[DH] Dreamhack Winter 2012 Wrap-up

This DreamHack Winter was a Highlander story. Multiple teams battled through the Bring Your Own Computer bracket but in the end, Sju Sjösjuka Sjömän and Copenhagen Wolves stood alone against their decimated competition. SSS was comprised of Swedish friends who banded together simply for DreamHack. Their roster include several big names including Jree, the impressive support for CLG.eu @ MLG Dallas, and Kottenx, the jungler for team ALTERNATE. The Copenhagen Wolves on the other hand have played as a team for some time and DHW marked their first offline tournament.
These two challengers shocked the audience as they continued storm their way through Group Stage bracket next, denying teams like Curse.eu and Team Acer a chance at the prize. But in the end, the two immortals of the EU scene were set to clash in the grand finals.

In the left corner, we have team Fnatic, the winners of LoL Season 1 and DreamHack Summer 2011.
In the right corner, we have CLG.eu, the winners of Lone Star Clash 2 and DreamHack Summer 2012.

Fittingly enough, both finalists have been crowned at DreamHack before. But in the end, when all was said and done, Fnatic emerged with their blades lording over CLG.eu. Even after losing the first game, Fnatic clenched their grip and doubled down, winning games 2 and 3 in a very decisive fashion. Congratulations Fnatic, you are the lone ones standing at the end of DreamHack Winter 2012.

Team to Ward Watch: Fnatic
After winning League of Legends Season 1, Fnatic fell into a state of slumber. Several underwhelming performances in 2012 riddled the team’s mantle, not a single Top 3 finish for many months. This led to Season 1 fan favorite, Shushei, to be benched and not soon after, fabled Bot lane pair Lamia and Mellisan eventually retired from the scene. However, what is most impressive is Fnatic’s management. Building around their core AP player, xPeke, and Jungler, Cyanide; team manager, hxd, handpicked sOAZ and nRated to assemble a new team. With young Rekkles rounding out the ADC position, Fnatic swept through this tournament with serious determination and it paid off.
It will be interested to see if this is the return of the Fnatic from before or simply a one time performance. All the while, the EU scene yearns for more teams to step up and poise their Region as a worthy challenge to the Asians. Will Fnatic answer that call?

Honorable Mention: Copenhagen Wolves
Not to say this tournament was upset after upset, but DreamHack Winter was a score for the little guy. After a stellar performance at Tales of the Lane, Curse.eu was expected to be a shoe-in as one of the teams to advance from Group B. However, a hardy group of Danes struck a hard blow against the favorites and managed to force a three-way tie in the group. Even though failing to defeat Curse a second time, the Wolves held out long enough against Curse. This fact, combined with their swift dispatch of The Mighty Midgets, meant the Wolves edged out Curse in the end and knocked Crs.eu out of the running

"See champion, Kill champion" Award: Froggen (Semifinals: CLG.eu vs Copenhagen, Game 2)
Need a light?
From a blind Lee Sin kill to tag team wombo combos with yellowpete, sometimes Froggen just wants to show you something bright.
Are you a plant?
Froggen highly suggests some sun beams to make your day.
Froggen and skill shots, mix well but don’t look directly at him. May cause retinal scarring and sun burns.

Honorable Mention: Cyanide (Grand Finals: CLG.eu vs Fnatic, Game 1) (VOD)
Sometimes the best plays are the ones where a player is simply at the right place, at the right time. sOAZ is desperately trying to hold off three CLG members at Top. At the moment yellowpete decides to dive, Cyanide Safeguards sOAZ to momentarily keep his ally alive. Eventually, Ezreal kills Warwick but Lee Sin revenge kills Ezreal and begins to chase Snoopeh. While Lee Sin is demonstrating his superiority as a duelist, Krepo on Lulu accidently suicides into the tower a few seconds too early before he can count to 10. This amusing series of events allowed Fnatic to take an adequate lead against CLG.eu in the early moments of Game 1.

Olympic Javelin Track and Field Award: Crs.eu
A prince one week and a pauper the next; Curse.eu was riding high coming into DreamHack. After a decisive win over Eclypsia, Crs.eu had everything to prove that their win at Tales of the Lane was anything but a fluke. Unfortunately, Curse failed to convince their detractors. With a rapid turn of events, they went from winning one tournament to failing to advance out of the first round in this one. Indicating that consistency may be an issue, Crs.eu has less than a week to regroup and set their mind straight for IPL5.

Honorable Mention: CLG.eu
While advancing to the grand finals of any tournament is a cause for celebration for most teams, CLG.eu is not your average European team. They fulfilled their fans’ expectations by systemically dismantling the lesser known teams at DreamHack. However, when faced with a far more competent team in the Finals, CLG.eu were not able to gather themselves and function as an S-class team. Second place and 85,000 SEK is not bad for a weekend but it’s not the CLG.eu that fans expected, nor of CLG members in themselves. A few missteps were made at DreamHack but CLG.eu have little room for mistakes next week.

Dora the Explorer Award: Froggen (Grand Finals: CLG.eu vs Fnatic, Game 3) (VOD)
Sometimes, even the most veteran of players can be overwhelmed by cupidity, especially if you are an AP player who kills minions and wraiths like it your day job. CLG.eu descends upon Dragon which is about to spawn in a matter of seconds. Seeing that Cyanide is out of position in Top lane, Froggen decides to disengage from his team, relinquishing CLG.eu’s numbers advantage going into Dragon. A 4v4 is not a bad fight but in a surprising move of miscommunication, CLG.eu aggros Dragon within Fnatic’s line of sight. Fnatic collapses upon CLG with ease, taking not only Dragon for free but also taking down Krepo and Snoopeh. The absence of Froggen for a single Dragon encounter ensured Fnatic a sizeable advantage going into midgame.

Honorable Mention: Citizen (Group Stage: SSS vs Acer) (VOD)
One cannot stress the importance of wards enough. If your team lacks vision, then play safe and close together. SSS pressed Top lane but disengages into Acer’s jungle. Even though entirely blind in their own jungle, Acer members recklessly enter in a nonchalant manner. Citizen’s ill-timed Body Slam over a wall for no apparently reason leaves him isolated from his team as well as lacking in an escape ability when he’s caught by SSS. Acer attempts to salvage Citizen’s blunder only to lose three other members and eventually their mid inhibitor.

What DreamHack showed is that the EU scene is still very volatile. As we saw with Crs.eu, they came in first at Tales of the Lane only to fail to advance out of Group Stage a week later. On the other side of the coin, we saw the reemergence of the old guard, Fnatic. It goes to show that practice and diligent bootcamping does pay know. Know your enemy and know yourself.

This is all leading up to IPL5, which is in a few days. With Alternate dropping out and Fnatic attending, IPL5 has assembled the four strongest teams that Europe has to offer. EU fans must be excited to see how all their favorites fare against North American and Asian teams.