This article is part of our CS:GO series.
Coming off the heels of the wildly successful MLG Major in Columbus, Ohio, DreamHack will be providing some exciting CS:GO action April 12-17 as their Masters tournament gets set to launch. 16 of the world's best CS:GO teams will travel to Malmö, Sweden to compete for $250,000 and the chance to become the first ever DreamHack Masters champions.
The Group Stage will take place off-site April 12-14, with eight teams coming out of group play and entering the quarterfinals which will take place in the Malmö Arena, April 16-17. Once there, teams will shoot it out on the main stage in a single-elimination bracket played in front of a crowd of thousands.
The GSL format will be used for the group stage, which means each group will feature five matches played in a double-elimination bracket to determine which two teams of each group will advance to the quarterfinals.
The quarterfinals will see those eight teams that survived the group stage play in a best-of-three, single-elimination eight-team bracket to determine the Malmö Masters champion.
There are some very heavy hitters in this tournament and the competition will be stiff. However, after looking over the teams, you may have noticed that the #1 ranked team in the world is missing from this tournament. Fnatic has dropped out due to an injury to their resident AWPer and entry fragger, olofmeister. olofmeister has been dealing with an undisclosed hand injury for over a month which sources say affected his play at the Columbus Major. Instead of aggravating the injury further, he and Fnatic decided it was best to withdraw. That withdraw opened the door for G2 esports, who will play in their stead, landing in Group B.
One other exciting element to this tournament is the emergence of three teams that will see the big stage for the first time. Lounge Gaming, TyLoo and Godsent will all try to make a name for themselves against the best teams in the world.
Now, let's take a look at the groups and make some predictions. Time to see who is going to make it out of initial rounds and eventually become the DreamHack Malmö Masters Champion, taking home $100,000.
Group A HLTV ESL
Luminosity #2 #3
Team Liquid #9 #7
Mousesports #10 #13
TyLoo UNR #26
Initial Matches:
Luminosity vs. TyLoo
Liquid vs. mousesports
Getting out of group:
Luminosity
Team Liquid
Upset watch:
Mousesports
Striking absolute fear into the three other teams in Group A is the pride of Brazil and MLG Major Columbus champions, Luminosity. Luminosity has played well in 2016 finishing first at MLG Columbus and DreamHack Leipzig, while placing second at IEM Katowice.
Their success has come largely from the play of rifler Marcelo "coldzera" David. At MLG Columbus, coldzera was named the MVP, thanks to his 1.36 rating, the highest of all players according to HLTV.org. However, Luminsoty is not simply a one-man team. Two other standout individuals grace the roster as both FalleN (1.13) and fnx (1.10) managed to put fourth top-10 ratings at MLG Columbus.
Team Liquid had a strong showing at the MLG Major in Columbus, finishing third. However, the team that knocked them out of Columbus – Luminosty – is lying in wait. These two teams are very likely to meet in the top bracket of the group, with the winner receiving the automatic advancement to the quarterfinals and the loser just one match away from elimination.
mousesports just recently qualified for the inaugural edition of the Esports Championship Series – Season 1 by defeating HellRaisers 3-2 in a hard fought best-of-five series. Led by team captain and AWPer Chris "ChrisJ" De Jong, this team tied for ninth place in Columbus, meaning they have a little bit of experience on the big stage.
TyLoo is an organization that has a long history of playing well in the Counter-Strike arena --- they just haven't had as much success of late. That lack of success may just bleed into this tournament as well thanks to a Reddit user. On January 30, with just one hour before group play at the Asia Minor, a Reddit user by the name of _uroak noticed that a Tyloo player, Quanqing "qz" Wu, was using the same name as a banned player. After a bit of digging on the part of Valve, it was determined that this was the same player that had been banned in 2013 thanks to multiple users playing on qz's account. With qz now officially disqualified from all future Valve events, YuanZhang "Attacker" Sheng will take his place, bringing in a little more mystery to how they will perform.
Group B HLTV ESL
Natus Vincere #3 #2
G2 esports #8 #8
Counter-Logic Gaming #12 #12
Godsent UNR UNR
Initial Matches:
Natus Vincerre vs. Godsent
G2 esports vs. Counter-Logic Gaming
Getting out of group:
Natus Vincere
Counter-Logic Gaming
Upset watch:
Godsent
With a resume a mile long including a second place finish in Columbus, a first place finish at Counter Pit Season 2 and another first place finish at DreamHack Leipzig, Natus Vincere is one of the odds-on favorites to win at Malmö.
The strength of Na'Vi is in the tenure of their roster and the fact they have a core group of players that know each other quite well. In fact, their "newest member, Egor "flamie" Vasilyev, joined the team in March of 2015. If Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovacs, arguably the best AWPer in the game, gets hot, Na'Vi could very well win this group and the tournament.
G2 is a dark horse, one that became just a bit darker after news surfaced that the club released Kevin "Ex6TenZ" Droolans in favor of former Team LDLC.com White's Alexandre "bodyy" Pianaro. bodyy will have a short amount of time to get in some work with his teammates and get ready for one of the toughest competitions in 2016.
