DreamHack's 2017 event circuit will come to a close with the famed Winter event, taking place at the Elmia Convention Center, in Jönköping. Eight teams, six invited and two qualified, will be pitting their wits against each other as they look to secure the grand prize of $50,000.

DreamHack Winter is about to start

You can see the group draw below:

Group A	Group B
Gambit	MOUZ
Natus Vincere	Envy
Heroic	BIG
Rise Nation	North Academy

The list of participants features five teams in our top 20, including No.9 side Gambit, the winner of last year's edition. Rounding off the list are BIG, who sit just outside the top 20, and the two qualified teams: North Academy and Rise Nation. 

Group A

Gambit (#9) (EGB.com Rate: 4.247)	Age	Rating
Abay "⁠HObbit⁠" Khassenov	23	1.13
Rustem "⁠mou⁠" Telepov	26	1.05
Dauren "⁠AdreN⁠" Kystaubayev	27	1.02
Bektiyar "⁠fitch⁠" Bahytov	25	1.02
Mihail "⁠Dosia⁠" Stolyarov	29	1.00
Andrey "⁠Andi⁠" Prokhorov (coach)

Offline placings in the last three months
5th-6th	IEM Oakland
7th-8th	EPICENTER
2nd	ROG Masters EMEA Finals
5th-6th	ESG Tour Mykonos
3rd-4th	DreamHack Masters Malmö

Gambit are the highest ranked team in attendance at DreamHack Winter, but it has been quite some time since we last saw them as a genuine title contender. In fact, since wowing the community at PGL Major Krakow, the Kazakhstani team have only once reached the grand final of an offline event, and it was at the rather dull ROG Masters EMEA Finals.

AdreN's men travel to Jönköping on the back of a 5th-6th place finish at IEM Oakland - certainly an improvement over the group stage exit from EPICENTER. At the North American event, Gambit managed to progress from the groups thanks to the new points system as they finished on eight points despite winning just two matches, this way avoiding a potentially crushing four-way tie with Renegades, G2 and Liquid.

Gambit won last year's DreamHack Winter - can they repeat that run?

Gambit's Oakland run showed once again that HObbit remains the driving force behind the team as he averaged an impressive 1.26 Rating, while AdreN continues to struggle in the fragging department - which has been the norm since taking over as ingame leader. But perhaps the most worrying sign came from fitch, who had his second consecutive below-average tournament rating. The 25-year-old needs to start contributing more to the team; otherwise, they will simply lack the firepower to keep their spot in the top 10.

DreamHack Open events are usually a safe haven for Gambit, who won last year's Winter event and this year's Austin stop. They have had some ups and downs in recent months, but could still end the year on a high: after Jönköping, they will travel to Kuala Lumpur to compete at ROG Masters - an event they are widely expected to win following MOUZ' withdrawal.

Natus Vincere (#16) (EGB.com Rate: 2.649)	Age	Rating
Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev	20	1.31
Denis "⁠electroNic⁠" Sharipov	19	1.08
Egor "⁠flamie⁠" Vasilyev	20	1.07
Ioann "⁠Edward⁠" Sukhariev	29	1.02
Danylo "⁠Zeus⁠" Teslenko	30	0.96
Mikhaylo "⁠Kane⁠" Blagin (coach)

Offline placings in the last three months
5th-6th	ESL One New York (4/5 of the current lineup)
9th-12th	ELEAGUE Premier (4/5 of the current lineup)
5th-8th	DreamHack Masters Malmö (4/5 of the current lineup)

Na`Vi are set to make their first offline appearance since the addition of electroNic, who replaced compatriot Denis "⁠seized⁠" Kostin on the roster as the team sought to add even more firepower to a roster that at times had looked too dependent on s1mple's fragging output.

