DreamHack Masters: Malmö 2016 - Day 4 Recap

High hopes have been set in the Chinese Tyloo to do some damage after their very successful group stages. Dignitas were bound to get far in this event and after taking out NiP and Astralis on the way, there was little doubt as to how likely it would be to see them advance over EnVyUs. GODSENT is the only Swedish team remaining besides NiP, but after mousesports' group stage the odds were not that highly in their favour. Lastly, NiP were to meet their enemies of old. Ever since 2009 they have been battling it out with the Virtus.Pro core and currently sitting on a tie, this would mean much in terms of deciding the fate of that profound rivalry.

Natus Vincere vs. TyLoo - 5:10, 5:6 (10:16); 2:13, 3:3 (5:16)

Winner: Natus Vincere

Series: de_Inferno, de_Mirage

MVP: Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovacs - 39:27

Natus Vincere start as terrorists.

Tyloo started off the match with a pretty sick pistol round. They read Na’Vi perfectly, stacked B and baited them to commit. They were able to get the next two rounds as well, but not the following ones, as the CIS team was able to tie the score line again. They even carried the momentum further, bringing it to 7-3, until Tyloo issued a tactical timeout. Especially Ladislav “GuardiaN” Kovacs chimed in again after having taken a break due to his wrist injury. Interestingly he has taken over the main AWP on T-side Inferno, something that we usually don’t see. The team moved around him as he constantly got the impact frags. Mo was trying hard at playing his own game with the AWP instead of trying to counter GuardiaN, but on very few occasions this has worked out for him. Eventually Natus Vincere ended the half on 10-5.

After Tyloo were gifted the opening, they were able to pile onto A and get the second pistol round. The following rounds went in their favour as well but ultimately Na’Vi once again were able to intercept in the first buy round. It was a back and forth match with especially Tyloo delivering some crazy plays to acquire rounds again. But when Danylo “Zeus” Teslenko sneaked into apartments and got a double with the MAG-7, the Chinese were taken their momentum and eventually had to give in at a 16-10 score line.

Natus Vincere start as terrorists.

On Mirage, Na’Vi were able to get onto an early lead, which seemingly tilted the CT Tyloo, who mostly set themselves up to do individual hero plays instead of working out something as a team. This was a highly risky move considering the individual talent on the CIS side, and indeed it did not work out for the Chinese at all. 16-5 ended their run as Natus Vincere removed them from the main stage.

Team EnVyUs vs. Team Dignitas - 10:5, 2:11 (12:16); 1:14, 7:2 (8:16)

Winner: Team EnVyUs

Series: de_Inferno, de_Mirage

MVP: Kenny "kennyS" Schrub - 61:30

EnVyUs start as terrorists.

EnVyUs had basically steamrolled the CT defence on B, but the retake worked out for Dignitas in the pistol round despite being 2v4. In the second round, EnVy once again attempted a B-take and got the man advantage and the bomb site, but for a second time the retake strategies from the Danes are working out great. The French had to wait until the first gun round to get onto the score board. Proving to be well-versed in taking over B, the following rounds were marked by fast executions onto that site and by early fights for map control in that key area. EnVy were particularly good in getting the entry kills, especially since Dignitas seemed to be willing to overextend on various occasions. Once again the French had reduced the CTs to one person alive, but Kjaerbye managed to pull off the impossible in taking out the last remaining player on site and defusing the bomb in the last seconds while the other nV players had walked off already. Fortunately for the Frenchmen, they kept their cool and answered with more round wins. Their heavy reliance on B however made them vulnerable for anti-stratting as Dignitas simply stacked the B bomb site and baited them to enter. With a mere USP eco-round they brought down EnVyUs thanks to Kjaerbye. Great plays enabled them to get 10-5 for the half.

