DreamHack Summer playoff preview

17-6-2013 04:49

After two days of competition in Jönköping we are now down to eight teams in the 200,000 SEK Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament of DreamHack Summer.

Saturday's groups were topped by Western Wolves and Copenhagen Wolves with NiP and Epsilon advancing as second seeds. Today we saw Virtus.pro and LDLC.com finish at the top, with ESC Gaming and Lemondogs making it as well.

The playoffs will kick off at 10:00 in the morning with Western Wolves taking on Epsilon and LDLC.com facing off against ESC Gaming on the top portion of the single elimination bracket.

Grand final will take place at DreamArena Extreme tomorrow

Second round of quarter-finals will have Virtus.pro trying to top Lemondogs and Copenhagen Wolves take on NiP, who have struggled surprisingly much throughout DreamHack so far.

So what should you expect from the final day of competition at DreamHack Summer 2013? Continue reading as we've also included Joona "natu" Leppänen's predictions for the playoffs.

10:00 Western Wolves vs. Epsilon

Western Wolves looked dominant on day one as they demolished NiP 16-2 on de_nuke_se following a 16-13 win over Publiclir.se on de_dust2_se. The Danes showed impressive form when taking down the struggling ninjas, but in all fairness they probably should have dropped the game against Publiclir.se. Then again, so should have NiP.

Epsilon have proven to be a very good team. They escaped from group B with wins over Curse and /10/, and made the grand finals of the Swedish Championship where they should have defeated NiP, had it not been for more heroics from in-game leader Richard "Xizt" Landström. Especially Jesper "JW" Wecksell and Andreas "schneider" Lindberg have been impressive, but the whole team has been playing well.

We have a very small sample size of just two matches that took place two days ago from WW, but they did look more impressive than their Swedish opponents have so far in Jönköping. Both teams are very good and either could go on to even make the grand finals, but I think the Danes led by Lukas "gla1ve" Rossander are simply stronger strategically and roughly on the same level individually.

lurppis: 2-1 WW
natu: 2-1 WW

gla1ve and Nille from Western Wolves celebrating 16-2 win over NiP

WW hope to celebrate again tomorrow

10:00 LDLC.com vs. ESC Gaming

LDLC.com have so far looked the most impressive out of every team vying the 100 000 SEK first place prize at DreamHack. Kenny "kennyS" Schrub has been in absolutely amazing form with a KPR of 1.08 to show for it so far. They have continued here on LAN where they left off at online, and simply seem to be in the best shape out of all teams in competition.

ESC Gaming started off with an easy win over Finnish Cursive before dropping a massive 13-5 lead against Virtus.pro. They are good enough to grind out a win here if a plethora of things go their way, but it just doesn't seem likely at this point. The Poles need some success badly, and a top four finish at DreamHack would go a long way, but it doesn't seem likely they will get any of it this weekend.

The Frenchmen looked strong strategically and many of Schrub's teammates looked to be on point as well. ESC could easily grab a map and if they can disrupt LDLC's game plan, potentially even the series, but odds are definitely stacked up against them and you should be able to count on Schrub carrying his team to a top four finish in the morning.

lurppis: 2-0 LDLC.com
natu: 2-0 LDLC.com

LDLC are favored to make the semi-finals

13:00 Virtus.pro vs. Lemondogs

I doubted Virtus.pro before this event and although they were able to overcome a 5-13 deficit versus ESC Gaming, I still feel basically the same way. Their communication issues are still there and obviously something is up if they go down 5-13 versus ESC Gaming in the first place, but they are still one of the best teams in the game and are definitely favorites going into this quarter-final.

Marcus "Delpan" Larsson's Lemondogs looked a whole lot more impressive after their first game than at the end of the second day of competition. After starting with a 16-2 win versus fnatic on de_train_se, they struggled versus LDLC.com before finally taking down fnatic in overtime for a playoff spot. Isak "cype" Rydman had a huge game versus the Danes and the fact they were able to win with Larsson struggling is actually a bonus.

Lemondogs have what it takes to complete an upset win versus Virtus in the quarter-finals, but it'd require a bit more than just good play on their part. The Russian-Ukrainian-Slovakian team have a ton of experience playing together despite their recent roster change and their individual skill together with strong leadership from Kirill "ANGE1" Karasiow should guarantee them advancement to the semi-finals of DreamHack.

lurppis: 2-0 Virtus.pro
natu: 2-0 Virtus.pro

GuardiaN's communication is still a question mark

13:00 Copenhagen Wolves vs. NiP

By far the most interesting match of the first round of playoffs will be Copenhagen Wolves taking on NiP. The Wolves looked to be in good form on Saturday while NiP has looked anywhere from terrible to pretty good over the course of the past few days. Cph Wolves weren't tested a whole lot, but their gameplan as a whole seemed solid and their players are still on top of the statistics page for the event.

