It feels like it’s my birthday.

I understand most of you really don’t care about XSE Pro League, beyond reading about all the juicy drama. In fact, most of us contributing to this newsletter haven’t seen a single map from the event.

I’ve only seen about thirteen maps, and all of them have had one thing in common. A Swedish team were playing.

Despite EYEBALLERS’s bitter end, falling to FaZe by the narrowest of margins, they can take a lot of positives with them after this event. They were the only team that dared to play Cache in a BO3, JW and KRIMZ showed that they still have the sauce, and maxster is a revelation.

All in all, this event has a pretty fun field. It’s relatively evenly matched, and the near-misses for the Major get to challenge those who actually made it. I’m sure some teams went into this event wanting revenge - and one of them got it.

For the first time since BLAST Copenhagen 2019, a fully Swedish team will play in front of a playoff crowd at a tier one event. Better yet, it’s the first time I’m excited about that since… I honestly can’t remember.

I’ve seen Alliance at every stage of its history. From taking cross-country road trips to tiny gymnasium LANs with poiii, to winning the Svenska Cupen trophy in front of the biggest crowd in Sweden. From narrowly missing out on qualifying for their first-ever Major with MaiL09 to taking a back-to-back win in June’s ROG Journey tournament despite the high pressure of debuting with bobeksde.

I’ve stood behind them listening to their team talks; I’ve interviewed every single player; I’ve talked the ear off all their staff during their games - not to mention having pints at the afterparties. Trust me when I tell you - this team is f-cking special.

Having already taken down teams like 9z and B8, as well as tearing NIP a new one in the name of this great northern nation, nothing is saying these guys can’t take home the trophy in their first-ever tier one event.

The blue and yellow will reign supreme in Guangzhou next weekend, and we will be watching every single step of the way.

Heja Sverige.