While many of the best teams of Europe landed in Jönköping, Sweden, some big names failed to appear, namely SK and aAa. Crs.eu, FnaticRC, M5, and AL.eu arrived with an automatic berth to the Ro8 by winning online qualifiers. From the BYOC bracket, powerhouses CLG.eu and Millennium qualified. Two makeshift teams PAH (Lounet with several former Sypher players) and Mebdi’s Minions (YamatoCannon and co) rounded off the Top 8 bracket.

The 2 biggest names at Dreamhack, CLG.eu and M5, got the luck of the draw and managed to get on the same side for the Group Stage. That meant if both teams made it to the Semifinals, it would pave the way for the dream Finals that everyone wanted. Neither teams disappointed and the fans got the showdown they wanted. In the end, Dreamhack Summer became a literal repeat of Kings of Europe, up to the Top 3. CLG.eu took a definitive 2-0 triumph over M5, proving to be Russian kryptonite once again (CLG.na to Dynamic anyone?). Perhaps it was hubris, but ironically M5 delivered Anivia to Froggen in both games.

The European Season 2 Standings have been in an interesting position for nearly the entire year. In nearly every single major LAN event, only M5 or NA teams have been able to achieve multiple top 3 performances. This concentrates nearly all the Season 2 Circuit Points amongst a few select teams. The proverbial 1% that own 99% of the wealth. In fact, even with M5's dominating performance, the top 8 NA teams have twice the Circuit Points than the top 8 EU teams. This does however mean that any EU team that places top 3 at any tournament will instantly gain enough points to win a seed to the EU regional qualifiers.

With CLG.eu's win at Dreamhack, they are now second seed in the EU standings and guaranteed a place in the EU Season 2 Regional Qualifiers. Curse.eu are also guaranteed a seed as well due to their 3rd place finish at Dreamhack. M5 maintain their dominating lead at 1000 Circuit Points however, and are guaranteed the first place seed in EU regardless of what happens in the future. At the same time, Fnatic have secured their spots thanks to Circuit Points they accrued earlier in the year thanks to IEM New York, the only event a non-M5 EU team has won. While SK Gaming have enough points to guarantee them a seed, their most recent roster change places them at risk of losing all their Circuit Points as they no longer have 3 original members on the team any more. And that too ignores the problems SK will have trying to get back into shape and ready for the Season 2 EU Qualifiers. With only the top 3 EU teams making it to the Season 2 Championships, SK have a tough road ahead of them.

Once again, the editorial staff on Teamliquid weigh in with their opinions on which teams and players impressed, both in a good and bad way.

Team to Ward Watch: Fnatic
Much has changed in the European scene since the Season 1 Finals. Fnatic used to be an incredibly predictable team, running double AP and being very inflexible with their champion picks. While Fnatic started Season 2 at a crawl they’ve improved immensely since replacing Shushei with sOAZ, as shown by their performance at Dreamhack and MLG Anaheim. Currently third place in the Circuit Points Rankings, eyes will be on Fnatic later this month to see if they qualify and place well at the next EU tournament, European Challenger Circuit: Poland. A strong performance there could indicate that Fnatic still has what it takes to stand up against the likes of CLG.eu and M5.


"See champion, Kill champion" Award: Froggen (CLG.eu v M5 Group Stages)
In his second international offline tournament, Froggen continues to trend of excellence. Whether as Anivia, Karthus, or Ahri, he consistently out-CS and out-kills the opposing AP player. As we have seen before, Froggen is the driving force behind CLG.eu, securing wins outright. At times, he is the glue that holds his team together, allowing them to catch up when behind, giving CLG.eu a glimmer of hope if the game can drag out for 60+ minutes. But his highlight play has to be during the group stages where CLG.eu and M5 fought for the first place seed.

This man is unstoppable on Anivia. You would think that teams would be respect banning him already, the same way HotShotGG Nidalee was on permaban status when he played top lane. CLG.eu was down over 30k gold. Yet thanks to the turtle from Anivia and good walls, CLG was able to defend their base and slowly grind their way back into the game. And then at a tense moment at Baron, Froggen single-handedly wins the game for his team.




Garen in the Bush Surprise Performance: Darien (M5)
Surprises can be a two way street: it can impress you when teams make a jaw-dropping play while on the big stage. It can also flabbergast you into disbelief, ending with a facepalm. Darien on Vladimir against CLG.eu, unfortunately, was the latter in this tournament.

Despite out CS’ing Wickd’s Irelia for the majority of the game, Darien made multiple very questionable item decisions throughout the game. Initially buying a Thornmail instead of Zhonya’s Hourglass, selling his Will of the Ancients, and finally trading in his Abyssal Sceptre for a Needlessly Large Rod, one has to imagine that Froggenivia had a smile on his face when he saw a 50MR Vlad and proceeded to kill him.

(Thanks to Alzadar for making a detailed assessment of Darien’s item path)


Olympic Javelin Track and Field Award: M5, vs CLG.eu, Group Stage
Once again, we honour the biggest throw in the tournament. And what a throw it was. At one point, M5 was 30K gold in the lead. To put things into perspective, that's each M5 member sporting a bonus Infinity Edge and still having enough money for two more. Yet despite all their power they were unable to crack the CLG.eu turtle, were sniped off as they wandered alone, lost the first inhibitor of the match, and finally the game itself.