On the T-side, however, Dignitas were hitting brick walls as EnVy steadily steered towards a tied up score line. Eventually Kjaerbye took matters in his own hands again to make it 11-10, finally giving a round to his team. Kenny “KennyS” Schrub answered back with a hero play of his own, taking two players with one AWP bullet and dunking a grenade onto one of the two remaining Dignitas players. This was followed up by another convincing round that brought the Danes down to an eco. EnVyUs carried their momentum further to 14-11, until Dignitas finally intercepted with a fast B take. But Vincent “Happy” Schopenhauer prevailed on B once again and locked it down to bring it to map point. With the resulting force-buy there was not much to be achieved for the Danes, who had to give in on a 16-12 score line.

Dignitas start as terrorists.

KennyS has really shown up today, and after a successful first round on Mirage, he took down all players from Dignitas in Middle to get the ACE in the second round. Despite Kjaerbye’s best efforts the first gun round had to go the way of EnVyUs as well. For the second gun round, Dignitas were able to zone out the B bomb site but DEVIL and NBK worked together to simply crush them at the entrance. At 7-0, the Danes issued a timeout to find out a way to attack the dominant CTs properly. Their default strategies just collapsed over them and at this point it appeared as if Dignitas had tilted already. And indeed there was not much to be seen for the rest of the match.

Dignitas only regrouped for the second half to finally bring something to the table, but sitting on map and match point already, there was little hope for them to actually take this to a third map. In the end Dignitas were able to at least acquire 8 rounds before going out of the tournament.

GODSENT vs. mousesports - 8:7, 8:0 (16:7); 7:8, 3:8 (10:16); 7:8, 6:8 (13:16)

Winner: GODSENT

Series: de_Cache, de_Inferno, de_Mirage

MVP: Jonas "Lekr0" Olofsson - 63:52

GODSENT start as terrorists.

Mousesports started off great on Cache in getting the first five rounds altogether. A nearly perfect round for GODSENT was turned over by a molotov that intercepted the bomb plant in the last seconds. In the following round, Lekr0 was able to win over a clutch for his team despite roasting alive in the end. Eventually mousesports were sitting 7 points already and the Swedes had to break their momentum in order to not let them carry away the half. A force-buy was sufficient to do so and GODSENT acquired another six rounds until being stopped by half time on a 8-7 score line, slightly in favour of mouz.

GODSENT were setting up for a very defensive hold, but NiKo came in with a Deagle to do the usual. His headshot 4k not only opened the second pistol round for mousesports, he secured the round singlehandedly. Twist answered with a headshot in the next round to make it a really close one, but eventually mousesports were sitting on 12-7. Despite strong efforts by Twist and znajder, they had to give in at 16-7 already.

mousesports start as terrorists.

Inferno presented yet another great start for the German squad. Finally, GODSENT were able to intercept due to great individual plays. They carried over a momentum to win another seven rounds to make it an 8-7 half after losing the last two rounds. Especially the B bomb site was interesting to watch as pauf and znajder constantly changed up their positioning and looked for some crazy peaks to open up the round.

In the second half GODSENT were able to plant the bomb on A and despite NiKo’s best efforts to bring it to a 1v1 time was just too low. With the following rounds, the Swedes managed to pull off a 11-7 score line until the first gun round, in which mousesports began to slowly decimate the round difference. GODSENT were unable to find an answer until Twist made a crazy Deagle 3k to open up B in an eco-round for the Swedes. Mouz have fought hard, but with Twist going godlike once again GODSENT were quick to get the 14-9 score line and sent the Germans to and eco. The 15th round followed up for them real quick but in a 1v1 scenario, znajder failed to stop the defuse from happening because he ran out of bullets, so they needed one more round until they could finally clear out the map for themselves.

GODSENT start as terrorists.

Mirage was the final battleground for this series, on which a team would advance to be the enemy of either NiP or Virtus.Pro in the semi-finals. With two mid-air headshots, nex took over the pistol round for his team. A Deagle buy, however, brought the difference again for GODSENT as in the third round, pauf managed to keep mousesports from defusing with two great headshots. This weapon has had an unusually high amount of exposure in this series so far and it has certainly contributed to some shocking round upsets. With all the rounds mousesports should have won that eventually went over to the Swedes, they started to seriously build up confidence, and with the chanting on the stage, GODSENT were simply on fire. The only person to stop them was NiKo, as usual.

