EN DE CN BR ES RU
Image
Icon

The Favorites of DreamHack Masters Spring 2021

DreamHack Masters Spring 2021 is starting today, April 29th, and will last until May 9th. Almost two weeks of... Radu M. | 28. April 2021

DreamHack Masters Spring 2021 is starting today, April 29th, and will last until May 9th. Almost two weeks of great matches are ahead of us and everyone wants to see what the pecking order is after the recent roster moves. Unfortunately we won’t see NiP because they’re not competing. But we will see Astralis, Vitality, Natus Vincere, and others.

DreamHack Masters Spring 2021 Details

DreamHack Masters Spring 2021 features 16 teams. These are some of the best competitors in the world. In fact, almost nobody worth mentioning is missing. This guarantees that the winner will be a real champion that has demonstrated superior skill in the face of tier 1 opposition.

These are the teams:

  • Astralis
  • FaZe Clan
  • G2 Esports
  • mousesports
  • Natus Vincere
  • BIG
  • FURIA Esports
  • Gambit Esports
  • Team Vitality
  • pro
  • Team Spirit
  • paiN Gaming
  • Heroic
  • Complexity Gaming
  • Team Fiend
  • Extra Salt

Prizes

The tournament offers $250,000 in prizes, as well as more than 4000 Pro Tour points. These rewards will be distributed in the following way:

  • 1st place: $100,000 + 1000 points
  • 2nd place: $42,000 + 750 points
  • 3rd – 4th place: $20,000 + 525 points
  • 5th – 6th place: $10,000 + 350 points
  • 7th – 8th place: $6,000 + 200 points
  • 9th – 12th place: $5,000 + 100 points
  • 13th – 16th place: $4,000

Competitive Format

DreamHack Masters Spring 2021 has a simple competitive format consisting of two groups followed by Playoffs. Each group has 8 teams and is played in a double-elimination format. The top 3 teams advance to the Playoffs. The winners will compete directly in the Semifinals while the other 4 teams will start their Playoffs journey in the Quarterfinals.

The initial matches are Bo1. The remaining matches are Bo3, except for the Grand Final, which is Bo5.

Favorite Teams

Here’s a brief analysis of the top 8 favorites. The winner of DreamHack Masters Spring 2021 will almost certainly be one of them.

Heroic

Heroic is currently ranked 2nd and its recent performance has been very impressive. This team has climbed 10 positions in less than a month and the only competitor that seems to know how to handle them is Gambit.

Going into DreamHack Masters Spring 2021, I expect Heroic to finish 1st in Group B. Their path is relatively easy, because Astralis and Vitality have been weakened by roster moves while FURIA is not strong enough to beat them. This was demonstrated at ESL Pro League Season 13, where the two teams met and the match ended with a 2 – 0 result in favor of the Danish squad.

Gambit

Gambit is the world’s strongest team. At least for now. This CIS competitor was only ranked 19th in February and now they’ve taken over. Who knows what happened in these last 10 weeks? One thing is clear: the transformation is impressive. In their last 21 matches, Gambit lost just two times. The team played in the Grand Final of three out of the last four tournaments it attended.

My expectation is that Gambit will get a top 4 result at DreamHack Masters Spring 2021. Their road to the Semifinals is not easy, but the team has what it takes to succeed.

Natus Vincere

Na’Vi won a huge tournament in January this year, defeating Astralis in the Grand Final of BLAST Premier: Global Final 2020 and receiving $600,000 in prizes. But since then, they haven’t done anything significant. In their last two tournament participations, they finished 5th – 6th and 9th – 12th respectively.

The drive to succeed seems to be lacking, especially in s1mple’s case. The Ukrainian is making huge amounts of money right now, not just from Na’Vi but also from his sponsorship deal with AMD, as well as his Twitch profile. Few players get 30,000 – 50,000 viewers on a consistent basis and that translates into a small fortune. Compared to the meager prize pools and bonuses of an event like DreamHack Masters Spring 2021, that’s certainly way more lucrative.

However, in spite of all the problems, I do believe that Na’Vi has what it takes to make it to the Playoffs of this tournament. And that’s why they’re on my favorites list.

FURIA

FURIA is pretty much guaranteed a top 6 result at this tournament, just because they’re competing in Group B. And in this group, the only teams they need to worry about are Heroic and Vitality. Everyone else is easy to defeat under the current circumstances. Complexity has been struggling in matches lately, while Astralis lost dev1ce. If not 1st or 2nd, then at least 3rd place should be an easy target for the Brazilians.

As for the Playoffs Stage, it’s hard to say what VINI and his crew can do. I don’t expect them to get far. At most, they’ll finish 3rd – 4th. But even that is an unlikely outcome.

G2

G2 showed great skill at the recent BLAST Premier: Spring Showdown 2021. They had to defeat both OG as well as Team Spirit to qualify for the Spring Finals. And these are not weak teams. In fact, in Spirit’s case, it’s obvious that they had to deal with a formidable opponent.

Given G2’s strengths and their current lineup, I think this team has a good chance of finishing in the top 4 at DreamHack Masters Spring 2021.

Vitality

Vitality made a risky roster move recently. They benched RpK and brought in Kyojin, a young and untested player who may prove to be highly skilled under pressure or totally inadequate. I fail to see how he could help the French squad but time will tell if I’m right or wrong. No doubt, Vitality didn’t sign him without testing his abilities first and watching numerous replays of his games. If they think he’s ready, then he may very well be.

Prior to making this roster change, Vitality had four consecutive tournaments in which they failed to finish in the top eight. We’ll see what they can do here. I think they’ll definitely get a top 8 or even a top 6 result, because they compete in Group B and there aren’t that many great teams to stop them.

Virtus.pro

Virtus.pro is currently ranked 4th globally and the team had two important Grand Finals this year. They won the first at cs_summit 7 against Fnatic but lost the second one at IEM XV World Championship against Gambit. Then they had two weak tournaments, where they finished 7th – 8th. We’ll see what they can do at DreamHack Masters Spring 2021.

Team Spirit

Team Spirit has a very difficult group but could potentially survive if they play their best CS. They may be ranked 11th globally but we’ve seen how deadly they can be on a good day. In 2021, Spirit has had no less than three top four results. So who knows? With a bit of luck, maybe they can make it to the Playoffs.

 

Photo credit: IEM|Sarah-Cooper