Preview of DreamHack Masters Spring 2020
Ihor MatusAs a reminder, DreamHack Masters Spring 2020 kicks off on 19 May in Europe and North America. The competition for Asia and Oceania is taking place on 2-7 June. $160,000 will be played for in the European division while the North American gamers will be fighting for $100,000.
Europe
Favorites
Astralis, Fnatic FaZe Clan, G2 Esports
Astralis has recently proved that the gamers should not be ignored and they must be considered as rivals. The Danish gamers beat ESL One Road to Rio 2020 Europe taking a victory from G2 Esports away at the final. The team again got placed on their regular first place in the list of the best CS:GO teams represented by HLTV.
Fnatic is also one of the favorites of winning the event. Unlike Astralis, their gaming shape is not as good as they wanted it to be, however, they are to represent serious opposition to their opponents. The prize pool at DreamHack Masters Spring 2020 is considerable and the Swedish players have to fight for the main monetary award of $54,000. The team is in second place in the world rating and Fnatic’s players are real legends. In addition to the fact that recently the team has been showing not the worst game, we reach the conclusion that it will be interesting to watch Fnatic play.
At the recently finished ESL One Road to Rio 2020, before FaZe Clan met G2 Esports and Astralis, the gamers had had a series of eight wins in a row which proves that their gaming shape is really good. Besides, the players hold the seventh position in the rating by HLTV. coldzera and his teammates definitely managed to find a kind of synergy and that is why the players showed good results at the last online-championship. We expect FaZe to show nothing worse than that result and taking into account the teams that are going to oppose them, the outcome may be close to something that we have already been able to see. As a reminder, the European gamers took third place at ESL One Road to Rio 2020.
G2 Esports is one of the two strongest French teams that is always fighting with Team Vitality for this honorific. Unlike Vitality, G2 is present in Ten Best Teams in the HLTV rating and holds the sixth position there. At ESL One Road to Rio 2020, G2 performed even better than FaZe Clan. They managed to beat coldzera and his teammates but Astralis was too tough for them. The team was not able to win any map at the final and took second place at the competition.
Teams with good chances
mousesports, NAVI, Vitality
mousesports and NAVI have one interesting peculiarity in common. The teams are not weak for sure but they showed a pretty middling result at ESL One Road to Rio 2020. The esportsmen were not able to make it to the playoff but they cannot be treated as either outsiders or the main favorite of the upcoming championship. Vitality may also be described in the same way, however, they are different from mouz and NAVI due to their successful performance at the ESL tournament. There ZyWoo and his teammates took 4th place in the European division. To sum up, we expect these three teams to see a good game, however, we will not be very surprised if any of them does not pass the group stage.
We should also mark NiP’s achievements. Now the team occupied the eleventh place in the world rating. At ESL One Road to Rio 2020, they took fifth place which is better than NAVI and mousesports, but meanwhile, nobody can call the mentioned teams better. The esportsmen, by the way, are placed on the eleventh position in the world rating, Vitality — 13, and NAVI and mousesports — 3 and 4 correspondingly.
The others
The other European teams do not make a bright impression. Each of them can advance to the playoff and we will not be able to name any outsider as since the online era came, the situation on the professional CS:GO stage changes and we can see not the most obvious outcomes more often.
North America
Favorites
Team Liquid and Gen.G Esports
Liquid showed a quite mediocre result at the previous tournament ESL, however, you should not forget who these guys are and what they are capable of. Twistzz and his teammates’ roster was formed at the end of December 2018 and has never been changed since then. The team is stable due to its roster and we could only wish them to have better results. As a reminder, in April they won ESL Pro League Season 11 America and they took the fourth place at ESL One Road to Rio 2020.
Gen.G Esports started to show a great game almost right after assembling a new roster. However, if at FLASHPOINT Season 1 they managed to make it to the playoff taking the fifth-sixth place, Road to Rio 2020 sounds more positive for BnTeT and the team. There the roster took first place winning six played matches out of seven. They defeated 100 Thieves, Evil Geniuses, and others which is quite praising. We look forward to seeing another sensation by Gen.G Esports. We are going to find out pretty soon whether they will meet our expectations.
Teams with good chances to win
FURIA Esports, Evil Geniuses
It is surprising but we did not include Evil Geniuses in the list of our favorites. In April, the esportsmen took second place at ESL Pro League Season 11 Americas but at Road to Rio 2020, they took 7-8 place out of twelve possible ones. If we say that this is a weak result for the team of such a level, it will be an underestimation. That is why we are not confident about their gaming shape.
FURIA Esports showed themselves well at Road to Rio and took second place at the championship losing against the gamers from Gen.G Esports. In total, the team has great statistics both in the world rating (9th position) and due to the match history. Before losing the battle with Gen.G, the team had a series of six won meetings in a row. It whets our appetite about the Brazilian players’ outcome at the upcoming competition.
The others
MIBR, 100 Thieves, Cloud, and Chaos Esports Club do not command any confidence. Three teams will make it out of each group. We dare to suppose that Chaos Esports Club will be the first to leave the tournament in Group A while Group B will be deprived of Cloud9.