As many teams are beginning to struggle with the grueling pace that is professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tourney pacing, dropping players from teams with undeniable pedigree due to burn-out and stress, the tourneys must continue. As the saying goes, the show must go on.
Dreamhack Masters is separated into two brackets, an upper and lower; teams in the upper bracket that lose will go to the lower bracket where they can fight for a chance at the finals. Teams that begin in the lower bracket are a singular match loss away from being eliminated entirely from the tournament. All matches are a Best-of-3 unless otherwise notated; GS # notates the global seed of the teams as it currently stands within HLTVs ranking.
In the upper bracket, we have G2 (GS #5) facing Natus Vincere (NaVi, GS #2) on June 9th in a best of three. NaVi has a strong showing with S1mple reprising his role as an AWPer maintaining the highest rating of the match prior the start at 1.33.
The winner of that match will be playing the victor of BiG (GS #30) against FaZe Clan (GS #7) who has recently announced the retirement of olofmeister after years in the professional Counter-Strike scene due to the aforementioned fatigue that has permeated the scene among veterans.
In the lower bracket, we have the other eight teams fighting for contention.
This is not just a game…Welcome to #DHMasters Spring! pic.twitter.com/MNcLjpCQKH
— ESL Impact (@ESLImpact) May 18, 2020
Complexity (GS #23) versus Fnatic (GS #3) is kicking off early morning on June 8 with Complexity Gaming slated as the underdogs in that matchup. Fnatic has continued to appear almost unstoppable barring minor errors in judgment, and JW as the resident AWPer is a massive concern for anyone that butts heads against them in the Spring Masters.
MAD Lions (GS# 13) face Spirit (GS #17) shortly after Complexity and Fnatic on June 8, with Spirit coming off a recent clean sweep victory against Fnatic on the 25 before losing (1-2) against FaZe. MAD Lions, on the other hand, have continued to lose against teams that should be weaker: a clean sweep loss against Complexity and (1-2) versus BiG on the 23 and 22, respectively.
Heroic (GS #36) face Vitality (GS #10) as the final match on June 8th. Vitality has been the walking definition of inconsistency in the past year, as recently a core player ALEX left the team and is rumored to be eyeing Astralis.
Finally, we have Astralis (GS #1) themselves against NiP (GS #12) in the first match of June 9th. While many would presume that this should be an easy victory for Astralis, the Dutch juggernauts have lost two key players in recent times: Gla1ve and Xyp9x, bring replaced by comparatively untested players Snappi and JUGi. How quickly Snappi and JUGi can get spun up on Astralis’ operating procedure will be the primary means of gauging just how far Astralis can go in DH Masters Spring.
June is looking to be full of high-level professional Counter-Strike with DH Masters NA and Europe filling the month. It will also be a testament to just how hard up teams are to fill their rosters as more players take a leave of absence.
