What did we learn from DreamHack?

With DreamHack Stockholm Invitational in the books, we take a look at what we learned from the first event featuring the world's top three teams in 2014.

It's been quite a while since DreamHack Winter, and neither the champions fnatic nor the runner-ups NiP have since then participated at events featuring other top three teams in the world.

Titan, the former VeryGames squad, took part in ESEA Invite Season 15 global finals in Dallas in mid-January, but were also without proper opposition despite ultimately placing second.

The fourth participant in Stockholm, ex-Copenhagen Wolves who recently joined dignitas, had also not played a single official match with their new roster since adding René "cajunb" Borg.

So what did we learn from six maps of play at the DreamHack TV6 studios in Västberga, Stockholm? Continue reading for five important lessons from a prelude event to EMS One Katowice.

cajunb's dignitas answered no questions

5. DDoSsing is a real problem that must be addressed

It's not like DDoSsing is new as a problem; the issue goes as far back as the Intel Extreme Masters Season IV Global Finals at CeBIT in Hanover, Germany, but this must have been by far the worst the problem has ever been. Top players have grown used to ridiculous DDoS problems and threats online on a daily basis, but has it ever caused as much trouble to a tournament as it did last Friday in Stockholm?

First couple of games went fine as DDoSsing didn't really cause an issue until the lower bracket final between dignitas and NiP. From there on out the problems only grew, to the point where the grand final, a best-of-one, took over two hours to finish due to continuous lagouts. The ending of the grand final of a tournament hosted in a TV studio wasn't even broadcasted live on the internet.

I was told some of the fnatic players have gone as far as to go to the police regarding the issues they face when playing at home, but were told there's little to nothing that can be done by the authorities. According to Löic "RegnaM" Pèron it's not very hard to secure yourself from being DDoSsed, which brings the question; why don't more people do it?

This has to be sorted out, sooner rather than later. No one wants to see EMS One Katowice affected by it, and risk Valve's funding being affected sometime down the road.

The expression often seen during DDoSsing

4. fnatic are very good; just not the best in the world

Duncan "Thorin" Shields already explained every conceivable way to look at fnatic after their triumph in Jönköping on the last day of November. It goes through almost every possible point I would like to make so I suggest you instead read through it if you're interested, and then continue here. The gist of the article is that fnatic are a very good team, but not the world's best, and you could make a case for them not even being the third best in the world.

After a nearly three months long hiatus from competitive play, disregarding one best-of-three online in their own FragOut League and two FACEIT Cups, fnatic have now shown some top caliber play once more on LAN, and once again on their home soil in Sweden. Despite falling short against both Titan and NiP, and with fairly convincing margins at that, they showed some solid play in both games and completely trashed dignitas. The only unfortunate thing is they only played de_dust2.

Although the ultimate test will come in three week's time in Poland, to me fnatic are right now the third best team in the world. They followed up a world championship, the first one of its kind in CS:GO, with a third place finish behind the top two teams Titan and NiP, and didn't look completely outclassed in either match-up. Markus "pronax" Wallsten's leadership looks solid, though some individual mistakes definitely cost them a chance at NiP's head, and it looks like their playing style can keep them contending for titles in the future as well.

Surprisingly enough the team is no longer led by Jesper "jw" Wecksell's at times incredible AWPing, as a new star has emerged as the clear number one player in Patrik "cArn" Sättermon's team. That's a good thing because Wecksell can still be inconsistent at times, and also opens a possibility for big improvement still if Wallsten can figure out how to get more consistent numbers out of Wecksell. For now, fnatic are the number three team in the world, and favorites to finish on the podium in Katowice.

There's plenty of reasons for pronax & co to keep smiling

3. Robin "flusha" Rönnquist is a real star

Robin "flusha" Rönnquist was already one the world's best players in 2013 as proven by his thirteenth placing in the top 20 players of the year rankings, but his trajectory has now definitely increased its slope and it looks to be climbing at a pace faster than any of his teammates'. Before getting our hands on the server logs for fnatic's final match against NiP, Rönnquist is sitting on a ridiculous 1.43 rating and a 0.93 KPR in the first two games, good for second in the tournament, and an impressive 1.62 K/D ratio to go with them.

He played great at DreamHack Winter, had solid performances throughout the year and has arguably been fnatic's biggest star since DreamHack Bucharest. Most importantly, he has been very consistent (3rd most consistent on LAN in 2013); something the other stars in fnatic often lack. He is also a very good clutcher; in fact, he has more clutch round won on average per map than any other player in the world, and that includes whom many consider the clutch king Christopher "GeT_RiGhT" Alesund, according to our 2013 statistics.

If I had to buy stock in one player for 2014 it would be Rönnquist, even though I think fnatic as a team can be slightly inconsistent and the fact they have to compete with NiP domestically could eventually cause some issues inside the team, if they fail to top them again. Rönnquist is a very good player, a star now, one of the world's best ten or so players. We already knew he was very good before, but his performances in Stockholm were eye-opening at times. If everyone else on fnatic can become more consistent, Rönnquist will only flourish more and ultimately help fnatic win more titles in 2014, possibly already in Katowice.

flusha, the fastest rising star in CS:GO right now

2. NiP are no longer world's best CS:GO team

For the most dominant team in the history of Counter-Strike as a whole, the time to face the music has come. NiP are no longer the world's best CS:GO team. To be fair VeryGames already knocked the Swedes off their throne with three consecutive best-of-three series LAN wins in the fall, but with DreamHack Winter ending the way it did, it was never truly confirmed how the world rankings would look. Furthermore, Titan's loss at ESEA finals definitely didn't help their case. However, despite the grand final finishing the way it did in two hours of play and after countless problems, it's fair to say Titan have now taken over the top spot.

