North take down CR4ZY to win DreamHack Open Sevilla

North won the final DreamHack Open tournament of the year after defeating CR4ZY in a three-map series in Sevilla.

The Danish team end 2019 with a much-needed tournament victory that will, at least for a little while, ease the pressure after yet another disappointing year. North dominated the first map, Mirage, with such poise that it would have been hard to imagine the series getting away from them. But this is North we are talking about, and nothing can be taken for granted when it comes to this team.

Nicklas "⁠gade⁠" Gade's side alarmingly dropped the pace on Vertigo, where they spent the entire game playing catch-up before ultimately letting the map slip in anti-eco round. But in true North fashion, they showed that they can go from heaven to hell and back as they put up a strong performance on Dust2 to claim the title, repeating the success from last year's DreamHack Valencia tournament, which also had also come at a turbulent time for the side.

North came out with a fierce determination and thirsty for CR4ZY's blood, easing to a 10-0 lead on the CT side as Luka "⁠emi⁠" Vuković's troops looked lost on the map - their own pick - and were often caught from behind. Rokas "⁠EspiranTo⁠" Milasauskas then single-handedly unlocked the stubborn North defense with three frags, finally putting CR4ZY on the board, but that would not alter the course of the game as the Danes remained in control and won the remaining rounds.

EspiranTo did his best to keep CR4ZY in the game with a massive quad kill in the pistol round, but their resistance would soon be broken. North responded in the fourth round with just Desert Eagles and wrapped things up in the next round to put an end to this one-sided map.

After cutting a frustrating figure on Vertigo against GODSENT, CR4ZY looked to be in trouble as they headed into North's pick, but they came out the livelier of the two sides and took the lead with a quad kill from Georgi "⁠SHiPZ⁠" Grigorov in the pistol round. North responded with guns in hand and equalised the score at 4-4, but from there the rounds that they won were few and far between, resulting in a 9-6 advantage for emi's side.

After switching to the CT side, CR4ZY kept their composure and hit map point at 15-10 after gathering themselves just when the game was starting to get out of hand. North still attempted to push for overtime and put together a string of rounds after increasing the tempo on the A site, but they ended up collapsing in an anti-eco round.

North were unwilling to let that setback get to them and came out strongly on Dust2, where they took a 7-2 lead on the CT side. Things then went sour for the Danish team as CR4ZY enjoyed a spell of dominance after winning an eco round, but the final rounds of the half would be controlled by North, who took 10 rounds into the second half.

The Danes came out of the break determined to end the series as quickly as possible and further added to their lead after winning the pistol round and the next two. CR4ZY still attempted a response but their comeback attempt was cut short, with North wrapping things up in 24th round after Markus "⁠Kjaerbye⁠" Kjærbye had put the team on championship point with a spectacular quad-kill.

DreamHack Sevilla 2019 final standings:

1. North - $50,000
2. CR4ZY - $20,000
3-4. GODSENT - $10,000
3-4. MAD Lions - $10,000
5-6. Movistar Riders - $3,000
5-6. Illuminar - $3,000
7-8. BIG - $2,000
7-8. Gambit Youngsters - $2,000