five victory over Natus Vincere in the grand finals.

S4 first left Alliance following the conclusion of TI4, joining the second iteration of Team Secret before returning to the team a year later. He then left for OG after TI6, where he transitioned from being a mid player to being the offlaner in order to adapt to the changing metagame.

After two years with OG, s4 left for Evil Geniuses (EG) just three months before the start of TI8.

Around a year and three months later, s4 became part of one of the craziest postseason roster shuffles in Dota 2 history when EG announced that they had replaced him and the team’s superstar mid-laner, Sumail “SumaiL” Hassan, with Abed Azel “Abed” Yusop and Roman “RAMZES666” Kushnarev.

S4 now returns to Alliance as one of the most decorated players in the entire scene, with two Major wins with OG and a Top 3 finish at TI8 with EG to add to the Aegis of Champions he won with his original team.



“Excited to play some Dota again since it’s been a while for me. Looking forward to make some new friends in the team and show everyone great games. Thank you to Alliance for giving me a shot at this. Sorry to everyone that has been waiting for so long, but also thank you to all that have been patiently waiting for my return,” s4 said in a statement.

“I want to welcome s4 back to the team, I can safely say that I’m not the only one who has missed him in Dota these past couple months. We in Alliance have a long history with s4 and many unforgettable moments. I have no doubts that with s4 back that he can bring Alliance to greatness, I am really happy to announce that s4 is back!” added Alliance co-founder and one of s4’s teammates during the team’s run to the championship in TI3, Henrik “AdmiralBulldog” Ahnberg.

Alliance Dota 2 roster:

  1. Nikolay “Nikobaby” Nikolov
  2. Linus “Limmp” Blomdin
  3. Gustav “s4” Magnusson
  4. Simon “Handsken” Haag
  5. N/A

The team is set to announce its replacement for the Position 5 role soon as they are set to compete in the ESL One Los Angeles EU-CIS online regional league from April 4-19.

READ MORE: Alliance has parted ways with Fata and 33