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DreamHack Masters Winter NA Enter Playoffs

With yesterday’s games done and dusted, the Group Stage of DreamHack Masters Winter NA concludes. Some of the smaller... Fabio | 5. December 2020

With yesterday’s games done and dusted, the Group Stage of DreamHack Masters Winter NA concludes. Some of the smaller teams managed to post some upsets, but the big favorites of the event, Chaos, are right on track for the Grand Finals.

At the beginning of the tournament, it looked as though Chaos would suffer an upset loss early on. Rugratz surprisingly landed a 16-8 win on the first map of their Opening Match, after which they took the lead on Train as well. But Chaos slowly worked their way back and secured map victory on a 16-12 scoreline, heading onto Nuke. There, Nathan “leaf” Orf had to do the heavy lifting, so that his team could finally move on with a 16-13 win.

This very close match helped them wake up right on time. They were 100% present in their duel with Rebirth Esports, managing to secure a 2-0 win, despite there being an overtime. So they were the first team to qualify for playoffs. In Group B, Team One also made a quick run for the Semi Finals. While they did suffer two 14-16 map losses to Yeah and Mythic, they won both of these Best-of-Threes in the end. But the same can’t be said for Triumph, who had just reached the Grand Finals of IEM Beijing a few days prior.

TRIUMPH WITHOUT MOOSE

The departure of Kaleb “moose” Jayne has left a gaping hole in the Triumph lineup. But not only that, the New England Whalers also had to indirectly suffer from this. In order to compensate for this player leaving, Triumph had to recruit Brendan “Bwills” Williams from the Whalers. Even though this isn’t a bad replacement at all, both teams have lacked preparation with their new players. This showed in the two DreamHack Masters Winter NA groups.

The New England Whalers, who were very much favorites to top their group based on their recent results, actually went out in last place. They lost to Mythic and Yeah Gaming. Justin “faNg” Coakley, their replacement for this event, wasn’t even their biggest problem. In both matches, Ben “ben1337” Smith dropped to the bottom of the scoreboard, but generally, the rest of the team underperformed as well.

Things didn’t really work out any better for Triumph. In their Opening Match, they immediately lost out to Rebirth Esports, despite the heroics of Paytyn “Junior” Johnson. While they did manage to succeed over Rugratz, they had to face Rebirth again for the Decider Match. This time around, their opponents kept the game even shorter. On two maps, the former finalists, Triumph, conceded the match and their place in the tournament altogether.

WILL THIS BE VICTORY #2 FOR CHAOS?

The playoffs teams have one thing in common – they have all lost to Chaos in recent time. Anthony “vanity” Malaspina and the boys are the top favorites to win this playoffs bracket, but Team One have actually fought really well throughout this tournament. On top of that, there is a huge cloud hanging over the Chaos players. They already know that this will be one of their last journeys under the organization’s banner. Chaos have announced their intent to drop both their CS:GO and Rainbow Six divisions in the coming year. The company wants to restructure and focus on the streaming and content creation market. So the players’ futures are up in the air and if they cant find a new organization to support them, they will likely split ways.

So on one hand, there is this mounting pressure to find a new home before the current contract ends and the players are left without a job. But on the other hand, this is also a kind of relief. They don’t need to prove anything to their organization and themselves, as nobody will expect them to deliver incredible results now, We have witnessed time and time again how this ‘nothing to lose’ mentality can make a huge difference. As long as they don’t underestimate their opponents, Chaos have the means and the drive to get through to the Grand Finals and take the trophy home.