BIG, Gambit Secure First DH Open Playoffs Spots

The best German team entered the Semi Finals of DreamHack Open January EU following two impressive victories. While Gambit struggled a bit more in their encounters, they eventually survived the Winners’ Match and advanced to the playoffs as well.

HellRaisers and forZe waved goodbye early on. Both failed to achieve much in this event and each left the bracket following two losses. Sprout, Team Spirit, Evil Geniuses and FunPlus Phoenix remain in the running for the two remaining spots.

BIG KICK OFF 2021 IN SHAPE

Following the matches in DreamHack Open January, the BIG Clan’s weak display at ESL Meisterschaft seems to be in the past. In the international landscape, they haven’t had such a cold start and quickly dispatched HellRaisers. While the two did make it a close affair on Inferno, Johannes “tabseN” Wodarz and his men made quick work of them on Mirage.

This put them in the Winners’ Match alongside Evil Geniuses. The North Americans had already presented themselves at the BLAST Premier: Global Finals to meager results. Now, they suddenly kicked off the match with a 16-13 on Inferno, which put them just one map win away from playoffs – but unfortunately, that map was Dust2. As so often, BIG put up a great Dust2 with a brilliant performance and swiftly secured victory on a 16-6 scoreline. Tizian “tiziaN” Feldbusch put his mark on the scoreboard with 22 kills and a 1.58 rating.

The two teams headed onto Nuke to decide the final winner. BIG let tabseN free, who promptly posted 31 kills in just 23 rounds. A quick 16-7 victory gave them the playoffs spot, whereas Evil Geniuses will have to fight FunPlus Phoenix if they still want to make the Semi Finals.

SH1RO DRAGS GAMBIT INTO SEMI FINALS

As it appears, Dmitry “sh1ro” Sokolov is the new Eastern European prodigy. In the Opening Match against Sprout, he impressed with 54 kills. The German team’s newest additions failed particularly to match this kind of output. Both Fritz “slaxz-” Dietrich and Marko “kressy” Đorđević only participated wit 29 kills each and took some time to really get going. Still, Sprout forced overtime on the first map and even mounted a 13-16 map on Vertigo.

Sprout eventually set themselves on top of forZe on a 2-1 scoreline. Josef “faveN” Baumann held his team in the game and posted a total of 76 kills. All the while, Gambit had to watch as they were flattened on Inferno at the hands of Team Spirit. Suddenly, they were close to defeat in this match, but two close halves on Overpass eventually brought them to overtime. There, they narrowly survived on a 19-15 scoreline and then confidently pulled through a fantastic T side on Train, after which they finally got the 16-12 victory to end the match.

This means that Gambit have now passed the playoffs test and can take their rightful place in the Semi Finals. EG, Sprout, Spirit and FPX are still in contention for the last two spots and will thus play out Decider Matches. So far, Evil Geniuses and Spirit appear to have the upper hand in these encounters. But the margin is uncomfortably narrow, as FunPlus Phoenix delivered close maps versus EG. Sprout were also close to taking down Gambit and have surely studied the Spirit players’ demos. The fight for playoffs at DreamHack Open January EU remains tense and exciting.