DreamHack Masters Las Vegas will be the first premier tournament since the end of the ELEAGUE Major 2017 and the first LAN event since the first big roster shuffle of the year. The event will serve as the proving ground for many revamped rosters as they will face every Top 8 team from the recent Major.

Here's a few storylines to keep an eye on at DreamHack Masters Vegas.

Minor Rebuilds

Of the 16 teams participating in the event, over half of them have recently made changes to their active roster. A majority of those changes only involved a single player, but even those should have a significant impact on the team's in-game dynamics, for better or worse.

One of the bigger changes was SK Gaming trading fnx to Immortals in exchange for felps, while the latter was arguably Immortals' strongest player. Skill-level aside though, since felps has a pretty similar playstyle as fer, it's not quite clear how he will be worked into the roster. But it's likely that either felps will become more of a support player or TACO will transition into more of a support player while felps retains his role as an entry-fragger. The latter scenario seems more likely, but both will be adjustments for the team regardless.

North are in a similar situation as SK, as they've brought in a strong fragger in aizy to replace support player RUBINO. Between k0nfig, cajunb, Magiskb0Y and now aizy, someone will have to step down as a fragger. k0nfig seems the most likely candidate as he's a fairly hot and cold performer, whereas aizy is the more consistent option. This should lead to k0nfig transitioning into a more supportive role, but that remains to be seen.

Another team that's made a deceptively big change is Cloud9, as they've added well-respected North American coach valens, who formerly coached Team SoloMid. Stewie2k has done a valiant job as the team's in-game leader, but his inexperience in the role has begun to show as he seems to struggle with mid round calls. valens can strengthen the team's set plays, assist during mid round calls and could be a calming presence within the team.

SK, North, C9 and the other adjusted lineups will be interesting teams to watch as their future potential could be gleaned from their matches in Vegas.

Several other teams have also made changes, such as FaZe Clan and OpTic Gaming, but they are in odd situations at DreamHack Masters as they are attending the event with only temporary or trial lineups.

Transition Phase

FaZe Clan's acquisition of NiKo will likely remain the biggest pickup of the year, as he has been one of the scene's most highly sought after players, second only to s1mple. NiKo has carried mouz through a number of messy situations, all the while acting as the team's in-game leader. But now under the leadership of the likes of karrigan with FaZe, he should be fully unleashed, or at least that's the hope.

NiKo will indeed be in attendance at DreamHack Masters, but not as part of FaZe. He will play his last LAN event with mousesports, while FaZe will attend with jkaem serving as a stand-in. That leaves these two teams in an awkward transitional phase, but this could be to their benefit.

With little pressure to perform and few expectations on them, this tournament could lead to a better environment and looser playstyle, but alternatively the teams could also see this event as a wash.

OpTic Gaming and TyLoo are in similar situations, at least from how much they've let on publicly. Hiko will play as a stand in for OpTic, replacing stanislaw, while and TyLoo's AttackeR has returned to a lineup and that will also feature HZ, who is on loan from All Gamers.

Though OpTic sorely underperformed at the ELEAGUE Major, they were still a strong team, however that strength will be put into question now that their IGL has left the roster. Hiko was Liquid's IGL before he left, but it's not a role that he excels at, or even chose for that matter.

Instead, NAF will be the one to take up the IGL mantle. It's an unfamiliar role but one that he should be eased into by Hiko and well-known Brazilian coach peacemaker. The team has a lot of transitions to make, but, on paper, should be one that works.

TyLoo looked to be a lot more broken a month ago as they fired their coach and suspended three of their players on Jan. 10 as punishment for seeking out other teams while under contract. However, somebody and AttackeR have since returned to the lineup, with the latter being tenuously on the team.

It's not quite clear what's happened within the TyLoo roster, but it may be fair to say that their interpersonal relationships may not be the same before the suspensions. TyLoo will also be attending with HZ, who they've used during World Electronic Sports Games 2016, though HZ was the team's weakest link at the tournament with a 0.96 HLTV rating at that event.

Phoenix Rising

The removal of Dust II from the Active Duty map group and the return of Inferno was a shock to the professional CS:GO community. Dust II has a been a Counter-Strike mainstay and its removal will have a big impact on the competitive scene. As DH Masters is the first LAN to feature the latest map group, we will get a glimpse at how teams will adjust to the map pool.

The most immediate reaction to the map pool change was undoubtedly, "Fnatic's back." They've reformed the roster that dominated the tail end of 2015 and the beginning of 2016, and much of that was thanks to their prowess on Inferno.

Old team is back and inferno which we dominated on.. pic.twitter.com/iWOCt6A4xZ — fnatic dennis (@fnaticdennis) February 4, 2017

Other teams should see a similar benefit to Inferno returning, such as Astralis, Natus Vincere and TyLoo. However, the opposite should be true for teams like Cloud9 and mouz, who have both a strong Dust II and weak Inferno.

However, these assumptions are made based on the old Inferno. According to Team EnVyUs' Happy, there are a number of changes to the map that he doesn't agree with and a few that could change the map's meta.

"I already thought it was a mistake to remake that map, I felt it was the best map. It could be so tactical and it also allowed raw aim to express itself on certain timings. But so be it, I think the main concern to me is the fact that the sky box from Arch/CT spawn to Banana is blocked," Happy said in an interview theScore esports. "They should open it again to allow more game play with the smokes, especially now that they buffed the T-side with 10 more seconds, and a more open world map.

"I think the meta game will retain some aspects of the old one, but it will be a huge change and teams that used to be really good on it might feel completely lost now."

Only six matches on Inferno have been tracked on HLTV, giving a miniscule glimpse into how the map will be played and none of those games featured high-tier teams. We'll likely see some very new things come out from the map, that is, if it manages to make it through the map veto.