Preview of DreamHack Open Anaheim 2020
Ihor MatusGeneral information
DreamHack Open Anaheim 2020 will be taking place in Anaheim on 21-23 February. Anaheim Convention Center will take the role of a venue and the prize pool will consist of $100,000. The winner will obtain $50,000. The division of the prize pool will be done by eight teams. Half of them got invited directly (ENCE, FURIA esports, MiBR, North) while the others had to pass regional qualifiers (forZe, Complexity Gaming, Gen.G) and ESL Premiership Winter (Endpoint).
The format of another DreamHack Open tournament is pretty simple. Eight rosters got divided into two teams with four contestants in each. Two best teams from each of the groups will get to the playoff while contestants with the worst results in their groups will leave the tournament. The final stage will be played in the single-elimination bracket.
Group review
Group A
This quartette is represented by Endpoint, forZe, FURIA Esports, and North.
To our mind, forZe seems to be one of the favorites of joining the playoff. The teams hold the thirteenth position in the rating of the best CS:GO roster according to HLTV. United Masters League Season 2 was the last tournament where forZe participated in an official match. Their last battle happened on 23 January. There forZe managed to beat Hard Legion Esports 2-0 but the players got defeated by Flames with the score of 1-2 and ended up their participation on the 3-4 place in the tournament bracket. The roster was assembled on 23 January 2018 when FL1T joined the team. On 29 August last year, Anatoliy 'liTTle' Yashin was the mentor for the team.
In our opinion, North could be the second favorite after forZe. The Danish hold the 26th place in the HLTV rating and their last official tournament was played at the previous tournament of the DreamHack Open series on 25 January. Then North beat Sprout and lost a battle with their countrymen from MAD Lions and Heroic. As a result, Kjaerbye and his teammates won the 5-6 place at DreamHack Open Leipzig 2020. North's roster got completed quite recently, which is on 17 January when MSL joined the team. DreamHack Open Leipzig 2020 showed that the Danish players are not ready to perform in the international arena and we don't really think that the previous month could change the situation dramatically.
FURIA Esports got placed on the 21st position in the HLTV rating. The last time when the Brazilians performed in the professional arena was on 8 January when they were trying to pass to IEM Katowice at the North American closed qualifier. The attempt resulted in a failure and the two matches held against Chaos and Gen.G were lost 0-2. On 23 September, the last change in FURIA Esports was made: Enrique joined the team from the former Luminosity Gaming roster. Weak results along with a relatively long break from official matches make this team an outsider of the group in our opinion. Experts from sportsbook companies do not agree with us and put this team to the second place in outright bets.
Team Endpoint holds the 52nd place in the rating of the best teams in the world according to HLTV. Their last official matches took place at the European elimination round of FLASHPOINT Season 1 and resulted in 17-24 place for them. The meetings got over on 15 February. They lost against Winstrike, beat NLG and failed at the battle with Movistars Riders. The roster got assembled on 14 January and the coach joined the team yesterday. Besides, Endpoint is a long way behind all the opponents in gaming. All the mentioned facts make this roster an outsider of Group A. This is not only our opinion as experts from sportsbook companies have also reached the same conclusion. By the way, we also agree with their opinion about the underdog status of the team. If Endpoint can make it to the playoff, it will be a great achievement for them.
Group B
Complexity Gaming, ENCE, Gen.G Esports, and MiBR got seeded into the second group.
ENCE hold the eleventh position in the chart of the best CS:GO teams according to HLTV. At the beginning of February, the Finnish played at ICE Challenge 2020 where they won the 7-8 place out of eight possible ones and became the first to leave the championship. They were not able to beat either OG or GODSENT, and as a result, they got the smallest reward. On 23 August last year, the last change happened to ENCE’s roster and after that, Aleksib became a free agent and his position was taken by suNny. This replacement was called the worst in the CS:GO history which was proven by ICE Challenge 2020, this territory has the right to exist despite some considerable achievements of the team.
Complexity Gaming got placed on the 23rd position in the world ratind according to HLTV. Their last performance at the official match was held on 13 February. The team tried to make it through the open qualifier for the European minor but the attempt was unsuccessful. Complexity beat AVEZ and Sinners but lost a battle with SMASH and took the 3-4 place tat the open qualifiers. Since poizon and k0nfig’s transfer to Complexity happened on 6 November, the team has not had any change. Taking into account the last results, 5 months were not enough for the team to achieve appropriate teamwork.
Now MiBR holds the sixteenth place in the world top according to HLTV. The last two official matches where the Brazilians took part in happened on 31 January and 1 February at BLAST Premier Spring Series 2020. There FalleN and his teammates lost battles against Team Liquid и Ninjas in Pyjamas. We should mark that fighting with NiP, the roster managed to win one map. Nevertheless, the team took the last place in the spring BLAST Premier series, but many teams both in Group B and the whole championship may appear to be weaker than the Brazilian team. We cannot say that the team’s game did not improve a lot after meyern joined the team on 11 December. Experts from sportsbook companies consider MiBR to be the main favorite of the competition and shape the lowest odds for an outright bet for the Brazilians. We do not agree with them and think that any team that plays more or less well may become the winner.
Gen.G Esports is the main outsider of Group B. The team keeps the 51st position in the world rating. The last time when Gen.G had an official match happened on 19 January at the closed North American qualifier for DreamHack Open Ahaneim 2020. There they beat Chaos Esports Club and Riot Squad. The former holds 56th place in the world rating and the players do not cause any danger, and the latter has already been disassembled. It proves the fact that Gen.G Esports has not met any dangerous opponents on their way to the LAN final of the championship and may not be prepared for what is going to happen at DreamHack Open Anaheim 2020. The roster, by the way, was assembled pretty recently, on 22 December.