Review of DreamHack Masters Stockholm 2018

Recently the CS:GO championship has ended up in Stockholm. Now it is time to sum it up.

Overall impressions from the tournament

There were no major problems connected with the technical support during the tournament so we should praise the organizers for this.

As for organization of the tournament in total, the collectives were satisfied with the championship. We want to remind you that DreamHack Masters Stockholm 2018 was being held in Stockholm, Sweden and the holding place was Ericsson Globe Arena. After the break between the CS:GO seasons, this tournament became a breath of fresh air for the participants and the viewers watching the events of the championship.

The teams that didn't deliver upon expectations

DreamHack Masters Stockholm 2018 has lots of surprises. There were teams that didn't deliver on hopes and performed worse than the audience had expected. We are going to tell you about such collectives further in our material.

NRG eSports

We couldn't say that NRG eSports were either outsiders or a weak team. The players managed to win Intel Extreme Masters XIII — Shanghai a month ago, but they couldn't even get out of the group during DreamHack Masters Stockholm 2018. We want to remind that NRG hold the 9 position in the world rating according to HLTV.org. The American team were a favourite in their group as well as Natus Vincere, but something went wrong and NRG eSports lost the matches against Ninjas in Pyjamas and Natus Vincere, being among the first to leave the tournament. Due to the circumstances, NRG eSports got the 13-16 place and got a consolation prize of $2,000.

Fnatic

Fnatic’s situation is similar to NRG eSports, but these events took place not with Group B, but in Group C. Fnatic were the same favourites in their group as FaZe Clan. Moreover, Fnatic were one of the favourites of not only getting out of the group, but also of getting to the semi-final, but all the hopes were destroyed after Fnatic’s loss against OpTic Gaming and Heroic and they dropped out the competition. It resulted in the 13-16 place for the team and their leaving of the championship with a consolation prize of $2,000. Perhaps, at IT Major: London 2018 Fnatic are going to show good results, but at DreamHack Masters Stockholm 2018 we saw what we saw. We should mark that the championship was taking place in Sweden and the audience's support couldn't help Fnatic, that shouldn't be said about Ninjas in Pyjamas, but we will tell about them further.

Astralis

The Danish team made their fans a little disappointed as they weren't able to win the tournament. There were great expectations for Astralis as the team is on the first place in the list of the best CS:GO rosters according to HLTV.org. The first surprise was the fact that Astralis, being the clearest favourite, lost against the team North for the first time in the CS:GO history. The fact that the match was lost in the group stage intensifies the surprise effect. Getting to the playoff, Astralis easily won over MIBR in the quarter-final and over Ninjas in Pyjamas in the semi-final. They have to play with North again at the Grand final but this time they couldn’t win the rematch. As the result, Astralis became vice-champions and North became the champions. The performance of Astralis can’t be considered as bad or not successful but after their getting to the final the majority of viewers were sure that gla1ve and Co were sure to win. That is the reason why Astralis got to the list.

The teams, surprising the audience

DreamHack Masters Stockholm 2018 was full of surprises. There were teams that didn’t meet the expectations of the audience but also there were teams that hit a home run and proved that everybody was wrong.

North

The biggest sensation of this tournament was the champions of DreamHack Masters Stockholm 2018, the team North. At the group stage Kjaerbye with his team showed their opponent that the Danish team was not a joke. At the first match, playing with TyLoo, North managed to get the win of the score of 16-7, and after that at the winner’s match they defeated their main rivals Astralis, winning over this team by the score of 2-0. Also this meeting was remarkable due to the fact that it was the first win of North over their countrymen Astralis since 2015. When North got their game at the group stage, it was really difficult to stop them. At the quarter-final North played with the representatives of the black and yellow tag Natus Vincere, that lost by the score of 0-2. It will be interesting to emphasize that North beat them to pieces winning over them on the map train by the score of 16-3. At the semi-final North were expecting for the most difficult battle during DreamHack Masters Stockholm 2018 against a rather strong opponent mousesports. There on the first map dust2, North lost by the score of 0-16. It would seem that the team was depressed and everybody saw the end of their way in the tournament but the Danish managed to recollect and take over the situation winning over on inferno and mirage by the score of 16-14 and 16-12. After the battle the win over Astralis didn’t seem so unapproachable for them. dust2, picked by Astralis, resulted in North’s repeat of the success of mousesports and destroyed their Danish opponents by the score of 16-1. On the map train Astralis managed to get the win by the score of 16-6. The decisive map was overpass, where North proved their superiority and took the map by the score of 16-11. MSL was MVP of the tournament and proved that with appropriate skills you can combine both the role of captain and sniper rifle.

