Gambit knock Cloud9 down to DreamHack Masters Winter Group A lower bracket

Gambit showed vast superiority on Vertigo before closing the series out in a 30-round Inferno to proceed through the upper bracket, leaving Cloud9 one loss away from elimination.

The day after being crowned DreamHack Open November champions, winning every one of their four matches and giving up just one map along the way, Gambit have now defeated Cloud9 2-0 in their DreamHack Masters Winter Group A opening match to secure a spot in the next round of upper bracket play.

Cloud9, who come from falling just short of making it to the BLAST Premier Fall Finals after losing the decisive match of the Fall Showdown's single elimination bracket to mousesports, quickly fell behind in the series against Gambit, unable to keep up with the CIS side on Vertigo where they tallied just six rounds in total.

Moving on to their own map, Inferno, the squad led by Alex "⁠ALEX⁠" McMeekin were once again playing catch-up with their CIS rivals, going down 6-9 on the attacking side, and although they were able to take the map all the way to 30 rounds on the CT side, they faltered in the map's dying embers, losing it 14-16 to get sent down to the lower bracket.

Gambit set a fast pace in the first pistol round of Vertigo, planting on the A site and winning the 5vs5 afterplant. Four opening kills by Vladislav "⁠nafany⁠" Gorshkov in the first gun round kept the CIS squad charging ahead as they got a 7-0 lead uncontested before doubles by Ricky "⁠floppy⁠" Kemery and ALEX got Cloud9 on the board. Gambit immediately bounced back and continued to abuse the A site, allowing the CTs just two more rounds before closing out the half with a 13-2 lead.

Four kills by Patrick "⁠es3tag⁠" Hansen in the second pistol round kept Cloud9 alive on the attacking side of Vertigo, but Gambit were quick to restabilize on the defense, once again showing the same dominance as they did in the first half by winning out after the first gun round, making it 16-6.

Gambit were once again first out of the gate on Inferno, but this time around Cloud9 struck back in the forcebuy. The European squad then took the lead, 2-1, but lost to a full eco and went down 2-5 before they were able to win an eco of their own on a B play. Gambit didn’t slow down and bounced right back, though, going up 9-3 before giving up the last handful of rounds in what ended up being a 6-9 half.

nafany and company defended a 3vs4 plant on A to hit double digits right off the bat, further extending their lead to 12-6 before two opening kills on banana by floppy and a triple by es3tag got Cloud9 back on the board. The two teams then traded rounds, but it was ALEX’s men who started to hit a groove on the defense, bringing the match back to a 14-14 tie. They were ultimately unable to bring it around, however, faltering 14-16 as Gambit punched their ticket to the next round of upper bracket play.