7 THINGS WE LEARNED FROM DREAMHACK OPEN 2015

Dreamhack Open Cluj-Napoca 2015 was arguably one of the most important major tournaments for CS GO, it held the answers to a lot of questions about the future of the game and the competitive scene and as expected, a lot happened; most of which left people in shock and awe, while the conclusion still felt normal.

Lumionisity gaming is NA's new hope, while Cloud9 look shakier than ever before.
Early on in group stages they faced each other and LG came out victorious, the shocks however were just getting started from the LG squad as they delivered far and beyond anyone's expectations and took out FNATIC in their next match.This put Cloud9 up against FNATIC in a B03 series and the results were not pretty. Meanwhile LG continued their journey to the playoffs and despite an impressive showing fell to Na`Vi in a B03 series. 

The return of the 'Choke' for Team Solomid.
Oh the dream! I felt that TSM might finally figure out their problems against EnvyUS and the rest was going to fall in place. Despite a very impressive start in the groups against Flipside Tactics and Gamers2, when it came to facing the old Swedish legends in NIP, things just got brutal. In fact it is even hard to call this a typical TSM choke, because NIP really did show up in a way no one expected. Still it is hard to ignore that everyone in TSM failed to reach their usual standards, let alone their peak.

Titan's group curse remains stronger than ever.
I feel for this team, I really do. Here you have some really talented individuals in Shox and Scream, as well as a great mind in EX6. But still time and time again they fail to deliver as a squad, especially at the majors. Their curse remains strong and it will take some drastic moves to change that.

Time for NIP to finally accept the situation and make changes.
Now NIP have probably already planned out changes once the contracts runs out, but just in case they hadn't, this has to be the point where they cannot ignore it anymore.  Clearly there is no consistency from the team anymore and despite that #MAGIC moment against TSM, it is pretty obvious that a new roster will be better in the long run.

End of the FNATIC Era.
All great runs come to an end and it was time for FNATIC to finally fall from grace. TSM had become a constant problem for them and EnvyUS started to catch up after the last major. This showing was just a confirmation for us that this is indeed the end of the FNATIC era.

Gamers2 are a real threat, capable of causing massive upsets.
At first it looked like G2 were going to be just a standard obstacle in the way of elite teams, as TSM dropped them to the lower brackets early on in the group stage. But somehow they took out Gob B's Mousesports and made it into the quarter finals, where the upsets from G2 started as they took out the Polish giants in Virtus Pro. Then they went on to face the favorites in EnvyUS, who had a very similar 'in your face' style as them. The first 2 maps were a pure slugfest, with Gamers2 winning the first one and EnvyUS somehow surviving through the second. By the 3rd map though, EnvyUS had regained confidence and were starting to get the better of Gamers2, so as a result the series ended with a score line of 2-1. But despite the loss, Gamers2 became the only team to reach match point against EnvyUS in this tournament.

EnvyUS are the best team in the world right now and they aren't going to be easy to dethrone.
With TSM having problems again and FNATIC finally starting to fall off from their dominating form, EnvyUS are now without a doubt the best team in the world. They dominated their group, taking out formidable opponents in NAVI and Team Dignitas and when they were faced off against an opposition capable of matching their firepower in G2, they weathered the storm and won out in the end. The grand finals against NAVI only further proved that this team wasn't going give their opposition an inch, where they won 2-0, without conceding a single map. Is this the start of the EnvyUS Era? We will find out. 

Spreading the hype for technology and gaming, one word at a time. If you don't mind brutal honestly and countless debates, follow me @AbirZenith or hit me up with an email at: abirzenith@gmail.com