DreamHack Open Summer 2017 starts this Friday, 17th of June throughout the weekend until the 20th of June and the tournament boasts a good mix of top-tier teams and what most would consider to be second-tier teams. Group stages will be played on Friday, the 17th of June and Saturday, the 18th of June and it will be played out using the GSL format (Double brackets, with 4 teams on each bracket. 2 wins to advance to the play-offs and 2 losses for elimination). Quarter-final and Semi-final matches will be played on Sunday, the 19th of June and the Grand Final on Monday, 20th of June. The tournament will be held in Jönköping, Sweden at the Elmia Exhibition and Convention Centre.
Below is a preview of the initial group stage match-ups. The preview features head-to-head comparisons between the competing teams and their respective story lines going into the tournament. Ratings of the players are based on their performance in the past 3 months.
SK Gaming Rating
Gabriel ‘FalleN’ Toledo 1.09
Fernando ‘fer’ Alvarenga 1.18
Marcelo ‘coldzera’ David 1.24
Epitacio ‘TACO’ de Melo 0.92
João ‘felps’ Vasconcellos 1.02
Singularity Rating
Peter ‘Inzta’ Kragelund 0.99
Thomas ‘Ryxxo’ Nielsen 1.08
Mads ‘Console’ Skovby 0.96
Lucas ‘Lukki’ Pilheden 1.00
Ismail ‘refrezh’ Ali 1.10
SK Gaming is walking into this tournament ranked #1 in the world. Since picking up the young Brazilian talent in the form of felps to replace long-time SK Gaming member Lincoln ‘fnx’ Lau, the Brazilians have managed to place 2nd at DreamHack Masters Las Vegas 2017, 1st at cs_summit Spring 2017, 1st at IEM Sydney 2017, 3-4th at ESL Pro League Season 5 Finals, and they most recently qualified 2nd for ECS Season 3 North America behind Cloud9. It is apparent from the results that the team is beginning to rise up again after the dip in form they had in the later part of 2016 when fnx was still in the team. Fer can be seen putting up phenomenal numbers in recent matches – a big part in SK Gaming’s recent success. Felps can also be seen adapting well to the team and has been performing consistently well since being picked up.
Meanwhile, Singularity is fresh off a line-up change. Refrezh replaced Allan ‘AnJ’ Jensen on a 1-month trial basis since the 28th of May 2017, and is so far proving to be an upgrade for the team as he can be seen putting up big numbers since he joined. The Danes have never placed below 2nd place in all of the tournaments they entered, and have a handful of 1st place finishes as well. Their most notable win would be at Copenhagen Games 2017, although with AnJ instead of refrezh.
Singularity is a young, but promising team and has much to prove in this tournament. Opening the tournament with the number 1 ranked team in the world will prove to be no easy task. We have seen dozens of upsets done by lesser-known teams against elite-level teams, but SK Gaming possibly has the best track record in preventing such upsets as they never underestimate their opponents even at their peak of dominance in 2016. This match should prove to be a walk in the park for SK Gaming, but Singularity might just surprise like they did at Copenhagen Games 2017.
Gambit Rating
Mihail ‘Dosia’ Stolyarov 0.99
Dauren ‘AdreN’ Kystaubayev 1.16
Rusten ‘mou’ Telepov 1.07
Abay ‘HObbit’ Khasenov 1.08
Danylo ‘Zeus’ Teslenko 0.87
CLG Rating
Pujan ‘FNS’ Mehta 0.84
Kenneth ‘koosta’ Suen 1.17
Stephen ‘reltuC’ Cutler 1.00
Ethan ‘nahtE’ Arnold 1.07
Ricardo ‘Rickeh’ Mullholand 1.06
Many would consider this to be a one-sided match in favour of Gambit. But based on recent results, CLG have proven to be a tough opposition. The recent addition of the Australian talent Rickeh on March 6th 2017 shortly following his departure from the all-Australian team Renegades have proven to be a solid addition to the team. Although previously the main AWPer for Renegades, Rickeh has taken a step back from wielding the big green full-time and has proven to be a solid rifler and a reliable secondary AWPer, behind koosta. As of late, CLG has only been seen mostly in qualifiers. Winning the DreamHack Open Summer 2017 North American Qualifiers gave them the ticket to have a chance at contending for the title. After failing to qualify for the PGL Major qualifiers in Krakow, CLG would need to achieve a high placing in this tournament to validate their status as one of the top North American team, both to themselves and the community.
