Another DreamHack ASTRO Open stop is around the corner, with eight CS:GO teams set to battle for a $100,000 prize pool in Austin, Texas, this weekend. To get up to date on the teams and what to expect from them, HLTV.org has prepared a preview of the event.

DreamHack ASTRO Open Austin 2017 is a three-day, eight-team tournament that will be held from April 28-30. The prize pool is $100,000, the standard figure for the DreamHack Open stops, with $50,000 going to the tournament winner.

The tournament will feature two GSL-style groups that will use a combination of BO1 and BO3 matches, followed by a BO3 single-elimination bracket in the playoffs.

The groups for DreamHack ASTRO Open Austin 2017 are as follows:

Group A Group B HellRaisers Immortals Gambit G2 Heroic Cloud9 Luminosity Liquid

Group A is filled with 'upset teams': HellRaisers, Gambit and Heroic have all managed to get LAN wins against strong opposition, but are yet to establish themselves as teams that could make deep runs at events with any kind of consistency.

On the other hand, Group B has teams who have won or been deep in tournaments, but have recently gone through roster changes or have fallen out of form—and will be looking to improve on that in Austin.

The storylines, the pretty even level of the teams in attendance and a packed group stage schedule that will feature six BO1s and four BO3s ensure that DreamHack ASTRO Open Austin will be an exciting event from start to finish.

Ratings used are from the past three months on LAN, if available

Group A



Offline results in 2017 3rd-4th SL i-League StarSeries Season 3 Finals SL i-League StarSeries Season 3 Finals 15th-16th ELEAGUE Major ELEAGUE Major

HellRaisers reached the playoffs of a LAN event for the first time with their current roster at the SL i-League StarSeries Season 3 Finals and managed to finish top four straight away, putting up a decent fight against eventual winners FaZe in the semis.

With their strong finish in Kiev, the team consisting of players from three different European countries managed to break into HLTV.org's top 10, the highest this organization has been in quite some time. ANGE1 and co. will be looking to hold on to their ranking—and potentially climb higher—in Austin.

That won't be an easy task, however, as every team at DreamHack Open Austin, even the underdog Luminosity, is pretty dangerous, especially in the opening BO1 matches.



Zero was statistically HR's best player at StarSeries S3

HellRaisers’ strengths and weaknesses, in a weird way, lie in the same places. They play a lot of maps, giving them a wide map pool, but don't have a strong map or two on which they can always rely. The situation is similar in the player department, as all five players have good showings from time to time, but it's hard to single out a main star for the team.

As a result, they are a squad that doesn't need to rely on a single player having a big performance or getting the veto down to their favorite map to get wins, but it might be hard for them to replicate their Kiev form if they are not sure what was key to their result there.



Offline results in 2017 2nd cs_summit cs_summit 12th-14th SL i-League StarSeries Season 3 Finals SL i-League StarSeries Season 3 Finals 5th-8th DreamHack Masters Las Vegas DreamHack Masters Las Vegas 5th-8th ELEAGUE Major ELEAGUE Major

In terms of maps and players, Gambit are the polar opposite of HellRaisers. Most of their firepower comes from AdreN—at StarSeries S3, we saw what happens to the team when the Kazakh veteran doesn't show up—, and have a very defined map pool, with Cobblestone and Overpass as their home maps.

Gambit are coming into DreamHack Austin 2017 fresh off their second-placed finish at cs_summit, with a couple of good things to bring into the event in Texas. Firstly, we saw AdreN bounce back after a poor event in Kiev, and the team also seemed to widen their map pool as Zeus decided to pick Inferno and Train before Cobblestone and Overpass versus SK in the grand final.



AdreN has been Gambit's main driving force, will someone else take over soon?

Was that map veto just a curveball for teams that are going to be looking at Gambit going into Austin? Maybe it was, but it could end up being enough for Gambit to get an advantage in the veto at this event.

Looking at the talent, leadership, experience and form at their last event, cs_summit, Gambit seem like one of the favorites to go deep in the tournament.