After one month of inactivity, professional CS:GO is back with DreamHack Open Leipzig 2020! This will be the first CS:GO tournament of the new decade, and it’s sure to be an interesting occasion! With multiple Danish squads and a bunch of new rosters debuting, DreamHack Open Leipzig will contain eight teams fighting for the lion’s share of the $100,000 prize pool and the desired spot at DreamHack Masters Jönköping!

Format:

In Leipzig, there will be two groups, and each group will contain 4 teams. The top two teams from each group will advance to the playoffs. Unfortunately, because the tournament is only two days long, the opening & winners’ matches are only Bo1 encounters. Thankfully, the elimination, decider and playoff matches will be Bo3 engagements! The Winners will qualify to DreamHack Masters Jönköping 2020, which will take place from June 9th-14th 2020.

BIG, A New Era. (Invited)

On January 1st 2020, BIG revamped their roster with the addition of former Sprout players ”syrsoN” and ”k1to”, replacing ”nex” and ”smooya”. Who has since moved onto Chaos Esports Club. We’re entering a new age for BIG, and the real question is whether BIG can now get ”XANTARES” firing again, because if he can find his old Spacesoliders form, BIG might be able to work their way back into the Top 15. I’m not expecting much from this team at this event, but maybe they will get a honeymoon period and surprise me.

Photo via HLTV

North, The Return Of The King! (Invited)

Mathias “MSL” Lauridsen, the mastermind of the North’s DreamHack Masters Stockholm 2018 victory over Astralis, has returned, replacing AWPer ”Jugi” after being kicked from the Danish organisation back in September of 2018. While North may have ended 2019 on a high, winning DreamHack Open Sevilla 2019, they entered the new decade losing their chance to qualify for IEM Katowice 2020 by getting destroyed by MAD Lions in the open qualifier.

It was a roster move they needed to make; ”Jugi” just wasn’t working out and North desperately needed some leadership and guidance, which ”MSL” will provide in spades! The real question is how long it will take the Danish IGL to fix North. Surely he will need more than two weeks, but I wouldn’t be surprised if North wins this event!

Virtus.pro, Time To Show Up! (Invited)

Okay Virtus.pro, (formally AVANGAR) you are Major finalists playing for the biggest CIS org. This tournament is a must-win! Unfortunately for the CIS roster, their first showing under the VP logo didn’t go according to plan with the team going out in last place at EPICENTER 2019! Hopefully they have recovered from that setback, because this team should be winning this event, or at the very least getting to Grand Final.

Photo via HLTV

Renegades, No DickStacy, No Problem. (Invited)

Renegades (Formerly Grayhound Gaming) was acquired on December 3rd 2019. The only showing we’ve seen so far from them was a 9-12th placing at the ESL Pro League Season 10 – Finals, losing to Mousesports who went onto win the whole event! On January 8th, Renegades parted ways with Oliver “DickStacy” Tierney.

While “DickStacy” is a fan-favourite, he was the weakest link by far with sub-standard performances dragging his team down. For instance, at ESL Pro League Season 10 during a match against Astralis, he only managed four kills during 24 rounds! Renegades will surely be hoping that new recruit Jordan “Hatz” Bajic delivers a higher standard of Counter-Strike, although even with this roster change, I do not believe they will win this tournament.

Photo via HLTV

Heroic, The Odd Team Out (European Qualifier)

Heroic is the only team coming into this event that hasn’t recently changed players or organisations. This leaves them in the odd position of not having much hype or interest around them, but maybe that’s a good thing. Could Heroic be the stealth roster and sneak into the Grand Final? The last time we saw this Danish roster was at EPICENTER 2019 where they finished 3rd-4th with an impressive display. If they manage to show that type of form again, Heroic could absolutely go all the way in Leipzig!

Photo via HLTV

MAD Lions, Up And Coming Danes! (European Qualifier)

On December 13th, MAD Lions announced the acquisition of the Tricked Esport’s roster, a squad consisting of Hunden, acoR, Sjuush, Bubzkji, and roeJ. Recently, MAD Lions have been making a big splash in the CS scene, finishing Top 4 at DreamHack Open Sevilla 2019 and defeating ENCE to qualify for IEM Katowice 2020!

In addition, they went toe to toe with G2 Esports, almost defeating them in the process. These Danes are looking very strong at the moment with unique strats and exciting gameplay! They’ve shown they can do it online, but can they do it on LAN? DreamHack Open Leipzig will be the perfect opportunity to prove they are the real deal!

Credit to João Ferreira

Cloud9, Is This Actually Going To Work? (North American Qualifier)

When it was announced that Cloud9 (who, two years ago, had won the ELEAGUE Boston Major) would be picking up the South African ATK roster, the fans were dismayed, and the CS:GO community laughed. However, since then they have qualified for IEM Katowice 2020 and DreamHack Open Leipzig 2020 in just their first few weeks of play.

For the first time in nearly two years, there is actually some enthusiasm surrounding a Cloud9 roster! Now, only time will tell if the EX-ATK boys will ever deliver for North American juggernaut, but winning DreamHack Open Leipzig 2020 would be a fantastic way to start!

Photo via Cloud9

Sprout, I See Potential! (ESL Meisterschaft: Winter 2019)

When Sprout parted ways with ”syrsoN” and ”k1to”, it could have been the end of the team. However, since then, the German organisation have signed ”Dycha”, the former ARCY player, who has an incredible Desert Eagle and ”Oskar”, the ex Mousesports AWPer who, when motivated and on form, can be one of the best players in the world! If Sprout can get these two new signings off to good starts, this Sprout roster could quickly go on the rise, although I wouldn’t expect much from them at this tournament.

Opening Matchups!

With the initial match-ups being Best of One engagements, these games could either way. If I had to predict I would say.

Virtus.Pro > BIG

North > Sprout

Cloud9 > Renegades

Mad Lions > Heroic

Image via Dreamhack

In Conclusion:

This tournament is set to be one of the most interesting and intriguing events, with so many new rosters, new orgs and new identities. Literally every one of the teams in attendance could win this event! Although, if I had to put my money down, I would say Virtus.pro is going to win this tournament, but don’t hold me to that!

The opening match of DreamHack Open Leipzig 2020 will be Virtus.pro versus BIG starting January 24, 2020 – 11:00 CEST.

WATCH: twitch.tv/DreamHackCS

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