NiP's struggles aren't news to themselves. After DreamHack Winter, despite the fact Richard "Xizt" Landström's decision to actively prepare for VeryGames specifically by including anti-strats in their repertoire, they decided to have star fragger and the world's best player, according to our top 20 player rankings of 2013, Christopher "GeT_RiGhT" Alesund, start leading the team in-game. That only lasted through fragbite Masters finals and Svecup, both of which NiP won after close games versus arguably weaker opposition as they avoided VeryGames and fnatic.

Now the team's initial in-game leader Robin "Fifflaren" Johansson has taken over the reigns of the team and DreamHack Stockholm Invitational was his first test back in charge. NiP did do well, though you could make a solid argument for them mostly doing so thanks to excellent counter-terrorist play, as opposed to stellar terrorist strategy calling. It's worth pointing out though that Johansson did state he felt like their defensive sides improved with him taking over the calling duty, and if that's the case it might have been a good switch as they did well overall.

The first match-up against NiP in the opening round of upper bracket saw the Swedes fall short in a similar fashion to their defeats in late 2013 before the win at DreamHack Winter. They came back despite getting demolished in the first half, but an interesting point to make is that Titan were never really in danger. The only time the French-Belgian team was trailing in the double overtime match was after round one, and they tied the game right after. NiP looked to have been close on paper, but in reality it was Titan's game all along if you paid close enough attention.

Though we are missing the statistics for all but NiP's first two games at DreamHack Stockholm Invitational, I think for now it's safe to assume Landström's level of play won't magically go up two levels as a result of him calling. The way he led NiP relied quite a lot on other players' communications and good teamwork, so it seems like it wouldn't affect him individually as much. If he can go back to the way he played in late 2012 and early 2013 and Johansson's calling can be as good as his, the change is good. Otherwise it won't make much of a difference, and NiP will need something else to get back on top.

friberg's NiP are no longer the best

1. Titan reclaim the throne

Titan are the world's best team. Again. Many doubted them after the DreamHack Winter semi-final loss, and they were further questioned after a surprising defeat at the hands of iBUYPOWER, whom they had easily defeated a day earlier, at the ESEA Invite Season 15 global finals earlier in 2014. However, they elevated their level of play at just the right time for DreamHack Stockholm Invitational, and now are going into EMS One Katowice full of confidence that they can get the best of NiP at the first major event of 2014.

What's also interesting to note is that Titan looked extremely strong and beat NiP twice, though the second win is slightly questionable to be considered at all, despite Adil "ScreaM" Benrlitom's individual struggles still continuing. He had a couple of strong halves and a ton of good rounds for Titan, but we still haven't seen him dominate games the way he did in late 2013, which in my opinion is a big part of why they started beating NiP consistently in the first place. Whether or not we will see that player again remains to be seen.

Date	Score	Match		Map	Event
21.2	16-10	Titan	vs. NiP	de_nuke	DreamHack Stockholm
	22-19	Titan	vs. NiP	de_nuke	DreamHack Stockholm
30.11	5-16	VeryGames	vs. NiP	de_nuke	DreamHack Winter
	16-6	VeryGames	vs. NiP	de_inferno	DreamHack Winter
	13-16	VeryGames	vs. NiP	de_dust2	DreamHack Winter
2.11	19-16	VeryGames	vs. NiP	de_nuke	ESWC
	16-13	VeryGames	vs. NiP	de_cache	ESWC
27.10	16-6	VeryGames	vs. NiP	de_inferno	EMS One Fall Finals
	16-14	VeryGames	vs. NiP	de_cache	EMS One Fall Finals
	5-16	VeryGames	vs. NiP	de_nuke	EMS One Fall Finals
10.10	16-6	VeryGames	vs. NiP	de_mirage_ce	SLTV StarSeries Finals
	16-14	VeryGames	vs. NiP	de_inferno	SLTV StarSeries Finals

Titan have won 5/6 (83%) matches and 9/12 (75%) maps on LAN dating back to October

On the other hand Edouard "SmithZz" Dubourdeaux has been impressive with the sniper rifles as of late, Richard "shox" Papillon remains a real threat to Alesund's number one ranking as the world's best player, and Nathan "NBK" Schmitt keeps impressing as a great all-around player who randomly puts up MVP-like performances in big games. The team looks great on paper, and in-game, and now that they live together in a gaming house in preparation to EMS One Katowice it's hard to imagine them not traveling to Poland as favorites.

They aren't attending nearly as many tournaments or participating in online leagues this time to avoid the same mistake they made prior to DreamHack Winter that saw them too busy with tournaments to properly practice, and a win in Katowice would solidify them as the clear number one team in the world, beyond any reasonable doubt. Kévin "Ex6TenZ" Droolans has his team where he wants it to be, and that is at the top of the world rankings. Logic says they should remain there until after Katowice, but it all depends on what happens in the next three weeks.

Led by shox, Titan are the world's best CS:GO team

What do you think were the most important lessons from DreamHack Stockholm Invitational? Would you have altered the order or changed the points? Leave a comment below and let us know!