NiP has struggled in every conceivable way. Robin "Fifflaren" Johansson's fragging struggles are almost comedic at this point and Adam "friberg" Friberg was the first to admit they ran out of strats as they were ridiculed by WW in a 2-16 loss. Landström has saved them twice from losing as he completed the ninja defuse versus Publiclir.se and managed a one-on-two save round win versus Epsilon in Swedish Championship. Patrik "f0rest" Lindberg has looked solid, but Christopher "GeT_RiGhT" Alesund has been oddly inconsistent.

While Cph Wolves have looked clearly better in this tournament, I still have to give NiP the edge simply because they know how to win. I wouldn't be at all surprised if they lost as they should have versus both Publiclir.se and Epsilon, but they are still the best team in the world, at least until they lose, and that has to favor them in this matchup.

lurppis: 1-2 NiP
natu: 2-0 Copenhagen Wolves

wantz & co will face NiP on Monday

All matches will continue featuring streams provided by DreamHack TV as well as our GOTVs. Tune in in the morning to find out who will be crowned DreamHack Summer champions.

n1111

2013-06-17 04:55

"natu: 2-0 Copenhagen Wolves" pretty bold prediction O_O

2013-06-17 04:57

4 replies

Was thinking the same. Would be very nice to see NiP out though, but would be even better if they lose in the Grand Final vs LDLC.

2013-06-17 05:07

absolutely not

2013-06-17 05:11

I agree with natu, but with a 2:1 score.

2013-06-17 07:59

ye pretty bold considering its quarter finals and its NiP after all, they wont go down 2-0 in quarters :)

2013-06-17 09:53

gl vp :)

NiP will lose

2013-06-17 05:13

1 reply

NoPe! :)

2013-06-17 11:47

I think natu is spot on nip is looking sloppy at this tournament and cph were looking so solid in the group stage.

2013-06-17 06:09

2 replies

2013-06-17 06:15

2013-06-17 10:02

Pretty sure Xizt's awful display in the groups was more comedic than Fifflarens.

2013-06-17 06:37

He fragged good yesterday but saturday he was a wreck, yet lurppis is a bandwagon boy, he jumped right on that fifflaren hate bandwagon and has been riding it since the start.

2013-06-17 12:33

Indeed. The poor kid has the exact mind set that the trolls/lemmings on this forum have. Just so happens one of them was good enough at a game to get some public attention.

2013-06-17 19:29

The tournament structure is a little unfortunate. Being based on the GSL format, it does help with not having to enforce complex tie rules that had led to controversy lately, but at least the matches deciding who pulls through to the playoffs as #2 should have been Best-Of-Three - that's how it is in the GSL aswell afaik. As for the playoffs, there should have been the single-elimination Best-Of-One lower brackets, seeing as how matchup-dependent the game is and how early the matches are set to start. The final could have been a Best-Of-Five then, with the upper bracket winner being defaulted one map ahead.

2013-06-17 06:45

7 replies

2013-06-17 07:30

This tournament has to end this year tho.

2013-06-17 07:45

Very bad joke my friend.

2013-06-17 07:57

Well, it is like that in the GSL because a map of sc2 generally takes far less time than a map of counter strike, and they only play one group a day. DH has multiple groups, matches have the possibility of overtime, and it is unacceptable to make players play until 4-5am only to get up 10am the next morning to play again. If they want to finish each day at a reasonable time, bo3 groups or adding a lower bracket really is out of the question.

2013-06-17 10:09

3 replies

The whole group stage, maybe. I was talking about the second place decider matches of group play though. They could have easily been BO3 in terms of keeping a reasonable schedule for the players. And trust me, both the viewers, but the teams aswell would have loved to play that decider match in a BO3 (just look at Curse, making their way over the ocean just to get eliminated in a BO1 against a team they had beaten before). Also, single-elimination lower brackets during playoff stage can for the most part be played out simultaneously to the upper bracket games. So no big time issues there. That would also leave the second stream making more sense, because that one could be used to stream those games instead of having the main playoff games be on at the same time like it is right now, giving viewers a hard time deciding what to watch. Also, I mean, look at NiP. They were crushed by Western Wolves and are now in a good place to win the tournament without having to face off against them anymore. Lower brackets would allow for most matchups to happen, giving teams an actual chance of putting their practice to use (I don't think teams had necessarily prepared for Epsilon too much for example).