The 19-year-old has so far only played a handful of matches for his team, and results have been far from impressive. The 2-0 defeat against Heroic in the WCA qualifier could spell trouble for the Ukrainians in their opening match in Jönköping, but it is worth remembering that almost three weeks have passed since that series, so Zeus has had plenty of time to cut out the mistakes the team made against the Danes.

electronic happy to make his Na`Vi debut

Last weekend, Natus Vincere's players were busy competing at the WESG EU & CIS Finals, which may have hampered their preparation for this event - something that did not affect any of the other teams in their group. Still, it can be argued that the Barcelona tournament had a positive impact on Na`Vi's Ukrainian trio, who won the $92,500 competition alongside Vladyslav "⁠bondik⁠" Nechyporchuk and Yegor "⁠markeloff⁠" Markelov, even if flamie and electroNic were not as successful with the Russia mix.

Natus Vincere are the team that the community is most excited to see in action at DreamHack Winter; their playbook may still be a bit rough around the edges, but their fragging prowess alone should give them an edge over Heroic and Rise Nation.

Heroic (#17) (EGB.com Rate: 14.682)	Age	Rating
Jakob "⁠JUGi⁠" Hansen	20	1.10
Andreas "⁠MODDII⁠" Fridh	28	1.02
Nikolaj "⁠niko⁠" Kristensen	19	1.01
Marco "⁠Snappi⁠" Pfeiffer	27	1.00
Patrick "⁠es3tag⁠" Hansen	22	0.98
Luis "⁠peacemaker⁠" Tadeu (coach)

Offline placings in the last three months
4th	SL i-League Invitational Shanghai
5th-8th	ELEAGUE Premier
7th-8th	ESG Tour Mykonos

There are no two ways to go about it: Heroic have been struggling to make it work without Valdemar "⁠valde⁠" Bjørn Vangså. Yes, they still get good results from time to time, but the average level of Snappi's team has been pretty low.

One of Heroic's highlights was their win over SK at the ELEAGUE Premier group stage, but just days later, we saw the Danes lose to HAVU in the SL i-League Invitational Shanghai qualifier. Bombing out of the Closed Qualifier for the Minor, failing the Danish WESG qualifier to Fragsters, losing two series (0-4 in maps) to HellRaisers on LAN… the list of underwhelming results goes on.

Heroic haven't been impressive in the second part of the year

The team composition, which used to feature three young, carry type players, and two veterans, has been changed with the addition of es3tag. The youngster seems to be playing a more supportive role, which demands more output from MODDII and Snappi. That can happen from time to time, and when it happens is usually when we see Heroic do well, but it's not something you can rely on match-in, match-out, and especially not against the world's best.

Another issue with the team is that niko, who was touted to became the next Danish star, hasn't been playing up to that level. The 19-year-old was the driving force of the team during the early post-valde phase, but now it is only JUGi who is the consistent performer for Heroic. Unlike niko, who has been falling off, the AWPer seems to have matured and isn't as inconsistent as he was before.

With this being their last LAN event of the year, Heroic will be eager to achieve something noteworthy, but passing Gambit or Natus Vincere to get out of the group—even with the help of the newly added peacemaker—won't be easy.

Rise Nation (#39) (EGB.com Rate: 34.221)	Age	Rating
Kaleb "⁠moose⁠" Jayne	19	0.98
Jonathan "⁠Jonji⁠" Carey	18	0.88
Brandon "⁠Ace⁠" Winn	22	0.86
Will "⁠dazzLe⁠" Loafman	22	0.84
Andy "⁠vSa⁠" Xu	23	0.78
Jared "osorandom" Hartman (coach)

Offline placings in the last three months
7th-8th	Americas Minor - ELEAGUE Major
3rd-4th	ESEA S25 MDL Global Challenge

Rise Nation are the clear underdog heading into DreamHack Winter and the least experienced side of the pack, so their attendance may seem odd to many, but this is a team that has been growing gradually over the last months and that is finally reaping the rewards for their hard work.

After a semi-final run at the ESEA Season 25 Global Challenge, where they were humbled by FlipSid3 and Space Soldiers, the Canadian team cut a frustrating figure at the Americas Minor, going out in the groups following defeats to Luminosity and Misfits, which shows they may not be ready for top-flight Counter-Strike just yet.

