DreamHack Tours preview

Running from Saturday to Monday at the Vinci Congress Center, DreamHack ASTRO Open Tours 2017 will see eight teams, seven European and one North American, duke it out over the next three days for the grand prize of $50,000.

The tournament will start with a double-elimination group stage, featuring best-of-three matches in the Lower Bracket, with the top two sides from both groups advancing to the single-elimination, best-of-three playoffs.

With the invite issued to Tricked in the wake of Gambit's withdrawal, the revised groups look as follows: 

Group A	Group B
Natus Vincere	G2
Heroic	HellRaisers
MOUZ	Envy
Misfits	Tricked

For more information about the DreamHack event, check out our viewer's guide, where you'll find the schedule and the talent lineup.

Ratings used are from the past three months offline
* indicates online rating in the past three months

Group A

Natus Vincere (#6)	Age	Rating
Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev	19	1.12
Ladislav "⁠GuardiaN⁠" Kovács	25	1.09
Egor "⁠flamie⁠" Vasilyev	20	1.00
Ioann "⁠Edward⁠" Sukhariev	29	0.99
Denis "⁠seized⁠" Kostin	22	0.89
Andrey "⁠Andi⁠" Prokhorov (coach)

Offline results in 2017
3rd-4th	SL i-League StarSeries Season 3 Finals
5th-6th	IEM Katowice
5th-8th	DreamHack Masters Las Vegas
5th-8th	ELEAGUE Major

Na`Vi come into this event on the back of a great campaign on home soil that saw them finish third-fourth at the SL i-League StarSeries Season 3 Finals. It was the team's first event with Andi as a coach, and they must have been happy with the results they had there, which include victories over fnatic and North.

More important than the results, however, were GuardiaN's performances. After struggling for form following a wrist injury, the Slovakian AWPer had a 1.23 event rating in Kiev, the third highest among all players in attendance and his personal best since the Counter Pit League Season 2 Finals, in March 2016.

With the players' ingame roles now more defined and GuardiaN seemingly back to his best, Na`Vi are without a doubt one of the favourites to win DreamHack Tours. However, their recent online results, which include heavy defeats against mousesports and LDLC, should give fans some cause for concern. 

Heroic (#15)	Age	Rating
Jakob "⁠JUGi⁠" Hansen	20	1.03
Valdemar "⁠valde⁠" Bjørn Vangså	21	1.02
Nikolaj "⁠niko⁠" Kristensen	18	1.00
Andreas "⁠MODDII⁠" Fridh	27	0.88
Marco "⁠Snappi⁠" Pfeiffer	26	0.86
Henrik "⁠FeTiSh⁠" Christensen (coach)

Offline results in 2017
3rd-4th	DreamHack Austin
3rd-4th	IEM Katowice
3rd-4th	DreamHack Leipzig (4/5 of the current lineup)

Going beyond the semi-finals has proved to be a real struggle for Heroic, who once again had to settle for a place in the top four in Austin. After putting in impressive displays against Gambit and HellRaisers in the group stage, the Danes were taken down by Immortals in an exciting three-map series that could have easily had a different outcome.

JUGi showed in Austin just why he is regarded as one of the most exciting young talents in the Nordic region. valde and niko were very impactful as well, but the two veterans of the team, MODDII and Snappi, just could not keep up with the young trio.

Heroic continue to rely heavily on the firepower provided by their younger players, and if by some reason one of them does not turn up, things quickly turn sour.

Luckily for them, they will be attending the event with FeTiSh, who has been coaching the team for several weeks now. The 30-year-old, who was part of a number of top Danish teams in CS:Source and CS:GO, brings with him a wealth of experience and could help Heroic to break their semi-final jinx. 

MOUZ (#17)	Age	Rating
Tomáš "⁠oskar⁠" Šťastný	25	1.23
Robin "⁠ropz⁠" Kool	17	1.12	*
Christian "⁠loWel⁠" Garcia Antoran	20	1.00
Chris "⁠chrisJ⁠" de Jong	26	0.96	*
Denis "⁠denis⁠" Howell	22	0.71
Sergey "⁠lmbt⁠" Bezhanov (coach)

Offline results in 2017
5th-8th	DreamHack Masters Las Vegas (3/5 of the current lineup)
12th-14th	ELEAGUE Major (3/5 of the current lineup)

mousesports are the biggest question mark heading into the event, which will mark ropz's first offline competition for the team. The Estonian talent, who was discovered through FPL, has acquitted himself really well since joining mousesports, but questions remain as to how he will cope with the pressure of playing in a less controlled environment and in matches where stakes are much higher.

It has been almost three months since mousesports' last offline appearance, which came at DreamHack Masters Las Vegas. After that event, chrisJ was moved back to a starting position, now as a rifler, and ropz was brought in to replace Timo "⁠Spiidi⁠" Richter. 

Many will be curious to see how mousesports will fare in this post-Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač era. The team have been performing really well online, but this will be their toughest test yet. 

denis's offline performances have been particularly worrying. Since the start of the year, he averages a 0.76 rating on LAN, which is clearly not good enough for a team of this calibre. If he is unable to step up, then he could find himself next on mousesports' chopping block.

Misfits	Age	Rating
David "⁠devoduvek⁠" Dobrosavljevic	22	1.15	*
François "⁠AMANEK⁠" Delaunay	23	1.13	*
Hunter "⁠SicK⁠" Mims	18	1.07
Shahzeb "⁠ShahZaM⁠" Khan	23	0.79
Sean "⁠seang@res⁠" Gares	28	0.53
Luis "⁠peacemaker⁠" Tadeu (coach)

Offline results in 2017
13th-16th	DreamHack Masters Las Vegas (3/5 of the current lineup)

It has been quite some time since Misfits last showed up at an offline event. At DreamHack Masters Las Vegas, they went out bottom of their group following defeats against Virtus.pro and fnatic, picking up just 21 rounds total.

