D r e a m H a c k   W i n t e r  2 0 1 3

Jönköping, Sweden - 28, 29 and 30 november 2013

On the 14th of August 2013, nearly a year after the official release of CS:GO, the developers of the game were about to revolutionize their aging franchise. How? Well, by simply following the trend. Nowadays, what would a multiplayer game be without its own customized skins? While many considered Counter-Strike’s apogee long gone, the FPS was on the contrary about to live its most wonderful period. A month later, they announced it. $250.000 directly coming from the sale of keys and eSports cases were going to reward the best teams in the world at the incoming DreamHack Winter.

Valve and DreamHack raised a huge amount of money, breaking a 10-year-old record held by the CPL Summer 2003 event so far, which had a $200.000 cash prize for a single Counter-Strike tournament. Back then, Counter-Strike was in full swing as its latest game Global Offensive was peacefully expanding, carried by the “NiP Magic”. To put things into perspective, we were about to pop the champagne cork to celebrate the game reaching a million monthly unique players. Today, we’re getting close to ten millions.

Same goes for the average prizepools of other international lans. Whereas in 2013, a competition was really proud to announce a $25,000 cash prize, it is now almost impossible to imagine the best teams travel to tournaments offering less than $50.000. If the Majors’ prizepool haven’t changed for two years, it’s still easy to understand how important was the first one to offer $250.000, an unbelievable and almost unexpected meeting in the players’ calendar.

40m² of pure skill - a pretty narrow space, but not for long...

The decision made by Valve to host the first CS:GO Major at DreamHack Winter 2013 is clearly symbolic. This festival is nothing other than the biggest gathering of players in the world. And taking place in Sweden, the reference country of Counter-Strike and a true eSport ground. If historically the DreamHack has become a major eSports actor pretty late, it immediately trusted the last Valve FPS upon its release. DreamHack Valencia 2012 will be remembered as the very first international tournament of the Global Offensive era by offering more than $40.000 and remained the CS:GO competition with the highest prizepool until its 2013’s edition.

A nice and fair reward from Valve to the DreamHack organizers. The community quickly understood how much impact the help from the developers had on the tournament itself. This is how a first controversy occurred: the addition of the new Mirage version in the official map pool, which was made of five maps only. Back then, the new Mirage was far from achieving unanimity among professional players. To balance the change, Valve also announced the possibility to link a twitch.tv account to a steam account in order to loot DreamHack’s “Souvenir Packages”. An addition that hit the nail on the head.

No Pick’Em Challenge nor team’s stickers yet, the Seattle firm was only on the verge of realizing CS:GO could become the goose that lays the golden egg, soon to generate incredible amounts of money.

Back in autumn 2013, two teams stand out from the crowd and the announcement of this first Major appears to be a real bonanza for their respective bank accounts. On the one hand, the Swedish superstar team Ninjas in Pyjamas, which remains very stable. Even though the hype surrounding the legendary team took some lead in the wing after the end of their famous winning streak in April, the men of Christopher 'GeT_RiGhT' Alesund remain the leading figures of the game. On the other hand, team VeryGames who naturally became the second best team in the world after a roster change, with shox replacing kennyS. A crown NiP wasn’t ready to give up on.

The swedes didn't win anything since Dreamhack Bucharest, back in September, where they dominated their fellow countrymen from Lemondogs (soon to become SK Gaming) during the final.They’d been through an unusually lackluster period, that has been followed by thousands of spectators on TV since they had their very own show on the swedish television. Facing the swedish stars, their long time rivals Ex6TenZ and VeryGames were working wonders lately, winning both EMS RaidCALL One and Starladder, as well as placing 2nd at ESWC and winning MSI Beat IT just a few hours before the great Jönköping event.

Never before had a NiP vs. VeryGames confrontation been surrounded with so much hype. The odds were that it would happen during the grand final, but the scenario turned out to be quite different due to a great performance from compLexity. Led by sgares and n0thing, the americans surprised the french team during the group stage and upset the tournament playoff bracket, since the two best teams in the world were now set to face each other in the semi-finals instead of the grand final !

	The game to remember
	compLexity vs.  VeryGames
	In every sports, including eSports, after a game, people always wonder “and what if…”. This group stage game between VG and coL is the perfect example. What if VeryGames won this game? Does that mean we would have had a dream final? The game went absolutely crazy and worthy of its importance and its future impact on the rest of the competition. The two last rounds were absolutely amazing, especially the conclusion which still stays in everybody’s mind as one of the most glorious moment of the North-American scene on CS:GO. This confrontation is a pure treat for all lovers of beautiful plays. Post-match Sgares’ interview.
			English VOD (Twitch)

If NiP conceded a map against the very promising LGB eSports team, where KRiMZ and olofmeister are playing, the most worrying match came from VG who nearly lost during their quarter-final against their old CSS rivals, the Danes from Copenhagen Wolves. The outcome of this amazing match came down to the very last rounds of the third map, making the French-Belgian team ecstatic.

