What we learnt from DreamHack Open 46

If you live in Europe, and perhaps even if you live on the East Coast, you might not have stayed up ’til late to watch the finals of DreamHack Open, and damn, did you miss out. 

I mean, maybe it wasn’t worth being up until 6AM, but it was a pretty sweet final. The South American was quality too. But of course, you can learn from more than just the final, so I’m here to round up everything you missed, and all the things you didn’t.

felps has still got it – and dumau does too

It’s no surprise to anyone who watched felps on SK, but felps is really, really f’ing good. He topped the charts for damage by a mile during the first four days of the tournament, averaging 10 ADR more than anyone else. His Grand Final performance was less stellar, but he’s still an aggressive, swashbuckling menace for any team to have to try and deal with.

Him vs NA teams is just, well, unfair.

When he faltered, however, in the final, dumau stepped up. b4rtiN too – some excellent maps from him – but dumau put up an extraordinary performance in map five as GODSENT took down Extra Salt. A 46 kill map (with two overtimes) from the 17 year old carried his team to the trophy, and moved him up to 131 for the series.

This GODSENT team doesn’t always click, but when they do, the talent they have is frightening.

The future of Brazilian CS. Or One Direction. Not sure.

try is good, but Lucaozy might be the best talent in the region

Plenty of people are aware of teenager try and his escapades – his stats are outrageous, and just one viewing tells you why. An intelligent player who rarely seems to miss a beat, try is surely destined for greatness. He was the highest rated player in the tournament, and was unstoppable all the way to the final.

The unstoppable force, however, met the unbreakable will of Lucaozy in the final.

Sharks, from 0-1 down due to coming from the lower bracket, smashed 9z to take the series and it was largely down to the exemplary performance of Lucaozy. A wildly aggressive T side player, but a lockdown multikill machine on the CT side, Lucaozy reminds me of players like Maden and XANTARES. He was so reliable as a fragger on the CT side, and had incredible impact on the T side.

This guy is one to watch out for.

“Don’t be fooled by BNB’s early exit, junior is back.”

junior is back, even if BNB might not be

I’m not going to waste time talking about the Jonji situation – it’s desperately sad to see the scene bleed one of the last remaining strongholds.

BNB might have dipped out early, but junior showed that the FURIA form we saw is not the full story. Insinuations towards FURIA not letting him play the way he likes to play in an interview seem to hold some weight, as he finished as the highest rated player in the tournament despite going out in groups.

He’s absolutely electric fast on the AWP, and showed a more aggressive side to his game that he hadn’t showed for a long time – even on Triumph he was often an after-plant clutching AWPer, a la Skadoodle or Oskar. At DH Open 46, though, he was taking over games.

Don’t be fooled by BNB’s early exit, junior is back.

NA CS isn’t completely dead – it just needs a re-position

oSee, MarKE, malbsMd, junior, Jonji if he stays, even players like Bwills and Swisher (who had a poor tournament, but is a good player) – these are not bad Counter-Strike players. 

Pretty much all of these players would be solid on European tier two teams for now with room for upwards movement. Loads of players from the South American teams too, but there’s more of a language barrier there.

The fact that Evil Geniuses are putting out their embarrassing mess of a team and aren’t looking closer to home to find some talent is very surprising. malbsMd puts up crazy numbers despite being often used as fodder for his weaker teammates, and to the eye is a sensationally talented individual – quite why EG looked towards SPELLAN and MICHU instead is baffling to me.

oSee/junior are clearly the two strongest AWPers in the region, and definitely look way too good for the region. A move to Europe and a spell on a stronger team could see either of them step up a gear and be genuinely very good players – even if teams might be a bit wary on junior after the FURIA debacle.

NA might have to split up and move towards international teams more, but take it from an English guy – just be grateful you can have a few players to cheer for even on international teams.

You might learn to love it.