Rise Nation travel to Sweden looking to gain experience Credit: Beth Saravo / ESL

All this takes pressure off of the Canadian team, who will gain an invaluable amount of experience just by competing against renowned teams with a different playing style. It is quite possible that Rise Nation will exit the tournament after just two matches, but that will matter little; they will be looking to make the most of their time in Sweden to prepare for the decisive ESEA Premier final against SoaR - which could be their ticket to the upper echelon of North American CS.

Group B

MOUZ (#11) (EGB.com Rate: 4.942)	Age	Rating
Tomáš "⁠oskar⁠" Šťastný	26	1.23
Robin "⁠ropz⁠" Kool	17	1.16
Miikka "⁠suNny⁠" Kemppi	23	1.14
Chris "⁠chrisJ⁠" de Jong	27	1.01
Martin "⁠STYKO⁠" Styk	21	1.00
Sergey "⁠lmbt⁠" Bezhanov (coach)

Offline placings in the last three months
3rd-4th	DreamHack Open Denver
1st	ROG Masters EMEA Finals
13th-16th	ELEAGUE Premier
1st	ESG Tour Mykonos
13th-16th	DreamHack Masters Malmö

The highest-ranked team in group B, MOUZ have been lurking on the edge of the top10 for quite some time now. The European mixture started the second half of the year with a win at ESG Tour Mykonos but sandwiched that result between group stage exits at their first event, DreamHack Masters Malmő and ELEAGUE Premier—with the latter being a quite disappointing result if their opposition is taken into account.

Since the event in Atlanta in October, MOUZ only attended the lower tier ROG Masters EMEA Finals, which they won, and placed 3rd-4th at DreamHack Open Denver, losing to the eventual winners Cloud9 in a tight semi-final. Their LAN inactivity gave them a boost in the online leagues, though, and chrisJ's squad finished third in ECS and avoided going into the ever-dangerous EPL relegation battle.

A good result at DreamHack and the upcoming ECS Finals could propel mousesports in the ranking

MOUZ are fairly dependant on the output of their star trio, made up of oskar,ropz and suNny, with the Czech AWPer being the tip of the offensive triangle—proficient in opening up rounds as well as clutching them. What happens when they are off could be seen at ELEAGUE, chrisJ and STYKO: played one of their best events there, but it wasn't enough for the team to move on to the playoffs.

oskar and co. are the favorites to make it out of the group, but both BIG and Envy are tricky opposition and can't be taken lightly. Opening the tournament against North Academy, against whom a win should be all but guaranteed, should give MOUZ enough leeway to ensure they make the playoffs at a minimum. That is where things can get tricky, with Gambit and Natus Vincere looming, but the European mixture needs to be able to take those teams down if they want to break into the top 10 before the end of the year.

Envy (#13) (EGB.com Rate: 10.078)	Age	Rating
Cédric "⁠RpK⁠" Guipouy	28	1.11
Adil "⁠ScreaM⁠" Benrlitom	23	1.10
Vincent "⁠Happy⁠" Schopenhauer	26	1.05
Alexandre "⁠xms⁠" Forté	20	0.97
Christophe "⁠SIXER⁠" Xia	26	0.88
Damien "⁠maLeK⁠" Marcel (coach)

Offline placings in the last three months
5th-8th	WESG EU & CIS Regional Finals (4/5 of the current lineup)
9th-10th	IEM Oakland
2nd	Europe Minor - ELEAGUE Major
7th-8th	ESL One New York
5th-8th	ELEAGUE Premier
7th-8th	ESG Tour Mykonos
13th-16th	DreamHack Masters Malmö

After playing out the WESG EU & CIS Regional Finals without ScreaM, where they lost to Space Soldiers (making the current map score 8-2 in favor of the Turks), Envy are back to their full roster for DreamHack Winter. Thankfully for them, North Academy took out Engin "⁠MAJ3R⁠" Küpeli and co. in the grand final of the closed qualifier, making the group that much easier for the French side.

happy and maLeK have been struggling to find a solution for EnVyUs' issues

Overall, Envy have had a very active but unimpressive second half of the year. After a series of bottom-place tournament finishes, Happy's team managed to make the playoffs of ELEAGUE Premier and place second at the European Minor, but were back to their old ways in Oakland, finishing 9-10th. The team seems to have some deep issues that mostly surface on their CT side, while the Terrorist side is where they do the most of work. Spearheading the offensive side continues to be RpK, with ScreaM and Happy often joining in on the action.

