DreamHack Open Atlanta 2018 Recap
DreamHack Open Atlanta 2018 is over, and it went pretty much like we expected. ZywOo showed why he’s one of the highest touted young players in the scene, Hen1 showed up and played like a star (until the finals), Ghost and compLexity both showed up and played well enough. This wasn’t a terribly important tournament by any definition of the word, but there are certainly some things we learned that are important, and will help in any future gambling endeavors.
Luminosity Gaming
It looks as though Hen1 is solidly Luminosity’s best player. I’m not sure if this was in dispute, but this event made it pretty obvious. He put up 25-14 to clinch the best-of-three over Ghost in the semi-finals and was the best performer in the grand finals going 27-34 over two maps. The other standout was Steel, who had solid stats while in game leading. I imagine LG are coming pretty close to their ceiling at this tournament, and I can’t imagine there are many roster moves they could make to improve.
The more exciting way to frame this discussion is which of these players will end up on MIBR in the next shuffle. The current MIBR roster is not performing all that well, and I can’t imagine it’s up to Fallen or the organization’s standards. Moving back to an all Brazilian lineup would likely help their communication issues and help them iron their system back out. The problem with current MIBR is that they have a lot of role conflicts, and the problem with a roster swap is there isn’t really anyone in the Brazilian scene right now that fits in quite right.
Assuming MIBR removes Stewie and Tarik, they will need someone who enables Coldzera and someone who can play aggressively. I think Steel would be a solid addition to the roster, even though MIBR has a fully capable IGL already. The other spot, unfortunately, is harder to fill. Hen1 is the other standout from LG, but his addition carries two problems. Historically he hasn’t liked to play without Lucas1, which might be a problem. MIBR also has a glut of AWPers already, and really don’t need another. If he were to join it would likely pull a lot of resources from Fallen or Coldzera which I don’t think is the way to go.
Vitality
Luckily for Vitality they won Dreamhack Atlanta in a clean 2-0. I imagine there would have been people calling for a roster change already had they dropped the tournament, even though it was their first LAN as a team and ZywOo’s first premier LAN. Personally, I wouldn’t have been shocked if they failed to bring home the trophy, so I ended up pleasantly surprised.
The biggest takeaway from their games is obviously that ZywOo is a star in the making. He went 81-40 over three maps against compLexity, which isn’t something to sneeze at. His aim was crisp, and most importantly he played solid Counter Strike. He has great fundamentals and plays the game the way it’s meant to be played, which is what you want in a young star player. There will be time for him to learn how to make big plays and abuse his skill later. Right now, you want him to learn how to play the game right, and I have confidence that will happen while surrounded by this group of veterans.
One of the secretly good things about this tournament was how poorly RPK performed. He was the best player on Envy in 2017 and has the potential to be one of the best players on this roster. Assuming he can pick it up and return to form, this roster should be downright terrifying.
compLexity
coL did not have great individual showings at this tournament. Their T side was unusually poor and they didn’t have a single player go positive against Vitality. I imagine this is due to fatigue and lack of practice time, which isn’t likely to get any better seeing as how they’re flying to Sweden next week for DreamHack Open Winter 2018.
I could see a roster change in the future for this team as well. I honestly can’t tell if they’ve hit their ceiling as a team or not, as they’ve been moderately disappointing since the London Major. Unfortunately for them, there aren’t really any marquee free agents available in NA or even the UK. I think what they’re missing right now is a true star player, someone who can take over games for them and pull the through a best-of-three, like the one they played against Vitality. They also need someone willing to play within stanislaw’s system and take the load off him and ShahZaM. If MIBR ends up making a move, maybe they could pick up Tarik or Stewie? (I don’t know if Tarik would want to play with stan after the whole “snakeislaw” thing, but stranger things have happened)
Ghost
I had them as one of my picks to win the event, and they ended up out at 3-4th in a close best-of-three against Luminosity. Subroza was the best performer in their elimination series, going 60-51, and was the only player on the team who went positive. I don’t think there’s much to say about Ghost. I’ll still like them as an upset team in the future, but I don’t know where this team is going. I wouldn’t be surprised if team members start to get picked off for bigger NA teams and orgs, and honestly that would make the most sense. Let Steel compete in the tier-two tournaments and run a farm team, then sell of their best players to teams like compLexity and NRG and teams of that nature.
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