EPT
Dreamhack’s circuit tour returns home this weekend for their Summer event in Jönköping, Sweden. The third stop for the Dreamhack ZOWIE Open’s Counter-Strike series will feature eight teams vying for their share of the $100,00 prize pool. Six of the eight were invited while the final two earned their spots by topping each of the open qualifiers. The first stage will feature two four-team, double-elimination groups that will pare down half the competitors and decide seeding for the playoffs.
A is for Astralis
Group A features the retooled Astralis looking to establish their dominance over the weaker field and continue the success they had in the previous week at E-League. They must overcome the newly minted Immortals, SK’s seemingly doomed side, and pride of Finland in ENCE Esports. Astralis match up first against the Finnish team, a best-of-one that would take a monumental breakdown to lose. The Danes’ reputation of consistently taking care of business against lesser competition will likely hold true and see them through to the winner’s match.
The other Group A match-up features two teams headed in opposite directions. The rise of Immortals over the past six months has seen the Brazilians become a top-10 caliber team. With their failure to qualify for the Major, however, they have yet to have a true coming-of-age. Dreamhack Summer should serves as an opportunity to fix the mistakes that have held them back from achieving and to come out of the shadow of their mentor.
SK Gaming, on the other hand, has little to be optimistic about. Their organization seems prepared to cut the roster once their contracts expire given the recent fiasco with SK attempting to acquire Luminosity Gaming’s roster. The players seem to have taken the hint, with Jacob “Pimp” Winneche signing with Team Liquid as of this week. With his departure and the organization’s drama serving as a distraction, it’s difficult to be bullish about this team’s chances in such an unforgiving group.
Swedish Showdown
Group B features not one, not two, but three Swedish sides looking to take home the trophy in front of their home crowd. The first of the three is the storied squad Ninjas in Pyjamas, the resurgent fan-favorites with legendary players that continue to add to their legacies that pre-date Global Offensive. The qualifier team of the groups and second of the Swedish trio, Epsilon Esports, appears to be NiP’s first stepping stone on their path to the playoffs. Epsilon might be the fourth best team from their country, and that’s simply not enough to take on a top-five team like NiP.
The final Swedish roster in attendance is Markus “pronax” Wallsten’s GODSENT. The elite in-game leader formed this team after leaving Fnatic late last year. Since that time, he has developed these players into a fairly competitive team. Thus far, they have had some success in the events they have attended with mostly middling placings and some reasonably close maps against better teams. Most memorably, they took NiP to three maps in their first LAN appearance at Dreamhack Malmö, finishing in the semis. A rematch of that series relies on GODSENT beating the final team of the tournament, the CIS-mix HellRaisers.
If there’s a way to characterize HellRaisers, it is as a revolving door of talent. The current roster has been together a scant two months, and in that period they’ve had two reasonable results - the CEVO Season 9 Finals where they fell in the semis and a second-place finish at Dreamhack Tours. Neither LAN featured a particularly impressive field, but HellRaisers did manage to 2-0 Virtus.Pro at CEVO in surprising fashion. They certainly have the firepower to compete with GODSENT, but may have to rely on a favorable map draw to have a shot at silencing the Swedish crowd.
Reasonable Doubt
Should conventional wisdom hold true, this tournament seems destined to have the two elite teams, Astralis and NiP, top their groups and ultimately meet in the finals. In years past, this would have been taken for granted, as there was a clear delineation between the teams at the top and the rest of the field. 2016, however, has borne witness to a mixed bag of results and ushered in an uncertain era. What was once a certain affair is now an opportunity for upset.
If any one team was to play spoiler to this eventuality, it would be the Brazilian Immortals. Their results thus far outside of North America have been inconsistent, but they show flashes of their potential even in their failures. If the team can extend their map pool beyond their ace-in-the-hole of Cobblestone, they could become legitimate contenders not unlike their brother team Luminosity Gaming.
Luminosity started in early 2015 as a no-name Brazilian team with a superb Mirage. Over the next year, they built upon that until they achieved their status as the best in the world. Immortals has a chance here at Jönköping to show some of that same growth, to continue their ascendance up the Counter-Strike ladder. It all starts with the series against SK, a reprisal of the CEVO Season 9 grand final that serves as the team’s high-water mark.
Final Thoughts
Dreamhack Summer will also serve to more clearly determine the pecking order of the mid-tier European teams in attendance. GODSENT, ENCE, HellRaisers, SK, and Epsilon all sit in a sort of grey area with not much to separate them in terms of performance. This tournament will shine some light on the current form of the teams as none of them play regularly on the international stage. As the matches play out, it should become more apparent which teams are on their way up.
With the Cologne Major only a few weeks away, Dreamhack Summer is a proving ground for the talent unable to attend the more prestigious event, and a test run for the elite teams looking to maintain their status in this tumultuous time in the Counter-Strike scene. Will Astralis or NiP fall in the groups? Can Immortals bounce back from their qualifier failure? These and other questions will be answered in Jönköping
Writer: Yamato
Editor: amazingxkcd
CSS: FO-nTTaX, amazingxkcd
Graphics: DearDave
