#dreamhackaustin2018

8 Counter Strike teams happily rejoiced when notified they would be competing in DreamHack Open Austin 2018. The group A teams were Heroic, Luminosity Gaming, Fragsters, and eUnited. The group B teams were Space Soldiers, compLexity Gaming, OpTic Gaming, and last but certainly not least Rouge. Though not surprising, these 8 teams all showed why they deserve to be competing in such a prestigious tournament in Counter Strike history.

    In Round 1 of the Group A Group Stages there was no way of knowing who was to emerge from the storm of talent. With Heroic beating Luminosity 16-11, on Mirage and beating a top tier team early, they took all bets of the table. Niko and MODDII’s combined 51 kills played a huge role in leading Heroic to victory.

The Round 1 match between eUnited and Fragsters, on Cache, was a comeback victory with eUnited showing up late in the match winning it 9-16. With dazzLe’s 23 kills and dapr’s 24 kills eUnited won the match with both ease, and composure.

In the Group A Winners Match between Heroic and eUnited, on Overpass, it seemed as if a Heroic victory was nearly impossible with eUnited winning 9 out of the 6 matches in the first half. Rather what you may expect, Heroic then went on to destroy eUnited in the second half winning 10 rounds, while eUnited won only 1. The game ended with Heroic emerging victorious, showing that they can beat almost any top team shoved their way. Heroic’s victory could be mainly claimed by Niko who got 24 kills, solely ruining an eUnited guaranteed playoff spot.

In the Group A elimination match between Luminosity and Fragsters, Luminosity beat Fragsters 16-12 on the first map, Inferno, but Fragsters wasn’t ready to accept a defeat just yet. On the second map, Mirage, Fragsters beat Luminosity 8-16, not giving Luminosity any shot at an easy win. Though Luminosity fought hard and well on the third map, Dust II, they lost 13-16 with Fragsters proving nearly every Counter Strike fan wrong. With dragonfly’s 22 kills, and torbe’s 23 kills they took Luminosity’s fate into their own hands and crushed it.

In the Group A Decider Match between eUnited and Fragsters, Fragsters beat eUnited on the first map, Nuke, 12-16. The second map, Mirage, was a totally different story with eUnited beating Fragsters 16-7 it seemed as if an eUnited win was just on the horizon. It all came down to map 3, to decide which team would continue their journey to the grand finals. Though the stress probably got to eUnited, the opposite can be said for Fragsters as they beat eUnited 4-16, mainly to the credit of stavn getting 21 kills, and BUBSKI getting 20 kills. The Group A Group Stages were over, with Heroic and Fragsters emerging victorious. Though these 2 teams showed up in the group stages, there is still a long to the grand finals.

In Round 1 of the Group B Group Stages no team failed to disappoint the hype. With Rouge narrowly beating OpTic 13-16 on Inferno, shocking every Counter Strike fan alike. And an impressive dominant performance from cadiaN with 26 kills as he shredded OpTic bit by bit. Mixed with SicK’s terrifying 24 kills, OpTic never stood a chance.

Even while Space Soldiers victory against compLexity on Dust II beating them 16-10 is not unexpected. It is unexpected that the top fragger of the match is not a Space Soldiers player, but rather compLexity player androidx23 with 25 kills to his name. Space Soldiers proved to the world that Counter Strike takes more than just brawn, it takes brains.

In the Group B winner’s match Rouge shocked fans again, beating Space Soldiers 8-16 on Dust II. This time though Rickeh a player who was shockingly quiet in round one, showed great composure getting 24 kills. Even though Dust II is Rouge’s best map statistically, they still shook the whole Counter Strike community beating a team like Space Soldiers 8-16. With Rouge beating Space Soldiers they now advance to the playoffs and wait to meet their next opponent.

In the Group B elimination match between compLexity Gaming and OpTic Gaming, OpTic showed that even though Rouge may have beat them, they were not going to give up just yet. In the first map, Inferno, OpTic destroyed compLexity 9-16, with both Snappi, and k0nfig getting 23 kills to shut down any chance of compLexity emerging victorious.

On the second map, Nuke, in the elimination match. OpTic again showed up mercilessly beating compLexity 6-16. Again k0nfig showed up getting 17 kills, but a new star emerged named cajunb getting a dominant 19 kills to close out the match. Though ShahZaM fought valiantly getting 21 kills for compLexity the rest of his team did not. ShahZaM had nearly double the amount of kills that anyone else on his team had.

In the the deciders match between Space Soldiers, and OpTic Gaming, Space Soldiers beat OpTic 2-1. On the first map, Mirage. OpTic beat Space Soldiers 7-16, and it seemed as if an OpTic win was evident. Sadly for OpTic, Space Soldiers had different plans. In the second map, Inferno. Space Soldiers beat OpTic 16-9 showing they weren’t ready to be bullied out of their dreams just yet. The Space Soldiers player XANTARES got 27 kills shutting down any chance of an OpTic win on map two. It all came down to map three, Train. One team would emerge victorious and advance to the playoffs, the other would walk away dreams crushed. In the first half Space Soldiers won 12 out of the 15 rounds, but OpTic wasn’t ready to give up that easily. In the second half OpTic won 7 rounds, but it wasn’t enough. With Space Soldiers early lead they only needed 4 wins to close out the match. And that was all the room they needed, Space Soldiers won the match 16-10 with three out of their five players getting above 20 kills.

The Group B Group Stages were over with Rouge, and Space Soldiers emerging victorious. Though these 2 teams showed up in the group stages, there is still a long road till the grand finals.

In the playoff semifinals the stakes are much higher, whoever wins there game goes to the grand final, and with that a chance to go down in the history books of one of the greatest tournaments in the world.

The semifinals match 1 is between Rouge and Fragsters, both of these teams huge underdogs in such an exciting group stage. On map 1, Nuke, Rouge get a close 16-13 victory trying to prove that they are worthy of the grand finals. Fragsters though seems to have a different idea as they beat Rouge on map 2, Inferno, 11-16. It all comes down to map 3, Dust II, Rouge gets an early lead in the first half, winning 13 rounds. In the second half Fragsters try but inevitably fails, allowing Rouge to win 16-5 in a crushing defeat. Though the match was a strong team effort, cadiaN again was the top fragger of the match with an amazing 68 kills! Rouge advances to the grand finals waiting for their next challenge.

The semifinals match 2 is between Heroic and Space Soldiers, and is bound to be a great match. On the first map, Cache, the map was incredibly close with Heroic and Space Soldiers tying forcing the map to go into overtime. However, overtime was a different story with Space Soldiers winning overtime 4-1, and the game 16-19. Map 2, Mirage, was no different with Space Soldiers beating Heroic 11-16. Calyx and XANTARES both had amazing performances with 107 combined kills, strongly carrying their team to victory.

The grand finals match between Rogue, and Space Soldiers was not going to disappoint. On map 1, Mirage, Space Soldiers crushed Rouge beating them 8-16. Map 2, Overpass, Rouge had different ideas coming back into the match strong and beating Space Soldiers 16-15. It all had to come down to game 3 to decide who would win the grand finals. Everyone was both hoping and expecting a very close map to finish off the playoffs. Sadly, the opposite happened, Space Soldiers demolished Rouge 16-2 showing no mercy. Everyone on the Space Soldiers roster had above 10 kills, except ngiN. The win was an incredibly strong team effort by Space Soldiers, and though the game was not incredibly close, the game was a massive upset, as Rouge was expected to win.