Built to last: Falcons close in on a decade-old record

The revolving door of roster changes isn’t anything new in Dota 2. For as long as the game has been around, players have swapped teams like dirty laundry. These days, some lineups barely last a full event.

That’s why what Team Falcons are about to do in Birmingham feels so significant.

By the end of tomorrow and the group stage, they are expected to surpass one of the longest-standing records in Dota — most games played together as a five-man roster. A record set by Alliance back in 2016, and one that has quietly stood untouched for nearly a decade.

Alliance

The Alliance lineup, originally formed under NoTidehunter in 2012, became one of the most iconic squads in Dota history. With s4, AdmiralBulldog, Loda, Akke, and EGM, the all-Swedish roster defined an era. They won over ten major tournaments in a single year and cemented their legacy with a 3–2 victory over Natus Vincere in the grand finals of The International 2013 — a series still considered one of the greatest in Dota history.

That roster stayed together through success, through pressure, and through a time when stability was still achievable. Even then, it didn’t last forever. After TI4, the lineup began to fracture, bringing an end to one of the most iconic five-man units the game has seen.

But the record they left behind endured.

Until now.

Team Falcons

Formed in late 2023, the roster has remained unchanged since its inception — something that already feels rare in the current landscape.

They found success quickly. Within their first year, they entered TI 2024 as one of the favorites, ultimately finishing fourth. A year later, Andreas “Cr1t-” Nielsen finally lifted the Aegis at TI 2025 with the same roster — a payoff not just for performance, but for patience.

Team Falcons were already closing in on that mark heading into Birmingham, sitting just a handful of series away from overtaking it.

When you look at the teams behind them, the gaps become impossible to ignore.

The next closest lineup — Team Liquid’s long-standing core of miCKe, qojqva, Taiga, Boxi, and iNsania — reached 636 games together. A roster that lasted nearly four years before eventually breaking apart with qojqva and Taiga parting ways in 2021. Even that level of stability wasn’t enough to truly threaten the top mark.

Further down the list, you find other familiar names — lineups that felt stable at the time, like the Fnatic core featuring Era, H4nn1, Trixi, n0tail, and Fly — but in hindsight were still fleeting compared to what Falcons have managed.

Even if a team wanted to chase this record now, it’s hard to imagine them having the time. The distance isn’t just measured in games, but in months — or years — of uninterrupted stability in a scene that rarely allows it.

Longevity and dominance

Team Falcons might be the lineup that is about to have played together the longest. But they aren’t the most dominant. That still belongs to another lineup entirely.

The PSG.LGD roster built around Ame, Faith_bian, XinQ, and NothingToSay holds the highest win rate among these long-standing cores at 70.13% — a reminder that staying together is one thing, but winning consistently while doing it is something else entirely.

At the same time, it’s hard to ignore the pattern. The teams that do manage to stay together longer tend to find success in one form or another. Not always in the form of a TI win, but in consistency — deeper runs, stronger placements, and a level of cohesion that shows over time.

Longevity doesn’t guarantee dominance. But it rarely comes without something to show for it.

Still, in today’s Dota, just staying together might be the harder achievement.

We’ve already seen how quickly things can fall apart this season alone. paiN Gaming benched Parker after just two series. The Astini stack formed with the idea of being long-term, withdrew mid-tournament despite a winning record, and then disbanded almost immediately after. These situations aren’t outliers anymore — they’re becoming the norm.

For Falcons, it hasn’t been perfect. They’ve had stretches where things didn’t quite click, and this season hasn’t looked as dominant as many expected. But through all of it, the roster stayed intact. No panic changes, no mid-event resets — just time, reps, and a level of trust that’s becoming harder to find.

And now, in Birmingham, that trust is about to turn into history.

ESL One Birmingham 2026

ESL One Birmingham 2026 is being held in Birmingham, between March 22 and 29 with 16 teams competing for the largest slice of the $1,000,000 prize pool. It is the fourth ESL One to be held in Birmingham, after the previous edition in 2024 and is the third point-obtaining event of the 2025/26 season. It is also part of DreamHack Birmingham 2026, featuring other gaming events and esports competitions, such as Call of Duty and Halo.