DreamHack Winter 2017 is not a large international LAN. It has a good mix of teams including: BIG, Gambit, Na`Vi, EnVyUs, North Academy, Heroic, mouz and Rise Nation. It feels like an undercard event to the ESL Proleague Finals that are set to happen two days after this ends. But for Gambit and Na`Vi in particular, this is an incredibly important event to win. After all this was where it all started for Gambit and their former in-game leader Daniil “Zeus” Teslenko.

For both Gambit and Zeus the beginning of it all starts at ESL Cologne Major 2016. In that tournament, both teams made it to the playoffs. Gambit won out in one of the easiest groups imaginable with all every other team in their group having roster problems. They then got to the ro8 where they were stomped by Fnatic in one of the least memorable series in Major history. Na`Vi also made it to the playoffs and were eliminated in a close 2-1 series by Liquid with Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev on the roster. For both it was the start of everything. Gambit’s ignominious elimination made them realize they needed a leader. Na`Vi realized they needed s1mple.

S1mple soon joined Na`Vi and the player left out was Zeus. Zeus was no longer the in-game leader of Na`Vi and hadn’t been since Sergey “starix” Ischuk had taken in-game leading role. In addition to that his individual performance was steadily getting worse over time and so he was benched. On Oct. 12, 2016 Gambit was able to acquire Zeus and he brought over Myhailo “kane’ Blagin as the coach.

It was in Gambit that the resurrection of Zeus’ career began both as a player and a leader. In addition to that, Gambit made a critical pickup in Abay “HObbit” Khassenov as their fifth player. The team debuted a month later at DreamHack 2016. It was here that everything started to change.

DreamHack Winter 2016 was also a tournament of small size. Despite that it became the debut tournament of the new Gambit roster and HObbit revealed himself to be an incredible second star player as he won MVP of the tournament. The Gambit team continued to gain strength. Dauren “AdreN” Kystaubayev became a versatile superstar player of the team who could have impact on both sides of the map in any part of the round. Rustem “mou” Telepov was the third star and his up-and-down nature complemented the star duo of AdreN and HObbit. Mikhail “Dosia” Stolyarov and Zeus filled out the roster as supportive end players and both had critical areas where they could find impact on the map.

The first two maps they became world threats on were Cobble and Overpass and they used it to get to the playoffs of the ELeague Major. They slowly built their map pool in the ensuing 6 months with their best results being at DreamHack Austin and CS Summit. They then went to the Krakow Major where they pulled off a miracle. They had one of the worst bootcamps in all of CS:GO history, but at the LAN itself they pulled it together and won the entire thing. It was one of the biggest upsets at any Major and at the height of their accomplishments, they broke apart.

The Gambit players were not satisfied with Kane as a coach and Zeus would not play if Kane was not with them. The split was irreconcilable and in the end they split apart. Gambit got another player from Kazakhstan in Bektiyar “fitch” Bahytov. Zeus went back to Na`Vi who were desperate to find an in-game leader.

Gambit continued to be a strong team. Dosia and AdreN took up the leadership roles and fitch brought on more firepower. Both teams appeared at DreamHack Malmo. Gambit got to the semifinals while Na`Vi were eliminated in the ro8. Afterward, Gambit continued to be a good team while Na`Vi declined. Zeus couldn’t get the mix of players and roles correctly and they have now gotten Denis “electronic” Sharipov into the roster to replace Denis “seized” Kostin.

Since then both teams have teetered off. Gambit are at a standstill. They haven’t declined, but they haven’t improved either. While the Malmo result showed that the idea of Zeus being a one-man savior of the entire team was false, the ensuing results showed that he was a critical part of the team. Since DreamHack Malmo, Gambit have been stuck. They still have great firepower and good mid-round calls. But beyond that they haven’t improved as a team, they haven’t expanded their map pool, their leadership is still ambiguous, and AdreN has fallen off from a superstar level player to an average player, and fitch has been figured out at the top level and needs to adjust his game. The best thing going for Gambit right now is that HObbit has become even stronger since the change in roster, but the problem with the current Gambit is that they cannot improve.

As for Zeus on Na`Vi, this will be a critical test. It has been a month since electronic has joined the team. He now has everything he could ask for. S1mple is a once in a lifetime talent, electronic showed incredible skill in a structured style when he played under Flipsid3, Egor “flamie” Vasilyev is a talented player, and Ioann “Edward” sukhariev is a consistent rifler. There are no more excuses for Zeus, he must make this roster work to prove that he can sitll in-game lead at the top level of CS.

One year ago Zeus led Gambit to victory at DreamHack Winter 2016. It became their first victory in a long campaign that eventually took them to a Major victory. Today, Zeus will now battle Gambit and the two sides that had achieved so much together must now battle to see who is the best among them. DreamHack Winter 2017 is a reunion between Zeus and Gambit and a landmarker to see how both teams will fare in the upcoming year.