Eight professional CS:GO teams will battle on DreamHack’s first event of the season in Leipzig, Germany.
Historically, DreamHack Open tournaments aren’t a big deal, since they usually feature smaller teams or organizations. But this time, three big Danish teams will play against one another in Group B, while Cloud9, Virtus Pro, and Renegades try to succeed in Group A. The winner will take $50,000 home plus a spot at DreamHack Masters Jönköping in June.
Here’s everything you need to know about DreamHack Open Leipzig.
Stream
DreamHack Open Leipzig will be fully broadcast on DreamHack’s Twitch channel. There won’t be any matches played at the same time, so it’ll be easier to watch your favorite team while keeping up with other contenders.
Format
A total of 13 series will be played over three days in Leipzig. Eight teams will fight for their share of the $100,000 prize pool.
The teams will be split into two double-elimination GSL groups. The top two teams from each group will advance to the semifinals. Apart from the best-of-one opening round and winners’ match, all other matches will be played as best-of-three series.
The winner of DreamHack Open Leipzig will win $50,000 and secure a spot at DreamHack Masters Jönköping. The runners-up win $20,000.
Teams
Group A
- Cloud9:
- Aran “Sonic” Groesbeek
- Ricky “floppy” Kemery
- Josh “oSee” Ohm
- Ian “motm” Hardy
- Johnny “JT” Theodosiou
- Virtus Pro:
- Ali “Jame” Djami
- Dauren “AdreN” Kystaubayev
- Alexey “qikert” Golubev
- Timur “buster” Tulepov
- Sanjar “SANJI” Kuliev
- Renegades:
- Chris “dexter” Nong
- Jordan “Hatz” Bajic
- Joshua “INS” Potter
- Simon “Sico” Williams
- Liam “malta” Schembri
- BIG:
- Johannes “tabseN” Wodarz
- İsmailcan “XANTARES” Dörtkardeş
- Florian “syrsoN” Rische
- Nils “k1to” Gruhne
- Tizian Feldbusch
Group B
- Heroic:
- Marco “Snappi” Pfeiffer
- Casper “cadiaN” Møller
- Martin “stavn” Lund
- Johannes “b0RUP” Borup
- Patrick “es3tag” Hansen
- North:
- Mathias “MSL” Lauridsen
- Markus Kjaerbye
- René “cajunb” Borg
- Philip “aizy” Aistrup
- Nicklas Gade
- MAD Lions:
- Nicolai “HUNDEN” Petersen
- Lucas “Bubzkji” Andersen
- Fredrik “roeJ” Jørgensen
- Frederik “acoR” Gyldstrand
- Rasmus “Sjuush” Beck
- Sprout:
- Tomáš “oskar” Šťastný
- Paweł Dycha
- Josef “faveN” Baumann
- Denis Howell
- Timo “Spiidi” Richter
Schedule
Friday, Jan. 24
- 4am CT: Virtus Pro vs. BIG
- 5:30am CT: North vs. Sprout
- 7am CT: Cloud9 vs. Renegades
- 8:30am CT: Heroic vs. MAD Lions
- 10am CT: Group A winners’ match
- 11:30am CT: Group B winners’ match
Saturday, Jan. 25
- 4am CT: Group A elimination match
- 7am CT: Group B elimination match
- 10am CT: Group A decider match
- 1pm CT: Group B decider match
Sunday, Jan. 26
- 4am CT: First semifinal
- 7am CT: Second semifinal
- 10am CT: Grand finals
Key storylines
North historically have been the second-best Danish team after Astralis. But in 2019, Kjaerbye and crew failed to impress and will now start 2020 behind Heroic and MAD Lions respectively in HLTV’s world rankings. This will be a good opportunity for North to regain some respect in the Scandinavian region.
After a disastrous 2019, Cloud9 signed a stable CS:GO roster for 2020. The ex-ATK aren’t anywhere near as skilled as other C9 rosters, but the core has been playing together since September 2019. They left a good first impression by beating Complexity and MIBR to qualify for IEM Katowice.
German CS hasn’t shown great results recently, but there’s room for BIG and Sprout qualify and play against each other in the playoffs. It would be an interesting derby to watch and see who the German crowd will support the most.