Or Spiidi, at some point. In a 1v1 against pronax he picked up the AWP, something fairly unusual for him. He landed a great no-scope to take over the round and finally give his team the chance to tie up the score again. As the last round was taken over by GODSENT it became an 8-7 half for them.

Mousesports managed to once again win the pistol round, as the defence got run over on a pretty convincingly. In the follow-up round, Lekr0 held sway on B with two quick one-taps from the Deagle, but mousesports nonetheless were able to take the round with considerable damage taken. Looking to extend their early lead, the Germans at some point finally hit a set up GODSENT. After the Swedes had tied up the game, it went back and forth to make it 14-13 for GODSENT. NiKo, on an eco with his team, pulled off an incredible 4k solo show on B, but was unable to get the last. In the potentially last round, a brawl in mid turned out to favour mousesports as they got the man advantage out of it. But when entering B, which the Swedes had left alone initially, znajder came back in to kill two enemies and open it up for Lekr0 to back-rage. Finally, GODSENT ended it at 16-13 to advance to the semi-finals.

Ninjas in Pyjamas vs. Virtus.Pro - 12-3, 4:9 (16:12); 10:5, 6:7 (16-12)

Winner: Ninjas in Pyjamas

Series: de_Cache, de_Train

MVP: Patrik "f0rest" Lindberg - 47:34

Ninjas in Pyjamas start as terrorists.

NiP ran down the B defence and though byali almost pulled off a triple clutch the bomb was allowed to explode and with the following rounds they set themselves on a 3-0 lead. Unable to get further, NiP collapsed under a B defence that simply was on point. Virtus.Pro were playing fairly passively, and NiP capitalized on that by cutting rotations in the middle to CT areas. At this point, VP had to issue a tactical pause to get back into the game, since the Ninjas were able to get to an 8-3 lead early. But nothing, no words, could stop NiP from plowing Virtus down in the first half with 12-3.

Fortunately for VP, they were able to get the second pistol round and despite being challenged also the follow-up rounds. Now the Virtus.Plow was starting to go under way and did not stop until they were sitting on 10 rounds. Now NiP acquired a round for themselves but VP answered straight back to make it 11-13. An unexpected A Main push gifted the Ninjas two weapons and with a sudden kill on B, the Polish team collapsed under the pressure to get NiP towards 14 points. Suddenly they won over a clutch again, but even with such a great comeback overall, the Polish squad had to give in at 16-12.

Ninjas in Pyjamas start as terrorists.

NiP once again obliterated the Polish team in the pistol rounds and were only stopped in the first gun round again. But with keeping the SMGs all the time they were nonetheless able to full-buy and explode onto A. It has almost become a storyline for this match that Virtus.Pro are getting shredded notoriously as counter terrorists. And no matter the efforts they were unable to succeed in putting themselves on the board with more than just one round. At some point, Wiktor "TaZ" Wojtas clutched a round but without a follow up they were left with close to nothing. At 10-2 they were finally able to defuse a bomb, but no impact was made onto NiP as they were sitting on a huge money bank.

But the Polish team did not care about things like that anymore and played out the remaining rounds to perfection eventually, ending the half being down 5-10.

As much as VP needed the second pistol there was no just chance after a majority of the team had died early and the rest was falling shortly after. Once more NiP were looking to get a massive lead and considering that they were going to play out the rest of this map on the favoured side, Virtus.Pro were in need to act fast. Fortunately for them, they were able to do so. The Ninjas bought up nonetheless and reset them already, cutting possible momentum down in its roots, but despite sitting on 15 points, NiP had to watch Virtus.Pro wake up again. This is a team you rarely see choking, and the pressure seems to benefit them. But the Swedes are equally as talented, and equally as focused when it comes to intense moments. Jacob "pyth" Mourojärvi executed pasha as the last kill of the match to end it 16-12.