Except for a few NiP games, the crowd hasn’t really been on fire despite the big screen and a few dozens of chairs nearby the players area. Around 3pm, as the night began to fall over the magnificent lake surrounding the city halls, hundreds of people gathered to watch this game that was expected to be the grand final. No one is fooled, the team that goes through to the final will have serious chances of winning this historical trophy, along with the terrific $100.000 cashprize.

It’s thus for the first time that this derby begins in such an ecstatic atmosphere. Far from feeling pressured, the Franco-Belgians deal out a perfect early game, before collapsing in the final rounds, conceding Dust 2, 13-16. Broken down ? It would take more for NBK and his mates, who will proceed to run through their next game on Inferno. Everything will flip on the final map — Nuke —, leaving a bitter taste in French supporters’ mouths. Ninjas in Pyjamas will be left to win this semi-final, taking their revenge at the sweetest time against a team they hadn’t bested for three matches.

The deception is real for VeryGames, whose legendary tag was making there its next-to-last appearance at an international tournament. This result is still currently the best Major performance for the two Belgians of the squad : Ex6TenZ and ScreaM. At the end of 2013, who could have forecast this would remain their peak?

While Ninjas in Pyjamas logically end up in final, VeryGames’s defeat gave its competitors free rein. At this little game, the shining team is the runner-up. Its name is Fnatic. Revealed at a final during the last DreamHack Summer under the tag Epsilon, this team progressively made a place for itself at the top of the crop, with a quarter final at the ESWC and a silver medal at the MSI Beat It. Both times defeated by VeryGames.

The week before DreamHack Winter, Fnatic surprised the community with a massive announcement, as the change concerned they in-game leader. Exit MODDII, whose behaviour was deemed inappropriate, welcome to pronax. A player well-known to the 1.6 Swedish scene, but often disregarded by big names. Even if he doesn’t have the appeal of Scandinavians legends that surround him in this field, this little player with a ravishing smile will change everything. Yet another event that made ripples we never saw coming.

And indeed, Fnatic seemed to be in a very good shape in Jönköping. Very strong during the group stage, they only lost one map against Recursive during the quarter final. Despite an easy win on compLexity to reach the grand final, flusha’s teammates were clearly considered as outsiders for the ultimate match. A game against the final boss that took place in the big amphitheater, the DreamArena, next to the player’s hall.Et en effet, Fnatic semblait très en forme à Jönköping.

I remember seeing this long waiting line in front of the amphitheater and thinking: “Yeaaah, just another LoL game”. No. People were actually waiting to see NiP vs. Fnatic. It was incredible. Semmler, caster and host at DreamHack Winter 2013

It’s on the main stage and in front of a full audience, thanks to Ninjas in Pyjamas, that grand final opposing two pretty surprising teams starts. An opposition of style. On the coach side, two legends. cArn for Fnatic, HeatoN for NiP. On the player side, it’s a true battle between two generations: the oldschool NiP and the new and young Fnatic. But only after a few rounds, the spectators fast understand why the oldschool team is decidedly ahead.

GeT_RiGhT and his mates run through Dust2 at the pace of the cheers of their numerous followers/fans. However, this is a heavy silence that will turn the blood of every Counter-Strike fans to ice. Having their back against the wall at the side change, Fnatic led by Flusha are about to make the unthinkable happen. They catch up frag after frag, round after round. 14-14 then 14-15. NiP totally collapses and concedes this last round after having led 12-03.

The DreamArena crowd can’t believe it. Everybody is shocked and staring at each other in disbelief, trying to find an explanation. From now on, everything seems possible in this game where only the first half wasn’t entertaining enough. Even when NiP won once again their side on 11-4 on inferno, everybody stayed cautious.

The NiP train was back on tracks, but about to hit a brick wall. Even though Fnatic could have been out of gas after such a huge performance on the first map, they were about to stun their  rivals,  fans and the 150000 people watching the official streams. They close the last map with style, with a humiliating 16-2 domination. The offense is taken to another level for the former kings of the CSGO world, when an ecstatic Devilwalk drops his pants on stage. It was not free trashing : he was just honoring a bet, but this will remain  one of the most powerful images of this tournament.

The team of all records failed but it didn’t take them long to be back on track. Regarding Fnatic whose awper JW received the MVP award of the tournament, they received a lot of criticism. Many people considered this memorable performance as just a one shot. According to them, Fnatic still had to prove themselves since this could just have been a fluke.

The JW, flusha & pronax trio just won their first international title. Considering they don’t like to let things half done, a Major seemed to be a good option to start an achievement list.

Since then, every grand final played on a big stage across the world is sold-out. Number of players, of viewers, statistics are exploding following the event. Experts are unanimous, FPS games are back in business thanks to its most faithful representative. Just like thefall of Constantinople, the DreamHack Winter 2013 marks the beginning of Counter-Strike’s rebirth.

The best is yet to come and the EMS One Katowice 2014 is close. See you at the next episode.

DreamHack Winter 2013 standings

Full coverage by VaKarM

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Photos : HLTV.org, DreamHack