DreamHack Open Leipzig is one of the first CS:GO events of the new season. This DreamHack esports tournament brings together 8 teams, most of which are tier 2, and gives them the chance to compete for a total prize pool of $100,000.

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How to Watch DreamHack Open Leipzig

If you want to watch the tournament and learn more about the DreamHack Open Leipzig schedule, just keep in mind that the event will take place in Leipzig, Germany between January 24th – 26th. The matches start in the morning (CET), around 11 AM.

Participants

DreamHack Open Leipzig features the following teams:

BIG

North

Renegades

Virtus.pro

Heroic

MAD Lions

Cloud9

Sprout

Among these teams, only MAD Lions is relatively unknown. The rest are all big names, even though they’re not what they once were. On paper, Virtus.pro, North and Heroic seem to have the highest chances of winning. But we’ll have to see what changes have occurred during the last 4-5 weeks. New seasons always bring changes in teams and players and while some of them increase in strength, others go in the opposite direction.

Prize Distribution

DreamHack Open Leipzig offers $100,000 in prizes. The money will be distributed among the 8 teams in the following way:

1 st place: $50,000

place: $50,000 2 nd place: $20,000

place: $20,000 3 rd – 4 th place: $10,000

– 4 place: $10,000 5 th – 6 th place: $3,000

– 6 place: $3,000 7th – 8th place: $2,000

Competitive Format

DreamHack Open Leipzig takes place in two stages.

Group Stage

For this stage, the teams will be divided into two groups of four. Each group is played in the GSL format (double-elimination). The opening and winners’ matches will be Bo1. Elimination and decider matches will be Bo3. The top two teams from each group advance to the Playoffs.

Playoffs Stage

This stage is played in the single-elimination format and has only three matches, all of them Bo3.

Team Analysis

Here’s a brief analysis of the eight teams that will compete at DreamHack Open Leipzig.

BIG

BIG is a shadow of its former past at this moment. In the global rankings they’re sitting at number 46. Just one year ago they were 11th. But that’s the kind of thing that happens when you start making risky roster changes.

In 2020, BIG’s only result was a 17th – 32nd place at IEM XIV World Championship European Open Qualifier #2. In other words, don’t expect BIG to do well in this esports tournament. They will most likely get eliminated in the group stage.

North

North had a brief moment of top 10 glory in 2019 but now they’re back to a lower rank. On hltv, they’re sitting at number 21. One of the key things to keep in mind about this team is that they’ve gone through two roster changes in the last 3 months. Both valde and JUGi have been replaced. The new players are cajunb and MSL. It remains to be seen what the team can do in this new formula. Many of the analysts are optimistic, simply because MSL is known to be an excellent IGL.

Renegades

Renegades is no longer the Renegades you knew last year. The organization lost its entire roster when 100 Thieves decided to make an offer and simply steal the entire squad. In the new formula, Renegades is much a weaker team than the one we’ve come to appreciate and respect. So be wary of that when choosing your CSGO bets.

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Heroic

Heroic is currently sitting at number 16 in the global rankings, which means they’re a very strong team for an event like this. In all probability, they will finish in the top four and possibly even win the title.

Virtus.pro

Virtus.pro is one of the biggest fallen giants at this event. VP used to be a huge team. But now, just like in Dota 2, they’re no longer relevant in the tier 1 division. It remains to be seen what they can do when faced with tier 2 opponents.

One thing to keep in mind about VB is that they have a completely new roster. Just like 100 Thieves, the CIS organization decided to simply make AVANGAR an offer they couldn’t refuse and sign all of its players. In case you don’t follow the pro scene, AVANGAR had huge performances in 2019 and finished 2nd at StarLadder Berlin Major in September.

With this new roster, VP is expected to do great things and become a big name in CS:GO once more. Going into DreamHack Open Leipzig, anything less than 2nd would be a disappointment.

MAD Lions

MAD Lions may not be a big name in our minds, but the team is sitting at number 18 in the global rankings. So they’re not exactly weak. However, it remains to be seen what they can do when faced with much more experienced teams such as Heroic and North.

Cloud9

C9 is currently sitting at number 17 in the global rankings, so they too should have a chance. However, their results in recent months have not been great. And when faced with strong opposition, the likelihood of success drops like a rock if the roster doesn’t have the required experience. C9’s roster is entirely new. So I don’t see what they can do at this point. Maybe in 3 months they’ll do better. But right now, I don’t give them much of a chance.

Sprout

And finally, we have Sprout. This team is a formidable AWP player (oskar) who used to compete for mousesports. It also has a great IGL, Spiidi, who’s been playing for the team for more than 2 years. However, at this competitive level, I don’t see Sprout succeeding.

Image courtesy of DreamHack