2013-06-17 15:43

Well, the only reference point I can think of that uses upper bracket bo3 lower bo1 system is CPH games, where year after year there are terrible delays. In theory many matches can be played simultaneously, in practice it will cause big delays. The group stage could be done as you suggested, but having the last game played in a different format than the rest of the group is something that is not really standard, and probably won't be done even if it would be better in some sense. Lastly, I definitely agree that double elim format is better for finding the correct order of the teams because as you said, it allows more matchups to happen. However, single elimination is a standard way in sports, where each playoff match really is about tournament life so there are pros to that as well.

2013-06-17 16:45

Yeah, I guess you are right in that the tournament structure I was suggesting, while being the competitively more valuable one, does not really fit Counter-Strike, as delays of 30 minutes up to an hour are to be expected and matches also tend to take longer than Starcraft does for example. And it's also true that fighting for tournament lifes gets teams to give it their all up until the very last round, whereas having the chance of coming back through lower bracket play might end up making teams decide to save tactics and energy as soon as they think their upper bracket match doesn't go in their favour. And it's also more exciting for viewers to see teams pushed to their limits of course. So yes, there are strong pros for single-elimination playoffs. I don't know, I just got a sense of "undeservedness" from Curse going out so abruptly early, and NiP pulling through not because they were always the better team, but because they got ridiculously lucky at times, something that should in theory not happen with BO3 and double-elimination, where you can get lucky at times aswell, but ultimately it is only skill that will get you to the top. But there are other structures imagineable, maybe in the future more efforts will be made in this field. As you said, going against the established format is rarely even considered, even if it would be better sometimes - and DreamHack is, as far as I can remember, the first organization to try and experiment with the format, using the GSL system for CS, which is a good sign I guess.

2013-06-17 17:06

GOGOGOGO ESC

2013-06-17 07:20

GO ESC

2013-06-17 07:29

NIP days gone

2013-06-17 07:54

NiP would win it over CPH, they did mistakes, made up for it in Svecup. 2:0 to NiP

2013-06-17 08:07

Nice, GL Dosia :D

2013-06-17 08:14

2-0 western wolves, 2-1 LDLC, 2-0 Virtus.pro, 2-1 CPH

2013-06-17 08:31

+1 :)

2013-06-17 08:53

vp, ldlc, nip, ww gl

2013-06-17 08:49

Ww vs cph in finals!

2013-06-17 08:50

Good luck with that. ^^

2013-06-17 10:07

Virtus.pro LDLC Western Wolves <3

2013-06-17 08:54

GL ESC,VP

2013-06-17 08:56

My prediction: Western Wolves vs Epsilon: 2:0 LDLC.com vs ESC Gaming: 2:0 Virtus.pro vs Lemondogs: 2:1 CPH Wolves vs NiP: 0:2 gl;>

2013-06-17 08:59

My prediction: Western Wolves vs Epsilon: 2:1 LDLC.com vs ESC Gaming: 1:2 Virtus.pro vs Lemondogs: 2:0 CPH Wolves vs NiP: 0:2

2013-06-17 09:16

Western Wolves vs Epsilon: 1:2 LDLC.com vs ESC Gaming: 2:0 Virtus.pro vs Lemondogs: 2:1 CPH Wolves vs NiP: 1:2

2013-06-17 09:21

2:0 WW, 2:1 ESC, 2:0 VP, 2:1 CPH

2013-06-17 09:22

2-0 western wolves, 2-1 ESC, 2-0 Virtus.pro, 2-0 NIP

2013-06-17 09:33

hope for both danish teams, they are great gl Pimp

2013-06-17 09:34

This playoff is fucking strong! All teams can win. Sick!

2013-06-17 09:42

except esc

2013-06-17 11:15

The teams which will proceed in the next round of tournament are: - WW - LDLC - VP - NiP

2013-06-17 10:11

nice

2013-06-17 10:31

Nobody believes in VP D

2013-06-17 11:19

I hope to see ESC in semi's GL to all, have a nice game

2013-06-17 12:11

Go home Natu, you're drunk! 0-2 Cph?

2013-06-17 12:25

n1!

2013-06-17 13:54

MY GOD! No losers bracket? Topping the group stage is useless when you just fall down in do or die in playoffs. That's why CPH is better that DH when talking about tournament format.

2013-06-17 14:01

Did you even watch the group stage? It was double elimination, so the winners of each group had to play only 2 games. If I remember right CPHG had huge problems with group standings due to some unclear rules. With GSL-style what DH used there can't be such things. Also it's much easier to follow as a viewer because you know that every game they play will matter.

2013-06-17 17:23