DreamHack Winter 2018 Recap
DreamHack Open Winter is over, and boy was it weird. Underperformances, overperformances, upsets, all sorts of fun stuff happened over the weekend. ENCE took another step forward to being a legitimate team on the world stage, and G2 looked just like the old G2 we all know and love.
ENCE
ENCE is looking like a contender. This is their second tournament win since October, and they have racked up some impressive wins over teams like BIG, OpTic, G2, and Mousesports. ENCE aren’t competing again until the Minor qualifier next week, and I expect them to make waves, both at the qualifier and at the Minor itself.
Tier two isn’t out of ENCE’s reach at this point. You could make an argument that they are already there, but I don’t think they have the results to be put into the tier under Astralis and Liquid and the like. Their best win is probably a 2-1 over BIG at StarSeries, which just isn’t enough to justify putting them into the same tier as MIBR, FaZe, NRG, etc.
Sergej is starting to look like a bona fide superstar as well. He went 60-55 over three maps against OpTic at this event and had 26 kills and 18 deaths over 27 rounds on Train. He is clearly thriving in this situation, surrounded by fellow Finns with more experience. He can lean on players like allu and Aerial to find support in game when he isn’t playing hot and is assuredly learning a lot from them outside the game as well. That kind of veterancy can be underrated and is often crucial to the development of a younger player.
G2
This was G2’s first event with Lucky and JaCkz, and it didn’t inspire a lot of early confidence in this lineup. In fact, it starkly contrasts the debut of another French team, also at a Dreamhack event, that happened last month. Vitality arrived at Atlanta with vengeance and showed what their young talent could do, taking the tournament without much stress. G2, on the other hand, squeaked out a win over ENCE, with the smallest margin possible, before going out of their group 1-2.
It may seem like it’s a little reactionary to write this team off, but I really do not like this core. They made the wrong roster move, and I don’t see how this team can succeed while it continues to be “Shox’s team”. They kicked their IGL, who is one of the only actual IGLs in the French scene, to play Shox’s “loose” style of play. I can’t see this benefiting anyone, especially not KennyS.
I can’t imagine much is going to go right for this G2 team. I wouldn’t be surprised to see another roster change in the coming months, probably after the Major. Although, at this point, I don’t think there’s any way forward besides blowing it up.
OpTic
This roster is pretty disappointing for the names it has on it. They have cajunb and k0nfig, you’d think they’d be able to win something, right? Apparently not. They have had a string of second placings and overall questionable results, and couldn’t pull out this tournament, even though they were one of the favorites coming in.
This is what happens when you build your roster piecemeal. Their roster construction doesn’t really make much sense, and it’s not hard to see why. Originally, they were a mixed nationality team, with stanislaw and ShahZam on the roster. After they were removed, they added JUGi and Snappi from Heroic, which didn’t push them over the edge. Then they picked up niko.
This roster has potential, they just lack direction. Unfortunately, I don’t know if there are any moves to make. An IGL change might be prudent here, but the pool of candidates is pretty slim. They could try to poach MSL from Rogue, although I don’t know if running back the whole “MSL-k0nfig-cajunb” thing is viable, or if those three players would want to play again.
compLexity
It was a rough tournament for compLexity. They went out of groups 1-2, falling to x6tence Galaxy 0-2 in the decider match. They have been underperforming since their placement at the Major, and it’s starting to look like the ShahZam show. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but they need at least one other guy to step up.
ShahZam and stanislaw are pretty routinely the best performing guys on the team, which isn’t a recipe for long term success.
What they need is a superstar caliber player who can win clutches, take over games, and push them over the edge to securely be a tier two team. The problem is, who are they going to kick and who is available?
I wouldn’t be surprised if compLexity adds som to their lineup. Som hasn’t expressed interest in playing on a legitimate professional team, but I think it would be a good fit. He is the type of player that they need to add, and he could benefit greatly from playing with this team. Stan is the kind of player you’d want to coach up a player like som, and he’s already signed to compLexity (albeit as a streamer).
LDLC
Another team that is underperforming their breakout performance, LDLC went out 0-2. This is a team I wouldn’t be surprised to see get picked apart by G2 and Vitality, in event of a roster shuffle in France. I also wouldn’t be surprised to see ScreaM end up on this team. I do not have high hopes for LDLC going forward, although they’re always a pleasure to watch.
Bravado
The biggest surprise of the event, no doubt, was Bravado’s 2-0 advancement through their group. Not only that, but they didn’t drop a map until grand finals, where they lost 0-2 to ENCE.
Bravado has mostly been grinding online qualifiers for the past year or so, since they moved from South Africa to NA. DreamHack was their second LAN since moving to NA, and they certainly showed out.
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