Imperial stun North; compLexity overrun Renegades at DH Summer

Imperial and Complexity are one victory away from the DreamHack Open Summer playoffs after defeating North and Renegades, respectively, in the first round of matches.

The first match in Jönköping began with Imperial taking the pistol round following a B retake, with Rokas "⁠EspiranTo⁠" Milasauskas getting three kills to his name. North responded with a third-round buy and eventually restored parity at 2-2, but the Danes would not be able to take the lead as EspiranTo came huge with two last-second kills to deny the bomb plant.

North hit back immediately with a quad-kill from Philip "⁠aizy⁠" Aistrup, who punished Kevin "⁠kRYSTAL⁠" Amend for a whiffed AWP shot in a 1v1, setting themselves up for a 5-3 lead. It looked like the Danish team was in control of the match, but Imperial kept their defence very tight for the rest of the half and went into the break up by one round.

The second half saw Imperial further add to their lead after taking the pistol round on the back of a Žygimantas "⁠nukkye⁠" Chmieliauskas ace. What followed was a hectic period as the teams traded force-buys, with the European mixture coming out on top.

Imperial rode that momentum to take a 12-8 lead, but then North tightened up their defence and twice brought the deficit to a minimum. kRYSTAL's men would not let a comeback happen, however, and strung three rounds together to seal the victory.

The match that followed, featuring two teams who compete in North America, started with Peter "⁠stanislaw⁠" Jarguz taking down Joakim "⁠jkaem⁠" Myrbostad to prevent a 1v4 clutch from the Norwegian. Things quickly got out of hand for the Australians, whose first round win, when they were down 0-5, was immediately traded back.

Complexity continued to cut through Renegades' defence like butter, with the scoreline blooming to a 13-1 advantage for the North American side before jkaem gave his team a much-needed second round with a triple-kill in an A hold.

Renegades won the second half pistol with an A execution and followed that up with both anti-ecos to make it 13-5. Complexity responded in the first gun round, which forced Noah "⁠Nifty⁠" Francis to call a tactical pause. But it was in vain as the North Americans refused to let their foot off the gas and locked down the map without losing any more rounds.