According to HLTV.org and ESL, the new number one team in North America is Counter-Logic Gaming. They made it out of group play at the major in Columbus and tied for third in the iBUYPOWER Invitational 2016 – Spring finals. CLG is led by rifler and entry fragger Tarik "Tarik" Celik who ranks as the 34th best player in the game with a rating of 1.11 according to HLTV.org. Tarik is supported by teammate and AWPer Joshua, "jdm64" Marzano and his 1.09 rating, but the rest of CLG will need to play better if they are to get out of group play and finally get the major victory they desperately crave.
Godsent is led by Markus "pronax" Wallsten, who up until last November was the in-game leader for Fnatic. With three major championships to his name, if ever there was a guy that can figure out how to win, it's pronax. Godsent qualified for the Malmö Masters in the second European Qualifier and had a couple of very good wins over the likes of FlipSid3 Tactics and CPH Wolves. I'm sure the rest of this team is not quite ready for prime time, but they could suddenly get hot at the right moment.
Group C HLTV ESL
Astralis #4 #4
Ninjas in Pyjamas #7 #9
Team Dignitas #11 #10
Lounge.GG UNR UNR
Initial Matches:
Astralis vs. Lounge.GG
Ninjas in Pyjamas vs. Team Dignitas
Getting out of group:
Astralis
Ninjas in Pyjamas
Upset watch:
Team Dignitas
Astralis has played remarkably well in 2016. Led by AWPer and in-game leader Finn "karrigan" Andersen, Astralis has finished in the top-four of every tournament they have competed in this season; including a tie for third in Columbus and a second place finish in the Counter Pit Season 2 Finals. Astralis is going to need Nicolai "Dev1ce" Reedtz, who in 2015 was voted third best player in the world by HLTV.org, to bring his devastating AWP and pistol game to Malmö if Astralis is going to win the Masters.
Ninjas in Pyjamas is a team that can beat anybody on any given day. In fact this group is so deep in talent that even their coach, Björn "THREAT" Pers got in on the action at MLG Columbus Major after Jacob "pyth" Mourujärvi ran into a visa issue and couldn't make the tournament. NiP has beaten many highly ranked opponents and if they can get on a roll and remain consistent, they could contend for the title of Malmö Masters Champion.
As the minor league circuit heroes, Team Dignitas has shown an affinity towards playing in the smaller majors and low-purse tournaments. They seem to thrive in that environment, as they finish high enough in qualifiers to partake in larger events, only for them to finish middle of the pack at the majors. As such, their dedication level could come into question --- they certainly have the skills to beat most teams at Malmo, but it's unclear if they are just happy to be there.
Lounge.GG busted through the first Malmö European Qualifier beating the likes of FlipSid3 Tactics and Team Dignitas in order to gain entry into the Masters. Lounge.GG has been on the uptick, participating in the CS:GO Champions League Season 3 and qualifying for the event in Malmö, but they will need to play way over their skill level if they are to make it out of group play in this tournament.
Group D HLTV ESL
Virtus.Pro #5 #6
EnVyUs #6 #5
Tempo Storm #14 #18
FaZe Clan #15 #11
Initial Matches:
Virtus.Pro vs. Faze Clan
EnVyUs vs. Tempo Storm
Getting out of group:
Virtus.Pro
Tempo Storm
Upset watch:
FaZe Clan
Virtus.Pro is in the middle of the pack as far as top-tier CS:GO teams go, but this group of players is somehow always in the mix come the late rounds of tournaments. The frustration surrounding VP is that they are one of the most inconsistent teams in this tournament. Just look at their results: they are in last place in the ESL Pro League with a 6-18 record, but have tied for fifth at Columbus and posted a tie for third in the Counter Pit Season 2 Finals. A frustrating team to decipher, pencil them in to survive group play and advance into the quarterfinals.
EnVyUs has fallen flat on their face in 2016, failing to get out group play in both Columbus and IEM Katowice, going a combined 1-6. This team was invited due to their solid 2015 season, but saw some strife as the team was rumored to be fighting amongst themselves. This notion appeared to be corroborated when Fabien "kioShiMa" Fiey was replaced by Timothee "DEVIL" Demolon, igniting a war of words. EnVyUs will need to prove that their team can work together as a cohesive unit if they are to do anything in Malmö.
Group D is the toughest group at Malmö thanks to Tempo Storm. This team has had an outstanding 2016 season, tying for fifth at IEM Katowice and achieving significant wins over the likes of EnVyUs and Natus Vincere. Winning their opening match would be an upset on paper, but it certainly wouldn't surprise many pundits.
Rounding out Group D is FaZe Clan. Although the team is struggling right now, posting a 2-8 record in their last 10 matches, this club has some really good wins over teams such as Tempo Storm and Virtus.Pro. One great thing for fans to watch in this group is the potential matchup between FaZe Clan and EnVyUs as FaZe's new rifler and entry fragger, kioShiMa, may want to stick it to his former team in group play after EnVyUs replaced him with the aforementioned DEVIL.
That's it for group play. Tune into the DreamHack Twitch stream to watch all the action unfold April 12-17.
