DreamHack Masters Malmö 2019 Recap

After some intense action went down at the New York Major just a couple of days prior, teams made their way to Malmö where they would compete in for their share of $250,000. With Evil Geniuses signing the NRG roster and winning ESL New York, all eyes were on them this time around.

Group A

The favourable group stage elimination format was implemented again at this event. In Group A we had the following teams:

Astralis,
Team Envy,
G2 Esports,
Furia Esports,
ENCE,
Fnatic,
Team Vitality,
Tyloo

With only 3 teams making it out of each group, a strong start was essential for everyone. Everything kicked off like business as usual. Astralis made their way to the playoff match with ease where they met Vitality who defeated both Tyloo and ENCE. Both Astralis and Vitality were guaranteed spots in the playoffs.

Fnatic had a shaky start to the tournament falling short to ENCE. However, they bounced back with victories over Tyloo, G2 and Furia. Other than a crazy overtime game against Furia, it was a considerably comfortable journey for Fnatic as they secured the last playoff spot from Group A.

Group B

Over in Group B, there were huge expectations for some teams. The group was without a doubt stacked, with the following teams:

Team Liquid,
OpTic Gaming,
Natus Vincere,
North,
Mouz,
Ninjas in Pyjamas,
Evil Geniuses,
Grayhound

The newly crowned champions (Evil Geniuses), had a rough event, to say the least. They suffered a 16-10 loss in their opening game against Grayhound. From here they lost 2-0 against a strong Mouz roster meaning they were eliminated from the tournament. The lacklustre performances can be excused slightly due to the time zone difference and travelling the had right before the event started.

Meanwhile Liquid always got upset and crashed out of the tournament following losses to both OpTic Gaming and Grayhound. Natus Vincere and Ninjas in Pyjamas met in the playoff match having both secured their spot. The final team to reach playoffs was Mouz who battled through the lower bracket.

Playoffs

It was a historic day in Malmö as Swedish CS:GO looked to be on the rise. The home teams Ninjas in Pyjamas and Fnatic met in the quarter-final where one of them would be sent home. Fnatic edged out a 2-1 victory here meanwhile Vitality defeated Mouz 2-1 in the other quarter-final.

This set up the semi-finals; Astralis vs Fnatic and Natus Vincere vs Vitality. The predictions were heavily favoured, and upsets were caused. Fnatic pulled off a 2-0 victory over Astralis to book their ticket in the grand final. Whereas Vitality managed to come out on top of the weirdly back and forth series against Natus Vincere.

Fnatic vs Vitality in the grand final. It’s fair to say this is something the CS community had been longing for. The old Swedish powerhouse back in a grand final against a full French team putting their country back on the map.

The final was amazing. Every game was close and down to the wire with explosive plays but eventually, Fnatic pulled off the reverse sweep to take the final 2-1 and were crowned champions once again on home soil.