This article is part of our CS:GO series.
DreamHack made their annual stop in Jonkoping, Sweden this past weekend with another edition of DreamHack Summer complete with a $100,000 prize pool. Once it was all said and done, Imperial walked away with the title over OpTic Gaming.
OpTic top the Danish derby; Imperial breaks out the broom
The Danish derby kicked off the semifinal action across the highly contested three-map series, which saw North lose their opening pick of Inferno to the Green Wall who dominated the second half to secure the 16-11 win and the series lead. North then got their revenge by taking OpTic's map pick, Mirage, in a back and forth battle in the second half that resulted in a 16-13 win for Philip "aizy" Aistrup and his men. The series then went to the decider, Train, where the two sides each saw lopsided halves that resulted in overtime. The back and forth battle continued across two overtime halves that eventually saw OpTic Gaming seal passage to the grand final.
Imperial kicked off their series against Gambit on Cache and took a convincing first half on the CT-side for a 13-2 lead going into the second. Gambit then rallied back with a stout defense of their own to win 10 rounds, but Imperial remained composed and won their three of the half to take the series lead. The series then landed on Mirage were the two sides juggled for the lead before Imperial finally earned their 8-7 lead at halftime. From there, it was all Imperial in the second half to win eight out of 10 rounds to claim their spot in the grand finals.
Imperial smash the Green Wall in the sweep
The grand finals kicked off on OpTic's Overpass pick that saw Imperial secure the pistol and the anti-ecos to make it a quick 2-0 start. OpTic managed to win in the eco to reduce the deficit by one, but Imperial remained in the driver's seat to take the 9-6 lead at halftime. OpTic looked to come back in the second half, but only one round win was not enough to rattle a comeback as Imperial rode off with the second half securing the 16-7 win.
Imperial then found themselves on their map pick, Mirage, where OpTic came out swinging on the T-side to secure the pistol. Imperial then went on a rampage to secure five in a row, before OpTic finally broke the streak to win their second of the half. However, the Green Wall was able to pick up a few more rounds before completely resetting Imperial's economy keep the score tight. In the end, Imperial managed to seal the half with an 8-7 scoreline as OpTic claimed the final round of the half.
The second half then saw OpTic came out of the gates red-hot to win five in a row to take a three round lead (12-8). Unfortunately for the Green Wall, Imperial's aggressive T-side was too tough to tame as they came rallying back over the defense to win eight rounds without skipping a beat, and securing the 2-0 series sweep to be crowned DreamHack Open Summer Champions.
