DreamHack Winter 2016 - Day 2 recap

The group stage action in Jönköping has ended as Kinguin and Gambit prevailed in the decider matches to advance to the semi-finals.

Group A

Team Dignitas vs. FlipSid3 Tactics 8:7, 6:9 (14:16); 8:7, 8:6 (16:13); 9:6, 5:10 (14:16)

Winner: FlipSid3 Tactics

Maps: de_Train, de_Overpass, de_Nuke

MVP: Denis "electronic" Sharipov

One of the teams that was favoured to win the whole event, Team Dignitas, had found themselves in danger of elimination after they lost their opening match against Team Kinguin. In order to avoid a last place finish they had to overcome FlipSid3 but it proved to be a harder task than anticipated. The Danish team started the first map, de_Train, as Counter-Terrorists strongly and got an early lead of 6-0. FlipSid3's first round victory came in the seventh round where Georgi "WorldEdit" Yaskin cleared the entirety of Team Dignitas with his AWP, scoring an ace. After getting on board in the map, FlipSid3 seemed to be winning most of the opening duels and clutch situations as they were able to melt the gap from five to two until the first half ends.

The second pistol round went FlipSid3's way, making the score 8-8, but before the CIS-based team built a decisive lead, René "cajunb" Borg and Emil "Magiskb0y" Reif stepped up for Dignitas and carried their team to a 14-10 lead. The tide had turned once more, and FlipSid3 grabbed six rounds in a row and won the first map narrowly with a 16-14 score line.

Overpass started with Denis "electronic" Sharipov's 1v3 clutch in the first pistol round. Building on the economic advantage, FlipSid3 won five rounds before Dignitas grabbed their first in the sixth round with a force-buy. The Danes lost the following round but their impressive CS towards the end of the half secured them a single round lead at the halftime.

Switching to the CT side, Dignitas had a good start to the second half, winning five rounds to make it 13-7. After the 20th round, FlipSid3 looked a bit more focused; however their efforts were too late and too thin to come back, as Dignitas stole the map away with a 16-13 score.

The decider map was Nuke and it started with FlipSid3 winning most of the rounds as Terrorists. Dignitas finally began using the advantage of being Counter-Terrorists after the sixth round when it was 5-1 in favour of FlipSid3. The Danes got their economy rolling and didn't let FlipSid3 grab more than a single round to lead 9-6 at the halftime.

FlipSid3 won on a force-buy after losing the second pistol round. The first gun round went their way as well, but Dignitas started amassing rounds. The Danes had the opportunity to reach the map point when it was 14-11 but Jan "wayLander" Rahkonen scored four kills to prevent it. After Rahkonen's quad-kill, FlipSid3 won more rounds without losing a single one to grab Nuke 16-14 and to eliminate Team Dignitas from DreamHack Winter 2016.

Kinguin vs. FlipSid3 Tactics 8:7, 7:8, 1:4 (16:19); 6:9, 10:4 (16:13); 9:6, 7:0 (16:6)

Winner: Kinguin

Maps: de_Overpass, de_Cache, de_Mirage

MVP: Michał "MICHU" Müller

After defeating Dignitas, FlipSid3 went on to face Kinguin in the decider match of Group A. FlipSid3 picked Overpass to be the first map and got off to a decent start by winning the pistol round. Kinguin cut their potential lead by winning the second round with a force-buy. After the force-buy victory, Kinguin managed to keep winning rounds, making the score 6-2 in favour of them after the 8th round. Led by Jan "wayLander" Rahkonen, FlipSid3 balanced the game and ended the half just one round behind.

The second pistol round was won by Kinguin, thanks to Mikołaj "mouz" Karolewski's triple and won a couple of rounds more to make it 13-8 in favour of them. FlipSid3 answered with a triple win streak. At that point, Kinguin took a timeout but that wasn't enough for them to take the map as it went to overtime. FlipSid3 continued their solid performance in overtime and won four rounds while losing just one to take the first map 19-16.

The second map, Cache, began with FlipSid3 taking the lead early on. Thanks to the early advantage that was established, they held the opposite team from catching them in the first half with the score at half time sitting at 9-6.

Kinguin won the second pistol round and building on that, they evened things at 11-11. After making it even, the Poles took the lead and didn't hesitate to close out the map 16-13 taking the map score to 1-1.

The decider map, Mirage, started with Kinguin winning yet another pistol round as Terrorists. Despite the FlipSid3 victory in the 2nd round and a broken T economy, the Poles made it 3-1 and put on an impressive streak of round victories. FlipSid3 finally won their second round when it was 6-1 but this only helped them finish the half 9-6 behind.

The second half was a complete disaster for the CIS-based team as Kinguin, now playing as Counter-Terrorists, dominated the map all over to win every single round that was played in the half. As a result, Kinguin won the series 2-1 with the final map score being 16-6.

Group B

Cloud9 vs. OpTic Gaming 11:4, 5:4 (16:8); 10:5, 6:1 (16:6)

Winner: Cloud9

Maps: de_Overpass, de_Dust 2

MVP: Jordan "n0thing" Gilbert

The elimination match of Group B started with Cloud9 leading early on as the T side, despite losing the pistol round. Jordan "n0thing" Gilbert and co. prevented OpTic from building a strong economy throughout the half and thanks to their high level CS, Cloud9 ended the first half with an impressive score of 11-4.

Cloud9 won the pistol round this time to make it 12-4 and end OpTic's hopes. After that point, it was easy for them to grab the victory at 16-8.

Dust 2 also started with OpTic struggling. After losing first three rounds, the Green Wall clawed back and caught Cloud9 at 3-3 but this winning streak of three rounds was the sole positive thing for the match as Cloud9 destroyed them in the remainder of the map to win it 16-6.

Gambit vs. Cloud9 5:10, 1:6 (6:16); 13:2, 3:0 (16:2); 11:4, 5:7 (16:11)

Winner: Gambit

Maps: de_Mirage, de_Cobblestone, de_Dust 2

MVP: Rustem "mou" Telepov

Gambit and Cloud9 clashed to advance to the playoffs from Group B in the decider match. The first map, Mirage, was picked by Cloud9 but Gambit was the team that secured an early lead after winning the pistol round and two rounds following it. Tyler "Skadoodle" Latham's triple kill in the fourth round won Cloud9 their first round and the NA team started attacking the bombsites progressively better each round in the remainder of the half. As a result of Cloud9's impressive T side performance after winning their first round, the half time score was 10-5.

Switching to the CT side, Cloud9 transformed from an unstoppable attacking force to an impenetrable defending power, winning all except one round in the second half to close the map out 16-6.

After suffering a heavy defeat, Gambit started their map pick, Cobblestone, as Counter-Terrorists and dominated the map from the first round to the last. The European team grabbed the map point before Cloud9 could win their third round, 16-2.

Dust 2 started the same way Cobblestone ended as Gambit continued outperforming Cloud9. Despite a couple of round victories of Cloud9 in the middle of the first half, Gambit was the team to lead 11-4 at the halftime.

Gambit grabbed four rounds against Cloud9's three in the first part of the second half to reach the map point. After Gambit reached the map point at 15-7, Cloud9 desperately attempted for a comeback by winning four rounds in a row, but Gambit's victory in the 27th round ended North American hopes as the Kazakh-Ukrainian-Russian mixture advanced to the playoffs by winning Dust 2 16-11.



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