This article is part of our CS:GO series.
With about two weeks left until the highly-anticipated ESL One: New York 2016, the professional Counter Strike: Global Offensive scene has one more big tournament in store to hold us over. Beginning this Friday, eight of the top teams will battle it out for their shot at the $100,000 prize pool at DreamHack Bucharest.
To earn the top spot, the teams will start off in a double-elimination group stage with the top two teams from each group advancing to the single-elimination playoff bracket. The initial group stage matches will be best-of-one game, while the group stage elimination rounds and playoff bracket will be best-of-three.
Let's take a closer look at each of these groups:
Group A
Teams: Virtus.pro, Heroic, Team EnVyUs, Gambit Gaming
Who advances: Virtus.pro and Team EnVyUs
If this tournament had taken place right after the conclusion of ELEAGUE Season 1, it is likely that Virtus.pro would be seen as the runaway favorites for this tournament. Their play since then, however, has been a bit shaky. They're currently sitting in 7th place in the ESL Pro League Season 4 with a 5-7 record. They're fresh off a 0-2 finish at StarLadder i-League StarSeries Season 2. They've essentially done nothing to validate their ELEAGUE Championship. Still, they're up against one team, Heroic, that has been together for all of about two weeks and another team, Gambit Gaming, with very little tournament success to show for themselves. So while they may not come out of the group in first place, they should be able to find themselves in the playoffs.
Team EnVyUs has been flying under the radar a bit of late. They certainly haven't done anything flashy, but they've been quietly getting themselves into a small groove. EnVyUs may be all the way down in 9th place at ESL Pro League Season 4, but that's due to the fact that they've only played eight games, second lowest in both the European (EU) and North American (NA) leagues. In those eight games, they've compiled a strong 5-3 record, which is actually the fourth highest win percentage in the EU. Not only that, but they rode the back of strong play from Kenny "kennyS" Schrub to come away with a 5th-8th place finish at StarLadder i-League StarSeries Season 2. Their run at the tournament was only stopped by the red-hot G2 Esports squad, who managed to not drop a single game leading up to the grand finals. Look for EnVyUs to continue this line of strong play here at DreamHack.
Between Heroic and Gambit Gaming, Heroic is probably the most likely to pull off the upset here in Group A. While they may be new to the scene, they made it out of the group stages of StarLadder i-League StarSeries Season 2 with a 2-0 record before losing in a close 2-1 battle to Team Dignitas in the quarterfinals. While it's not likely, Heroic would be your best bet if you're looking for an upset.
Group B
Teams: Cloud9, Team Dignitas, FaZe Clan, FlipSid3 Tactics
Who advances: Cloud9 and FaZe Clan
You'd be hard pressed to find two teams hotter in the world of CS:GO than Cloud9 and FaZe Clan. Cloud9 has been on an absolute tear of late. After falling to Natus Vincere in the quarterfinals of ELEAGUE Season 1, a fire was seemingly lit under them and they haven't let up since. While they had a small misstep in StarLadder i-League StarSeries Season 2 where they were taken down by Ninjas in Pyjamas in the semifinals, they have still been playing incredibly strong. Over in the NA ESL Pro League Season 4, they are sitting atop the standings with no equal, as they haven't dropped a game yet in 14 outings thus far. One would have thought that the departure of Alec "Slemmy" White would have thrown them into a bit of a tailspin, but the addition of Tim "autimatic" Ta has worked out quite well for the North American squad. Look for them to be almost certain locks to advance to the playoffs.
FaZe Clan, while not as hot as Cloud9, are still pretty warm in their own right as they're currently sitting atop the standings of the EU ESL Pro League Season 4. While they only have an 11-7 record, they've benefitted from a front-loaded schedule to get themselves an early lead on the competition. They did have a bit of a slip-up at StarLadder i-League StarSeries Season 2 where they failed to make it out of the group stages, losing the Group B decider match in a close 2-1 series against group-mates FlipSid3 Tactics. That series happened to be extremely close, coming down to the wire, though, so certainly FaZe will have made some adjustments going into DreamHack. They will likely have to run the gauntlet to get out of their group, but they should still be able to lock up the second seed.
Team Dignitas and FlipSid3 have unfortunately been placed in the toughest group of this bracket, but if there were any teams who could make a cinderella run, it would be these two. At the recent StarLadder i-League StarSeries Season 2, they both advanced from their groups into the playoffs with 2-1 records. Team Dignitas even made it to the semifinals before being swept by G2. Still, I don't see FaZe and Cloud9 not coming out of this group. Any given Sunday, though, right?
