The long-awaited conclusion of the August player break for CS:GO professional players has finally come, as another Counter-Strike event looms just around the corner.
DreamHack Masters Malmö begins on Aug. 30 and will run until Sep. 3. The $250,000 event in Malmö, Sweden is set to feature 16 of the world’s best teams—and many of them will be debuting new lineups.
Related: Cloud9 to replace OpTic Gaming at DreamHack Masters Malmö
North vs. Cloud9 is the most anticipated highlighted group A matchup, since both organizations swapped out big pieces of their rosters, North parted ways with Emil “Magisk” Reif, while Cloud9 are without Jordan “n0thing” Gilbert, and Michael “shroud” Grzesiek. The other group A match will feature SK Gaming vs. BOOT-dreamScape in the first game of the day.
Astralis will take on an underdog in Group B: Renegades, who also qualified for the ELEAGUE Premier through the North American qualifier this past Sunday. Natus Vincere vs. Virtus Pro is the most anticipated matchup of the group, and if both teams win their openers the storied rivalry will see another chapter.
Later in the day, the recent PGL Major champion, Gambit Esports, will face off against a newly mixed Mousesports. Mouse has yet to test newcomers Miikka “suNny” Kemppi and Martin “STYKO” Styk in an offline setting. FaZe Clan vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas will then round up the group C matches.
Immortals vs. Fnatic will kick off group D play before a classic French match goes down between G2 Esports and Team EnVyUs. After the G2 vs. EnVyUs match, the winners of each starting match within each group will compete for the first four playoff spots to finish the day.
Day two at DreamHack Masters Malmö on Aug. 31 will consist of four best-of-three losers’ matches to decide who will stay to fight another day and who will go home.
