DreamHack Masters Stockholm 2018 starts this week

One of the biggest international tournaments of the year, DreamHack Masters Stockholm 2018, will be taking place throughout this week. With the event starting on August 29 and ending on September 2nd, we have an entire week of excellent high level Counter Strike to look forward to.

Here is everything you need to know about the tournament happening this week.

DreamHack Masters Stockholm – everything you need to know

On August 29, the group stage will begin. A total of 16 teams will enter the group stage, but only eight teams will proceed to the playoffs.

Below is a list of all teams and their respective groups:

Group A

Astralis

North

TyLoo

Grayhound

Group B

NaVi

NRG

NiP

Ghost Gaming

Group C

FaZe

Fnatic

opTic

Heroic

Group D

mousesports

MIBR

HellRaisers

Gambit

Each group will feature a double elimination format. This means that a team must lose twice to be eliminated from the tournament. The first group matches will be best of one, but the remaining matches will be best of three. Only two teams from each group will proceed to the playoffs. The group stage will end on August 31.

The playoffs will take place on September 1 and September 2. For the playoffs, all matches will be best of three, starting with four quarter final matches.

Because there are so many games fit into one week, the first two matches from each group will be played simultaneously. For English, French, and German viewers, you’ll be able to find a seperate stream for each of the two games. For Turkish, Spanish, Czech Republic, Brazil, Poland, and Vietnam, there will only be one live stream available.

For other languages, you’ll have to find a suitable third party stream.

DreamHack Masters Stockholm 2018 prize pool and initial thoughts

With 16 of the best teams in the world showing up, it should come as no surprise that the prize pool is pretty large. $250,000 is up for grabs, with the first place team taking home $100,000.

We’re extra excited for this event because the skill gap between the top teams has never been closer. Astralis is certainly still at the top, but they might not hold that title for long. There are many teams we’ll be keeping an eye on during the event in Stockholm this week. For example, MIBR has just pulled out an impressive win during the Zotac Cup Masters thanks to their new coach YNk. Can they do it again with slightly more challenging competition?

What about the other top tier EU teams? Both NaVi and mousesports have been performing particularly well recently, and FaZe finally has olofmeister back on their team. We’re hoping olof has had enough time now to get back into the flow of things.

Other names come up as potential underdog wins, too, including NiP and TyLoo, both of which have performed well recently.

Overall, there is a lot on the table here and every team will be putting everything they have into their matches. The FACEIT Major happening next month may still be the biggest event this half of the year, but we’re expecting DreamHack Masters Stockholm to be a close second.

What are your thoughts on this event? Are you excited?