BIG Clan, Victorious On Home Soil! (1st)
After three days of intense competition, BIG Clan were crowned champions of DreamHack Open Leipzig 2020! BIG claimed the title by defeating Renegades in the grand final 2-0, winning 16-5 on Mirage and 16-12 on Dust 2! This means that BIG has secured themselves $50,000 in prize money and a place at the upcoming DreamHack Masters Jönköping which is to take place on June 9th.
The German roster came into the tournament as the lowest-ranked team in the HLTV rankings, sitting in 46th place. However, they then managed to run through the entire tournament without dropping a single map to claim the championship! I can’t imagine a better way to start the new decade than winning in your home country in your first showing as a new roster! Things are finally starting to look up for BIG Clan!
Renegades, A Pleasant Surprise! (2nd)
Now this was unexpected! Never did I imagine that Renegades would escape the Group Stage, let alone make the Grand Final! It truly is amazing what this roster is capable of now that ”DickStacy” is gone! New addition Jordan “Hatz” Bajic seems to have filled his place perfectly and given the former Grayhound Gaming roster a new lease of life! It will be fascinating to see if the Aussies can keep up these impressive performances at future events!
Heroic, Secure And Reliable. (3rd-4th)
I’m never quite sure what to think of Heroic. They’re just such an adequate team. They never exceed my expectations, but they never really disappoint me either, although I can say their defeat to MAD Lions might be a wake up call for me. As they might be slowly losing their spot as the second-best Danish team, Heroic will be happy that they managed to make the playoffs, but BIG proved too strong with the hometown advantage.
They’re still a team that has upset potential when playing at Tier One events, and when at Tier Two events, they always seem to make the playoffs but fall just short at the semi-final or grand final stage. We won’t have to wait long to see Heroic back in action, as they will be challenging at the ICE Challenge 2020 which will start on February 1st! It’s been a few months now since Heroic has made their roster changes, and overall the results have been positive.
MAD Lions, The Second Best Danish Team? (3rd-4th)
MAD Lions are a team that is definitely on the rise! After qualifying for two big events and finishing in the playoffs of DreamHack Open Leipzig 2020, it’s possible you could consider them the second-best Danish team in Counter-Strike after Astralis, although how long they will hold that title with North and Heroic on the rise is yet to be seen!
But for the time being, there is lots to be encouraged about when it comes to this roster. They will be extremely happy that they managed to make it out of a tough group, especially in first place. Although Renegades proved too strong for them on the day, at least they managed to take it to all three maps! In addition, MAD Lions will be competing very soon at the ICE Challenge 2020.
North, Close But No Cigar. (5th-6th)
North was one round away from making playoffs, 15-13 up on Overpass against Heroic. They were so close, but they threw it all away, as their Danish rivals managed to claw the game into overtime and eventually come out triumphant, drawing the series level at 1-1. It was clear this defeat broke North mentally, as the final map, Nuke, was a complete annihilation, with Heroic winning 16-2!
Still looking on the bright side, MSL has slotted back into North seamlessly, and overall, North looked far more stable and structured than they have at recent events. I can quickly see them improving and slowly climbing up the ranks again, it will just require some patience. We will next see North at DreamHack Open Anaheim 2020 starting on February 21st, 2020!
Cloud9, Avoid The Aussies In The Future! (5th-6th)
This was an odd showing from the new Cloud9 roster. Coming in with a fair bit of hype, the former ATK squad fell to Renegades on the first day of competition before managing to pull off an impressive 2-0 against Virtus.pro the following morning. But they then had to play the Aussies once again, and the result was no different, leaving Cloud9 with an underwhelming 5th-6th place finish. I’d like to think this performance was just two bad days at the office for Cloud9 and that future appearances will yield much better results. I guess we’ll have to wait and see. Just make sure you avoid the Aussies in the future, eh Cloud9?
Sprout, Well That Was Underwhelming. (7th-8th)
Sprout showed up, played three maps and lost. I’m not sure what else to say. It was an extraordinarily poor showing, opening up with 16-4 defeat to North despite having the crowd behind them before getting taken down by another Danish team, Heroic, in another limp performance, getting comfortably 2-0’d. The only positive I can say is that new signings ”dycha” and ”oskar” were the best performing players for Sprout by far. We will next see Sprout at the upcoming MDL Mountain Dew League Season 33.
Virtus.pro, What Happened Here? (7th-8th)
Okay, so coming into DreamHack Open Leipzig 2020, I had tipped Virtus.pro to win this event, or at the very least make the Grand Final! But no. Instead, they crashed out in last place, losing all three of their matches and failing to secure more than 8 rounds in every map that they played! This is now back to back tournaments where this new Virtus.pro lineup has finished in last place! Hopefully, this event will be the wake-up call that this team desperately needs, especially with the ESL One: Rio 2020 Major coming in May! VP will need to quickly improve if they want to retain their Legends Spot!
In Conclusion:
Virtus.pro, Heroic, and MAD Lions will all compete at the upcoming ICE Challenge 2020. Which starts February 1st, 2020. In addition, MAD Lions, Cloud9 and Renegades will play at IEM Katowice 2020 on February 25th!
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