The last we saw of Gambit was at DreamHack Open Austin 2017, where they placed 1st in the tournament. There, they went on to beat several top teams in the tournament, including notable victories over G2 in the semi-final and Immortals in the grand final. Many credit Gambit’s success to the addition of Zeus as an in-game leader following his departure from Na’vi. The organisation’s first ever CS:GO title was achieved at DreamHack Zowie Open Winter 2016, only several weeks after having Zeus join the ranks of the team. Bringing his cerebral and methodical approach to calling the game from Na’Vi over to Gambit, Zeus has proven time after time that his time in CS:GO is not over yet. From knowing how to utilise his players to near perfection, to effective mid-round calling, Zeus has transformed Gambit from a title-contending team to a title-winning team. Finishing 5-8th at the ELEAGUE Major in January 2017, Gambit’s results following this relatively impressive finish proved to be disappointing – finishing 5-8th again but this time at DreamHack Masters Las Vegas and 12-14th at SL i-League StarSeries Season 3 Finals. Nevertheless, they picked up shortly after that and went on to place 2nd at cs_summit Spring 2017 and 1st at DreamHack Open Austin 2017, where they were last seen.
Gambit have proven time after time that they are one of the most tricky teams to play against. It will be a tough match for CLG, but expect to see them putting up a good match against Gambit.
mousesports Rating
Tomáš ‘oskar’ Šťastný 1.12
Chris ‘chrisJ’ de Jong 0.86
Denis ‘denis’ Howell 0.91
Christian ‘loWel’ Garcia Antoran 0.95
Robin ‘ropz’ Kool 1.06
Immortals Rating
Henrique ‘hen1’ Teles 1.12
Ricardo ‘boltz’ Prass 1.08
Lucas ‘steel’ Lopes 1.02
Lucas ‘lucas’ Teles 1.05
Vito ‘kNg’ Giuseppe 1.21
All eyes have been on the young Estonian talent ropz, who seemingly came out of nowhere and started destroying everyone in FPL (Faceit Pro League). He sparked a cheating witch hunt but all doubts were cleared when ropz proved himself to be a legitimate talent, having played from the Faceit headquarters over a weekend, resulting in him being picked up by mousesports shortly after to replace Timo ‘Spiidi’ Ritcher who had been the subject of criticism with consistent poor performances. Ropz would make his LAN debut at DreamHack Open Tours 2017. While he did not turn heads during the event, his impactful performance secured a 3-4th place finish for mousesports. His next LAN event would be significantly better, boasting a 1.03 overall event rating at the ESL Pro League Season 5 Finals (compared to the 0.90 overall event rating he had at DreamHack Open Tours 2017), and thus securing his team a 5-6th place finish in the event. While things have been looking up for ropz, chrisJ can be seen struggling as of late. His rating over the past 3 months have dropped to 0.86, far below his career average of 1.08. Although the Dutch man has been facing his own individual problems, the rest of his team have been stepping up over the past couple of events to establish themselves as the tough and unpredictable mid-level competitors that they were two years ago. Should the vital players of the team in ropz, oskar and chrisJ show up in good form for this event, they would have the chance in securing a high placing in the event.
Immortals is often the team considered to be the second best Brazilian team, behind SK Gaming. They have shown glimmers of greatness since the project started and have been slowly, but steadily improving. When SK Gaming swapped fnx for felps, resulting in fnx joining Immortals, their results would continue to improve at a faster rate. The experience and winning mentality fnx brought to the team seemed to have sparked a flame in the team and they produced consistent results, finishing in the middle of the pack at several different tournaments amongst top-level competition. This did not last long, however. The tenacity brought on by fnx proved to be too much for the rest of the team and they decided to bench him and picked up kNg, a relative unknown in the scene at that time. Since the addition of kNg in May 24th 2017, Immortals has not shown any signs of slowing down in terms of their progression as a team. Where kNg lacks in the experience that fnx brought to the team, kNg made up for it with his impeccable aim and the added fire power he brought into the team. After a poor display at his LAN debut with Immortals at ESL Pro League Season 5 Finals, less than a week after he joined the team, kNg would prove to be a pivotal player in the Immortals team at the PGL Major 2017 Americas Minor. His impressive overall event rating of 1.16 helped Immortals secure a spot at the PGL Major 2017 Main Qualifier.
