With the dust settled on the ELEAGUE Season 1 finals, CS:GO fans are now looking forward to witnessing another highly contested skirmish, this time for a share of a $100,000 prize pool, in the next DreamHack in Romania.
The tournament will run from 16-18 September and will consist of eight teams. Here are the four which are expected to deliver:
Virtus.Pro
One of the longest standing rosters in the CS:GO pro scene, the Polish veterans have been playing together since January 2014 and are currently ranked second in the world.
Their most impressive success this year was in ELEAGUE Season 1, where they bagged the $400,000 top prize for winning the competition. Virtus.Pro also won the StarLadder i-League Invitational #1 and finished 3rd-4th in the other high-prize tournament, ESL One Cologne, in July.
While not in their best form right now, having a 55% win-rate from 6 wins and 5 losses in August, they still enter the tournament as the favourites.
Cloud 9
The North American team have not had the best of years by their own high standards, failing to win any Premier tournament in 2016 so far. They have played in the majority of Premier events too, with their best ranking being 2nd in ESL Pro League Season 3 – North America. They also managed to secure a 3rd-4th spot in the last DreamHack in Austin last May.
Despite their mixed form, they are on a roll right now, with 18 wins and only 1 loss in August. Their hot prospect Jake “Stewie2k” Yip has been a great addition to the squad after joining Cloud9 in January. He is not the newest member, however, and Tim “autimatic” Ta will be looking to impress his new teammates as he joined the outfit last month and is yet to perform on the big stage.
Team EnVyUs
The “Boys in Blue” are yet another team that you need to keep on your radar.
Consisting of entirely French players, the roster was formed in 2015 with the exception of Timothée “DEVIL” Démolon, who joined their ranks in March this year.
The team were dominant in 2015, winning no fewer than seven Premier events including DreamHack Open London and DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca, but 2016’s performances have been lackluster in comparison. So far they have managed to win just the Global eSports Cup Season 1 and finish 3rd-4th in Malmo during the previous edition of DreamHack. A 5-8th place finish in ELEAGUE Season 1 highlights their recent travails.
EnVyUs also performed poorly in ESL Cologne and finished in the bottom four when expectations were that they would advance from the group stage at least, so they will be looking to redeem themselves in Bucharest.
Team Dignitas
The core of the Scandinavian outfit have been playing together since 2015, but René “cajunb” Borg and Emil “Magiskb0Y” Reif joined the team in May and July respectively. Dignitas managed to win the DreamHack Tours 2016 edition in May with solid performances, but have flattered to deceive since then, finishing 15-16th in ELEAGUE Season 1 and 9-12th at ESL One Cologne.
In Bucharest Dignitas will have the chance to take revenge on Team EnVyUs, who denied them the win at the Global eSports Cup Season 1 back in February. Meanwhile, the performances from fan favourite RUBINO were one of their few bright spots at ESL One Cologne and he is sure to delight the crowd again here.
Although some big teams will be missing in Bucharest, the autumn DreamHack has the potential to be a great opportunity to settle scores between old rivals. Apart from the favourites, Virtus.Pro, there are a couple of teams who have been underperforming throughout the year and will see this as a perfect opportunity to win a Premier event.
DreamHack will also serve as a rehearsal for the teams’ new rosters, and with a $50,000 top prize on offer, there is certainly going to be fierce competition.
