DreamHack Masters Malmo 2017
It proved to be another big weekend for G2 Esports. They took home the $100,000 top prize, defeating North in the final of this exciting Masters event.
The group stage produced one major shock in Group C where the much-fancied FaZe Clan lost to both Ninjas in Pyjamas and Gambit Esports.
Favourites SK Gaming didn’t have things all their own way either in Group A. They qualified second behind North, while Astralis, Natus Vincere, G2 Esports, and Immortals were the more predictable teams to progress from the other two groups.
The quarterfinals saw North defeat Immortals in the opening game. Then, Gambit Esports surprised many with a 2-0 win over Astralis. There was another shock in the third game when the favourites were eliminated: G2 Esports earned a 2-1 win over SK Gaming. Ninjas in Pyjamas clinched the final semifinal place with a 2-1 win over Natus Vincere.
The semis saw North defeat Gambit Esports 2-0 before G2 Esports defeated the in-form Ninjas in Pyjamas to reach the final. There, their great run of form continued with 16-12 and 16-9 victories over North to claim the title.
This marked G2’s second DreamHack win of the year after tasting victory in Tours back in May. The new feather in their cap will certainly help make up for two disappointing performances in the PGL Major Krakow (where they were 9th-11th) and the ESL One: Cologne 2017 (where they finished 5th-8th).
While the winners won’t be traveling to Canada to compete in the DreamHack Montreal event this coming weekend, the beaten finalists, North, will take part.
DreamHack Montreal 2017
Starting Friday, eight teams convene to fight for the lion’s share of a $100,000 prize pool in DreamHack Montreal.
Cloud9, Immortals, and North — who played in Malmo last weekend — are joined by three other invited teams: Counter Logic Gaming, Gale Force Esports, and Luminosity Gaming. Also in attendance will be North American qualifiers compLexity Gaming and European qualifier Team Kinguin.
Team Kinguin are standing in for Space Soldiers, who were unable to attend due to visa issues. Hellraisers were slated as the original replacements for Space Soldiers, but they too suffered visa issues.
The format in Montreal is similar to all standard DreamHack Tour events. Eight teams are drawn into two groups of four. They will play a GSL Format five games to decide the top two teams in each group that will progress to the semis. The matches are then best-of-three games between the teams in a straight knockout format to decide the winner.
The Montreal tournament will be the last for a short while before DreamHack moves to Denver, Colorado in late October. This will be followed by the last DreamHack event of the year: the late-November tourney in Jonkoping, Sweden.
ELEAGUE CSGO Premier 2017
The teams currently fighting it out in DreamHack will certainly be keeping a close eye on the $1 million prize pool available at the exciting ELEAGUE CSGO Premier 2017.
There is a huge $500,000 on offer for the winner of this Atlanta-based event. Sixteen of the top teams in the world have either been invited or qualified. The event’s four groups will begin play a week apart. See the scheduling below.
- Sept. 8 – Group A – FaZe Clan, Natus Vincere, G2 Esports, Renegades
- Sept. 15 – Group B – North, mousesports, Fnatic, Immortals
- Sept. 22 – Group C – Virtus.pro, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Cloud9, Team EnVyUs
- Sept. 29 – Group D – SK Gaming, Astralis, Team Liquid, Heroic
Group A begins Friday. The bookies have the recent DreamHack Masters winners G2 Esports as the 2/1 favourites to win the group. They’re just ahead of FaZe Clan at 9/4. Natus Vincere are a 5/2 shot, and Renegades are the 11/2 outsiders.