Ninjas in Pyjamas

Ninjas in Pyjamas were not either a favourite of the tournament or outsiders. Nevertheless, their success at the tournament surprised a lot of viewers and was noticeable. We want to remind that they performed in the best way in Group B, winning over such opponents as NRG eSports and Ghost Gaming. Getting to the playoff, Ninjas in Pyjamas won the battle at the quarter-final match against Heroic and left the competition losing against Astralis. Taking into account the power of Astralis and North, showed by the Danish, it was difficult to win DreamHack Masters Stockholm 2018 and the native walls couldn’t help Ninjas in Pyjamas to win, but helped to get far. Ninjas in Pyjamas performed worthily and showed a good result surpassing the expectations of the audience.

Heroic

Performance of Heroic also was ambiguous and not really successful. But they approved themselves in Group C. Having a leased player, Heroic managed to outdo such a favourite of the group as Fnatic and got to the playoff by the statistics of 2-1. In their group they played with all the opponents. At the match against FaZe Clan, the Danish couldn’t win but the were really close as Bo1 meeting ended up at the additional rounds by the score of 19-17. Playing with Fnatic and OpTic Gaming, Heroic performed rather well and defeated their Swedish and Danish opponents. Getting to the playoff, Heroic couldn’t show anything against Ninjas in Pyjamas and lost by the score of 2-0. Heroic entered Top-8 and this way they surpassed expectations of many viewers. The majority of viewers were sure that the Danish wouldn’t be able to get out of the group but the viewers were wrong.

The teams that didn’t surprise viewers

Apart from the collectives that impressed the viewers in any of the ways, there were a lot of teams that performed commonly as it had been expected. These are the collectives we are going to talk about.

Natus Vincere

On the one side, Natus Vincere were imposed great expectations as Na’Vi are a rather strong team and can win over anyone. But, apart from the fact that they can win over anyone, they can also lose against anyone. So that is the reason why not everybody was surprised with the loss against Ghost Gaming by Natus Vincere, but later, getting to the decisive match for getting out of the group, Na’Vi showed that they were able to win a rematch against the Canadian-American team.

At the quarter-final Natus Vincere lost against the team North, but taking into account the fact that the roster became the champion of the tournament, this result is not surprising at all. Soon FACEIT Major: London 2018 starts, so Na’Vi must have saved some strength and concentrated on the oncoming Major tournament. That is how the loss of Natus Vincere can be explained, and the reason may be just a bad play shape as the players couldn’t get after the rest. The answer to this question will be received at the next tournament.

Группа D (MIBR, mousesports, HellRaisers and Gambit eSports)

Everything was quite predictable for Group D and it ended the way we expected. MIBR and mousesports managed to perform very well and got out of the group with almost no effort. Meanwhile, HellRaisers and Gambit eSports didn’t show any performance and took the 13-16 place, as it had been expected. MIBR ended their participation in the tournament at the quarter-final playing with Astralis and took the 5-8 place, getting a money reward of $10,000, and mousesports passed on. The won over FaZe Clan the quarter-final but lost the match against the champions of the tournament, the team North. Thanks to their efforts, mousesports took the 3-4 place and got a money reward of $22,000.

OpTic Gaming

OpTic Gaming haven’t showed any good results and that is why their loss at DreamHack Masters Stockholm 2018 wasn’t a surprise for anyone. If they don’t do anything drastic for improving the situation in their team, they will continue having dark times. As it was predictable, OpTic Gaming took the 13-16 place and got a prize of $2,000 which they deserved.

FaZe Clan

FaZe Clan performed well. They took the first place at the group stage. FaZe won over Heroic and OpTic Gaming at Group C, but they couldn’t show a good game at the quarter-final against mousesports. As the result, the European mix ended their performance taking the 5-8 place at the tournament and got a money reward of $10,000. Many viewers expected that FaZe Clan would get out of the group and that they could become winners of the tournament. Maybe next time the team will surpass the expectations but in this case the performed well.

Grayhound Gaming, TyLoo and Ghost Gaming

These three collectives also didn’t show the results that would help the players to be favourites in their groups. Grayhound, TyLoo and Ghost are having dark times in their careers so the collectives performed the way it was expected. They played at the first matches, but lost and lest the tournament among the first. Grayhound Gaming took the 13-16 place, while TyLoo and Ghost Gaming — 9-12 place. But their consolation prize wasn’t different: both of the teams got $2,000 each.