DreamHack Masters Marseille is over. After five days of exciting match action from elite CS:GO teams, let’s take a look back over this event. Which teams impressed? What we have learnt about the current status on the professional scene.

Astralis, who ended up lifting the trophy wasn’t the only team with a happy ending. Natus Vincere, Gambit and NiP performed well and had a great tournament.

Here are our observations of Marseille

Winners of Marseille

Gambit came alive once again

Going in the same group as Team Liquid, Astralis and Space Soldiers, it was hard to expect anything from Gambit. The CIS team who won PGL Krakow was expected to be kicked out of the competition on day one.

In fact, it was hard to think beyond that. Who would have thought that seized would make for a decent leader in-game in their first premier offline event?

No-one can deny he did a brilliant job. While the win over Space Soldiers wasn’t that big of a surprise, their win over Liquid certainly was.

In their last group stage match, Gambit faced Liquid in a Bo3 and they managed to pull off a win. Seized’s squad couldn’t win on their own map pick, Overpass, but compensated by winning Mirage.

Killing the North American dream

The match was concluded on Train, where both teams played very well but Gambit ended up top. Seized and Dosia were producing smart plays, while AdreN and mou were closing out rounds with their raw skill. Liquid couldn’t beat the structure that aforementioned two created for their stars, nor the team chemistry.

Closing the group stage, the team eliminated Liquid and booked a spot in the playoffs for themselves, where they would again shock us.

In a match against Cloud9, the opponents where clearly the favorites. Gambit didn’t let this affect them and they comfortably took a win over C9. With this, eliminating the remaining North American team from the tournament.

In the semifinals, Gambit was then eliminated by Natus Vincere. Even then, Gambit didn’t make any many mistakes or have visible problems like they had in past. It just came down to the face that Na’Vi was a better team.

Overall we saw a new seized, AdreN’s and mou back on form and Gambit back on track. We can’t wait to see if Gambit can keep this up or if it was a one-time fluke. However Gambit certainly left Marseille with their heads held high.

Gambit’s next offline tournament will be the unusual Adrenaline Cyber League. There, we will have four teams fighting for the prize pool of $100.000.

Natus Vincere Stronger Than Ever

Natus Vincere have been heavily criticized in the last few months. Firstly, for the team’s in-game leader, Zeus, not being able to properly organize and use his players. Then, for the organization rumored interference in s1mple and flamie transfer to SK Gaming.

Coming in Marseille, it was hard to expect something from Na’Vi and all we had were questions. Would the team chemistry be shaken by the buyout tentative? Would Zeus change his setup to favor electronic from now on? Fortunately for them, the answers were favorable to Na’Vi.

Natus Vincere managed a clean sweep in the group stage and didn’t lost a single map until the grand-finals where they lost to Astralis.

“Whatever does not kill me makes me stronger.”

The phrase above sums up perfectly for this Natus Vincere situation. If SK had managed to complete the buyout of s1mple and flamie, indeed, the organization would look rather dim.

Zeus managed hiss team well. Electronic was playing in better positions, now suitable for his raw aim skill. Edward levelled his supporting role and during their match against FNATIC, was a key factor to their victory.

Na’Vi still is very dependent on S1mple and the Ukrainian made it clear that he wants to be a champion, with Na’Vi. S1mple said the following in a post-event interview:

“Yes, of course. We fixed all of our problems with each other like a month ago, so now we’re just becoming stronger and stronger. I believe in this team, and we can do more. It wasn’t our game against Astralis today. Of course, they were better, because only a better team wins at such a big tournament, but we’ll keep improving.”

Na’Vi will have a busy schedule in the following weeks. They should fix problems discovered at Marseille and use what they learned in their game plan right now for their next event. Their next appearance will be at IEM Sydney 2018.

Astralis Back To Winning Ways

Astralis were our favorites to top their group in the first stage of DHM Marseille. Not only did they meet our expectations but they went one step further.

In the playoffs, Danes had to face FaZe Clan, FNATIC and then Na’Vi in the grand finals. They beat every single of those opponents without dropping a single map in the best of three matches.

Their dominant performance, different than the one FaZe had in ESL One New York, wasn’t based purely on firepower. Gla1ve’s strategies were on point and it was delightful to see how smart Astralis were playing. For each team Astralis had a different way to play.

This dynamic setup was clearer in the grand finals. Astralis was set to shut s1mple, Natus Vincere’s star, and take rounds from there. While s1mple ended having more kills than the Danes in the scoreboard, Astralis prevailed and took the trophy home.

This was because very often Na’Vi would find themselves in a situation where they couldn’t do nothing more than save their guns or try a bomb-plant to get more money for the next round. Astralis controlled the game by not letting Na’Vi star find a place.

Not many teams can pull this off. If the chemistry and communication were off, or if some players started to underperform, this could impact negatively. Nothing of the sort happened. Gla1ve and Zonic, Astralis IGL and coach respectively, were ready for anything.

To the stars, once again

Kjaerbye leaving Astralis on his own accord was an undercover gift. Magisk can provide the firepower and gla1ve can play in more suitable positions than before.

Also worth noting, during Astralis games, every player on the team was, at least, fragging decently. Every player in Astralis finished amongst the top 10 players of Marseille and the worst performing player, dupreeh, had a rating of 1.14. Impressive is an understatement for the Danes run in French soil.

Astralis winning wasn’t the biggest surprise, what shocked everyone was the way they did it and how structured they were.

The next tournament for Astralis is IEM Sydney 2018. There, the team will be facing Mousesports and Natus Vincere right in the group stage and every fan will be expecting to see the same dominance from Astralis.

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