This article is part of our CS:GO Recap series.
On a rare Monday finish for a major tournament, DreamHack Tours wrapped up the day littered with close Counter-Strike action. Once the dust settled, it was G2 Esports that claimed the DreamHack Tours crown as well as the $50,000 top prize.
HellRaisers puts Misfits in its place during semifinals
The first semifinal series of the day was between HellRaisers and Misfits. While Misfits has been enjoying some success of late, all that came crashing down against HellRaisers on Monday. Starting off on Cobblestone, Misfits opened with a 3-0 lead early. HellRaisers responded with five straight round wins before the teams then traded runs to end the half, with Misfits taking an 8-7 lead at the half. The early portions of the second half were all HellRaisers, who took a 15-11 lead that eventually gave way to close 16-14 win for the 1-0 series lead.
While Game 1 went the distance, the second game on Cache wasn't even close. HellRaisers rushed out to a 7-1 lead on the T-side before Misfits put some quality rounds together to go into the half trailing HellRaisers 9-6. HellRaisers then proceeded to go on another 7-1 run that included a ridiculous sneak defuse by Zero where he was standing right next to a Misfits player under the cover of smoke unnoticed to steal away the round. Rounds like that were the difference between the teams in this 16-7 win for HellRaisers.
G2 Esports outlasts mousesports to clinch grand final berth
Next up were G2, the hometown hopefuls, taking on mousesports in what ended up being quite the thriller. Overpass was the first map, and while G2 took an early 3-0 lead, mouz quickly bounced back to take a 5-3 lead. G2 went on a five-win run of its own to go up 8-5 before going into the half with an 8-7 lead. Despite the closeness of the first half, G2 found its second wind and went on an 8-1 run in the second half to take a 16-8 win. Kenny "kennyS" Schrub was on fire with his AWP to the tune of a 22/14 KD that included 12 kills with his vaunted sniper rifle.
Using the momentum from the second half of Game 1, G2 went full on blitzkrieg in the first half of this game, jumping out to an incredible 8-0 lead. While G2 managed to hold onto a 10-5 lead at the half, it started to unravel at the seams in the second half. Mouz took the first four rounds of the half before Nathan "NBK" Schmitt with six kills between Rounds 22 to 24, giving G2 a 14-10 lead. Mouz just wouldn't give up, however, as it rallied behind Christian "loWel" Garcia Antoran's 8/2 KD in the final six rounds to secure a 16-14 win and force a Game 3.
Despite going the distance in Game 2, G2 stabilized in a big way for this final game and made short work of mouz. Starting on the T-side on Cobblestone, G2 opened the map with a 7-1 run that eventually turned into a dominant 11-4 lead at the break. Mouz won a couple early rounds, but the AWP of kennyS continued to far too strong, as a whopping 15 of his 22 kills on the map came with the rifle. With kennyS on fire , G2 locked up the 16-6 win to move on to the grand finals.
G2 sweeps HellRaisers for the championship
The grand finals between HellRaisers and G2 got underway on Cache, and from the outset, it felt like quite the mismatch. The hometown squad rushed out to a 9-1 lead early with, stop me if you've heard this one before, kennyS, once again shutting down the map with his AWP. After G2 went into the half up 12-3, HellRaisers started the second half well with three straight wins to get the comeback train gassed up. Unfortunately, G2 got right back to form and took four straight to lock up the 16-6 win.
For all the good that G2 did in the opening game of this series, that all flew right out the window at the start of Game 2 on Cobblestone. HellRaisers came out the gate incredibly strong with a 7-0 lead as G2 looked dazed and confused early on. G2 won a few rounds at the end of the half, but HellRaisers still owned a nice 10-5 lead at the half. G2 then lost the second pistol round, but quickly kicked it into high gear. In addition to kennyS continuing to shut down the map at every turn, this time with 18 of his 29 kills coming with the AWP, Dan "apEX" Madesclaire showed up big time in this second half to help G2 execute an 11-4 run that secured the game and the DreamHack Tour crown.
Despite faltering a bit at the StarSeries Season 3 finals last month with a 5th-8th finish, G2 seems to have gotten back on the horse and are feeling confident with the new lineup. The French squad will take this momentum back to the ESL Pro League and Esports Championship Series to continue to climb the standing in the respective leagues.