The group in Jönköping looks solid for Envy, with the BIG matchup likely to determine the second playoff team of this group. To do well in the playoffs, however, Envy will need to show u ap much improved side, or have RpK go into hyper-carry mode and shut down the opposition for a full series.

BIG (#21) (EGB.com Rate: 17.143)	Age	Rating
Johannes "⁠tabseN⁠" Wodarz	22	1.18
Johannes "⁠nex⁠" Maget	25	1.14
Kevin "⁠keev⁠" Bartholomäus	26	1.03
Fatih "⁠gob b⁠" Dayik	30	0.89
Nikola "⁠LEGIJA⁠" Ninić	27	0.88
Alexander "⁠kakafu⁠" Szymanczyk (coach)

Offline placings in the last three months
9th-12th	WESG EU & CIS Regional Finals
2nd	ESWC
2nd	DreamHack Open Denver
5th-6th	ESG Tour Mykonos

The hopes of Germany, BIG have not been able to build on their PGL Krakow Major success, bombing out of ESL Pro League and not showing much on recent LANs either. With a bunch of mixes and lower ranked teams in attendance, the WESG EU & Regional Finals were a good opportunity for gob b's side to bounce back, but that didn't really happen. BIG were defeated by Wololos and Space Soldiers in the group stage before going out to the eventual winners Ukraine early in the playoffs.

WESG wasn't the event BIG were hoping for

Similarly to Envy, BIG are mostly struggling with their CT side, which is often the case with teams that lack individual firepower. For BIG, the two weak links are gob b and LEGIJA, but the team seem make up for it with well-drilled Terrorist sides.

The duo keeping them in the games is made up of tabseN and nex, with keev standing just behind. Even though BIG's style doesn't allow him to go for too many risky agressive peeks, his AWPing will be tested at this event, with duels against oskar and Daniel "⁠mertz⁠" Mertz set to have a big impact on how the games play out.

North Academy (#38) (EGB.com Rate: 24.457)	Age	Rating
Daniel "⁠mertz⁠" Mertz	19	1.24
Nicklas "⁠gade⁠" Gade	23	1.11
Frederik "⁠acoR⁠" Gyldstrand	20	1.11
Johannes "⁠b0RUP⁠" Borup	18	1.00
Dennis "⁠sycrone⁠" Nielsen	21	0.92
Alexander "⁠ave⁠" Holdt (coach)

Offline placings in the last three months
17th-20th	WESG EU & CIS Regional Finals
3rd-4th	NGC Masters
3rd-4th	Cross Border Esport (3/5 of the current lineup)

North Academy were humbled at the WESG EU & CIS Regional Finals, with four losses from four matches showing that the team's online and Danish LAN showings can't be replicated at an international offline event easily.

It is uncertain how the team's recent decision to change veteran duo Nicolai "⁠glace⁠" Jensen and Frederik "⁠LOMME⁠" Nielsen with two younger players will play out in the long run, but it certainly didn't work out at their first big event. The team's star AWPer mertz did his best to keep the team afloat in some games, but the inexperience was surely felt in the game against Endpoint, in which the team's new in-game leader, sycrone, wasn't able to adapt to the puggy gameplay the UK side had brought to the table.

North Academy will try to use their experience from Barcelona to have a better showing DreamHack

Even with the limited amount of time since the Barcelona event, North Academy should have been able to improve some things for DreamHack Winter, but it's questionable how much that will help them in the Swedish competition, which is much more stacked than the one they found at the WESG event. Handling MOUZ seems unlikely, considering the European mixture's firepower, but the Danes could pick up a win against the loser of BIG - Envy if they get a much-needed great start to the game.