With kNg and ropz being the two most recent addition to both teams, they have much to prove in this event in order to uphold their positions within their respective teams.
fnatic Rating
Jesper ‘JW’ Wecksell 1.00
Olof ‘olofmeister’ Kajbjer 1.06
Dennis ‘dennis’ Edman 1.02
Robin ‘flusha’ Rönnquist 1.04
Freddy ‘KRIMZ’ Johansson 0.94
Cloud9 Rating
Mike ‘shroud’ Grzesiek 0.97
Timothy ‘autimatic’ Ta 1.08
Jordan ‘n0thing’ Gilbert 0.98
Tyler ‘Skadoodle’ Latham 1.06
Jake ‘Stewie2k’ Yip 1.11
The present form of the current fnatic team is a tricky one. Following three Swedish shuffles involving the Godsent and Epsilon teams – one in August of 2016, another in October of 2016, and the last one in February of 2017, we saw JW, flusha and KRIMZ leave and now reunited with their former team mates. This line-up was once considered to be the perfect CS:GO line-up back in 2014 and 2015. During this period of pure dominance, fnatic never finished outside of the top 4 in tournaments and would go on to win 3 CS:GO majors. However, their dip in form in mid-2016 triggered the first of the Swedish shuffles. This move was considered to be a huge mistake as fnatic failed to achieve their desired results. This same reason would be the trigger to the next two shuffles where they ended up with their original line-up in the end. Immediately finishing 1-2nd at both the SL i-League Season 3 Europe Qualifier and ECS Season 3 EU Promotion right after the February Swedish shuffle, fnatic would produce disappointing results (relative to the team’s potential) in the following tournaments. They would go on to finish 5-8th at the SL i-League Season 3 Finals and 7-8th at the ESL Pro League Season 5 Finals. Now fresh off of a qualification to the ECS Season 3 Finals, fnatic will be walking in to this event, eyeing at not just a top finish at the tournament, but to win the whole tournament.
Cloud9 have proven consistently time after time to be one of the top, if not the top (should we not consider SK Gaming to be a North American team) team hailing from the North American region. In events that contained mostly domestic opposition, they would finish 1st at the iBUYPOWER Invitational Spring 2017, 1st at the Subaru Invitational 2017, finish 1st in the league at ECS Season 3 North America and most recently finished 1st at the PGL Major 2017 Americas Minor. Against European oppositions in the mix however, Cloud9 have only managed to finish 9-12th at DreamHack Masters Las Vegas 2017, 9-10th at IEM Katowice 2017, 4th at cs_summit Spring 2017 and 11-12th at the ESL Pro League Season 5 Finals. Stewie2k and autimatic have proven themselves to be the players that have to be in good form in order for the team to win matches convincingly. Often cited as the best North American duo, the two would put up big numbers in many of the matches played by Cloud9. This would be insufficient in order to allow Cloud9 to be a consistent international contender, as shown by their results against international teams. But Cloud9 and the community has been witnessing the resurgence in form by Skadoodle in recent weeks. Along with Stewie2k and autimatic, Skadoodle played a big part in secuing Cloud9 a 1st place finish in the PGL Major 2017 Americas Minor. Skadoodle is showing that he might still be capable of returning to his peak form as seen in the summer of 2015.
Cloud9 would need not only Skadoodle to step up along side autimatic and Stewie2k, but also shroud and n0thing in order to have a deep run in this tournament. This might just be the tournament where Cloud9 would show the world that they are capable of beating opponents from outside of North America.
This event is great for spectators of all CS:GO backgrounds. Newcomers to the scene can follow this event over the weekend to familiarise themselves with the players and teams without confusing themselves with too many names as the event features only 8 teams. There are more than enough potential match-ups to excite the casual CS:GO spectators, and the hardcore CS:GO fans alike. Look forward to a weekend of exciting and high-level CS:GO matches.
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