Last month, Misfits surprised the community by signing French duo AMANEK and devoduvek, who were poised to join EnVyUs' academy team. This will be the biggest challenge in their careers, even though they had been competing at a high level in France since the start of 2016.

Misfits' online results with the two new players have been encouraging, but it is hard to know what conclusions can be drawn from those matches. Getting out of the groups looks like a Herculean task for the team, so they should take this opportunity to gain experience and build synergy with the two new players.

Group B

G2 (#8)	Age	Rating
Kenny "⁠kennyS⁠" Schrub	21	1.16
Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire	24	1.10
Richard "⁠shox⁠" Papillon	24	1.09
Alexandre "⁠bodyy⁠" Pianaro	20	0.93
Nathan "⁠NBK-⁠" Schmitt	22	0.89
Edouard "⁠SmithZz⁠" Dubourdeaux (coach)

Offline results in 2017
3rd-4th	DreamHack Austin
5th-8th	SL i-League StarSeries Season 3 Finals
9th-11th	ELEAGUE Major (3/5 of the current lineup, as EnVyUs)
1st	WESG World Finals (3/5 of the current lineup, as EnVyUs)

G2 missed a great chance to lift their first trophy with the new team at DreamHack Austin. After a rough start to their campaign, with a shocking defeat against Cloud9, the French team redeemed themselves and beat Liquid before exacting revenge against Timothy "⁠autimatic⁠" Ta's men. In the semi-finals, G2 fell short against Gambit, who are a more well-oiled machine than the French lineup.

shox was not at his normal level in Austin, but even more worrying is the fact that NBK- played some of the worst Counter-Strike we have ever seen from him. The 22-year-old is determined to prove his critics wrong, and much of the team's consistency will depend on him.

The level of play that G2 have shown at times is indicative of the team's potential. There is little doubt that they will be a top five team before the end of the year; they do not seem to be there just yet. Getting out of the groups should be relatively easy, but the same cannot be said about the idea of beating a team like Na`Vi.

HellRaisers (#9)	Age	Rating
Kirill "⁠ANGE1⁠" Karasiow	27	1.07
Patrik "⁠Zero⁠" Žúdel	18	1.02
Bence "⁠DeadFox⁠" Böröcz	22	0.95
Vladyslav "⁠bondik⁠" Nechyporchuk	23	0.93
Martin "⁠STYKO⁠" Styk	21	0.82
Ivan "⁠Johnta⁠" Shevtsov (coach)

Offline results in 2017
5th-6th	DreamHack Austin
3rd-4th	SL i-League StarSeries Season 3 Finals
15th-16th	ELEAGUE Major

HellRaisers recently moved down one position in our ranking as a result of their disappointing run at DreamHack Austin, where they were outplayed by Gambit and Heroic in the group stage.

To put it simply: HellRaisers were a far cry from the team who, weeks earlier, had been so impressive at the StarSeries event, which makes one wonder if the level they showed in Kiev was not just a fluke.

What is even stranger is that HellRaisers keep relying on ANGE1, their ingame leader and oldest player, to lead their fragging department, while DeadFox and STYKO have largely stayed off the radar.

If these two players show their true colours, then HellRaisers should make it out of the groups; if not, then they could very well be heading for another early exit in a tournament.

Envy (#22)	Age	Rating
Adil "⁠ScreaM⁠" Benrlitom	22	1.10
Alexandre "⁠xms⁠" Forté	19	1.00
Vincent "⁠Happy⁠" Schopenhauer	25	0.80
Cédric "⁠RpK⁠" Guipouy	27	0.80
Christophe "⁠SIXER⁠" Xia	26	0.79
Damien "maLeK" Marcel (coach)

Offline results in 2017
7th-8th	cs_summit

EnVyUs have in DreamHack Tours their second event with the new roster, after attending cs_summit last month, where they finished 7th-8th following defeats against SK Gaming and OpTic.

Their recent online results have been mixed at best, with many of their matches ending in 1-1 stalemates. However, Train is looking like a very strong pick for Happy's men, who have won their latest six games on this map.

It is hard to be excited about EnVyUs' prospects. They do not look capable of challenging for the top place in the group, but in the event of a favourable veto, they should be able to at least put up a decent fight for second place.

Tricked (#24)	Age	Rating
Asger "⁠AcilioN⁠" Larsen	20	1.10
Patrick "⁠es3tag⁠" Hansen	21	1.02
Johannes "⁠b0RUP⁠" Borup	17	0.94
Michael "⁠Friis⁠" Jørgensen	28	0.91
Nicolai "⁠HUNDEN⁠" Petersen	25	0.83
Allan "⁠Rejin⁠" Petersen (coach)

Offline results in 2017
3rd-4th	Copenhagen Games
3rd-4th	Danish Championship

Tricked were called in at the last minute following the withdrawal of Gambit due to visa issues. As such, they have not had much time to prepare for what lies ahead, and making it out of the groups would be nothing short of a miracle for HUNDEN's men.

With the recent additions of Friis and AcilioN, Tricked have gained experienced and improved many aspects of their game. Still, the recent third-fourth place finishes in the Danish Championship and at Copenhagen Games show that there is still much to do before they can think about scaling greater heights.

An opening match against G2 will most likely throw Tricked to the Lower Bracket of the group. Getting a win there, against either EnVyUs or HellRaisers, would be a great accomplishment - anything more than that will be a bonus.