DH Open Fall: Four Playoffs Teams Are Set

Four teams have managed to secure slots for the next stage of DreamHack Open Fall. The other teams will have to fight for the last remaining spots in the upcoming Double Elimination Bracket.

GRUPPE A

On the first map, fnatic gunned down Vitality for a quick 16-5 win. But just like OG on the day before, they struggled to maintain this level of performance. On Nuke, Vitality took revenge on a 16-6 scoreline, as Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut cracked the 30 bomb. But the best player in the world wasn’t done yet. Despite a fantastic first half, the Swedes were left without a chance on Mirage, after ZywOo channelled his very best self. With 39 kills, 12 deaths and a 2.34 rating, he delivered an insanely dominant performance and removed fnatic from the server on a 16-11 scoreline.

Mousesports had to relive their ESL One Cologne experience. Being down on the first day and left to fend for their lives, they once again had to watch as they were prematurely booted off the tournament. Apart from Nathan “NBK-” Schmitt, who took more of a passive role, all the OG players fired from all cylinders and earned themselves some fantastic ratings. The new gun at mousesports, Aurimas “Bymas” Pipiras, only put up a weak fight and was one of the reasons for Finn “karrigan” Andersen and his team suffering a 0-2 defeat and exiting early. At least this means that we can witness a rematch between fnatic and OG.

GROUP B

Astralis are heading to playoffs, as was expected. Still, G2 Esports gave them something to think about on Dust2. With a 16-2, Nemanja “nexa” Isaković removed the Danes from the server and left four of his opponents on single-digit kill counts. Unfortunately, the other two maps didn’t pass quite as well. Two 16-6 scorelines on Nuke and Inferno secured the playoffs slot for Astralis.

Endpoint had to put a premature end to their DreamHack Open Fall efforts. In G2, Astralis and Heroic, they arguably had some of the worst opponents possible. So, given the circumstances, they shouldn’t be ashamed of their performance. Following two 16-10 map wins, Heroic secured their survival in the tournament and will face G2 Esports next. Even though nexa has shown up in top form, Heroic are just posting better results overall. G2 simply cannot compete with the overtime-ridden display of Heroic against Astralis.

GROUP C

Every once in a while, GODSENT surprise us with an almost-upset win. Going up versus BIG, it looked at times as though they would actually make playoffs before the Germans and FaZe. On Mirage, they got a 19-17 overtime win thanks to a dominant T side. After a relatively weak performance, Johannes “tabseN” Wodarz showed up on Overpass and quickly led with 28 kills. On the GODSENT camp, there was no one to match his prowess and their best efforts on the CT side weren’t enough to avoid defeat. BIG dragged them onto a third map on a 16-12 scoreline. Inferno couldn’t have been any closer. After two balanced halves, the teams entered overtime once again. But as BIG had fought back from a 10-15 deficit, they took their comeback momentum and converted it into a 19-15 victory. They narrowly avoided the upset and could finally advance to playoffs.

FaZe had to work had for their win as well. The sAw boys surprised everyone with a 16-12 victory on the first map. The Portuguese were carried by Renato “stadodo” Gonçalves, who reeled in 35 kills. On the second map, however, FaZe put a stop to this. In Dust2, FaZe had picked a map on which to show and utilize their individual skill. Helvijs “broky” Saukants did exactly that and got 30 kills for a 1.88 rating. Even Nikola “NiKo” Kovač couldn’t compete with this – but he didn’t need to anyways, as FaZe were quick to secure a 16-7 win. On Train, sAw had a similarly bad time. While the 16-11 scoreline wasn’t as one-sided anymore, the Portuguese still had no chance against this superteam. So FaZe live to fight another day and, in theory, have an easy opponent in GODSENT. But if Kevin “kRYSTAL” Amend and company show up as they did versus BIG, then NiKo and his colleagues should prepare to put up a stronger performance.

GROUP D

The new North got their win over Sprout, but their performance was still worrying in a way. Was Jonas “Lekr0” Olofsson really the best choice for the Danish team? So far, he hasn’t delivered any exceptional performances. Despite his team’s rather decisive two map wins over Sprout, he was still at the bottom of the scoreboard. On Dust2, as Sprout got a 16-9 win, he only secured 10 kills. Is this really enough star quality to compete with the big boys? Now that they’re heading to the playoffs, North can finally demonstrate whether they pack the talent to beat top teams.

ENCE are already waving goodbye to DreamHack. The Finns had to utilize Sami “xseveN” Laasanen as a stand-in and even though he wasn’t responsible for his team’s performance deficits, the teamwork was majorly impacted by his presence (or rather, the absence of Elias “Jamppi” Olkkonen). The Ninjas continue on in DreamHack Open Fall and get a second shot at taking down Sprout.