NA CS at the Majors: DreamHack Winter 2013

The BLAST Paris Major is now just seventeen days away, and as a build-up to the last ever CS:GO Major Dust2.us are taking a stroll down memory lane as we look at NACS at the previous Majors. Starting with the very first Major, all the way back in 2013.

2013 was a big year for Counter-Strike after a rough launch CS:GO was becoming more popular, with players and fans alike adjusting to the new game. As such, Valve introduced possibly the most influential update in Counter-Strike history with the Arms Deal Update. Whilst at the time no one could predict how much skins would help change the landscape of the game, it was seen as a significant step towards modernizing a franchise that had already been around for over a decade.

With the update came the announcement of the first ever Valve sponsored CS:GO event, as they partnered with DreamHack to bring a $250,000 prizepool to DreamHack Winter thanks in large part due to the revenue from the Arms Deal update. DreamHack Winter would take place in Jönköping, Sweden a fitting stage for the first Major in a game that had so far been dominated by the all-Swedish NIP side.

North America would have only two representatives in the tournament; recent ESEA Global Finals Season 14 runners-up Complexity, who had just signed Spencer "Hiko" Martin's Quantic Gaming. They were joined by the ex-Curse lineup who found themselves with a new organization as the team were picked up by iBUYPOWER, shortly after Sam "DaZeD" Marine joined the squad.

The expectations for the two American sides were pretty similar coming into the tournament, both teams were seen as having dangerous upset potential but not serious contenders for a high finish. Despite their second-place finish at the ESEA Global Finals, the team had been on a poor run of form with a disappointing run at ESWC and even losing to iBUYPOWER twice in the run up to Dreamhack Winter.

iBUYPOWER on the other hand had very little historically going for them, the same core had failed to break the top eight at their previous Dreamhack showings and their best showing on an international stage was a 7-8th place finish at Copenhagen Games. However, they came into the tournament with some promising domestic results, including their success against Complexity who had been the region's best team.

The tournament kicked off with a classic GSL style Group Stage, iBUYPOWER found themselves in group B with Universal Soldiers, Recursive and NIP. Things did not go well for the team, in fairness all three of the teams in their group would have future Major winners in their lineup, but it was still a disappointing showing from the team. iBUYPOWER finished bottom of the group after losing 16-9 to Wiktor "TaZ" Wojtas' Universal Soldiers and 16-8 to the French Recursive roster.

It was a lot brighter start to the Major era for Complexity however as they blitzed their group beating Finn "Karrigan" Andersen's n!faculty 16-5 and edging a 16-14 win over VeryGames, who had been considered the second best team behind NIP for most of CS:GO up until this point. Complexity took another massive step forward as they won a close BO3 against Astana Dragons, with Hiko posting a 1.30 rating to help the NA side to at minimum a third/fourth place finish.

Unfortunately for Complexity, the run would end when they came up against the eventual winners fnatic in the Semi-Final losing 2-0 to the Swedish side. However, the squad could be proud of the run they had put on as they gave North America a top four finish in the first ever CS:GO Major and showed they could contend with some of the best in Europe.

Hiko was, unsurprisingly, the highest rated NA player at the event as he put up a 1.21 rating to finish fourth on the overall list at the event. Meanwhile, the best performing player for iBUYPOWER was DaZeD with just a 0.93 rating. Converse to Modern Counter-Strike where a poor result at the Major can lead to an instant shakeup, iBUYPOWER decided against making a change ahead of the next Major cycle.

Overall despite iBUYPOWER's disappointing run, Dreamhack Winter 2013 was a success and boded well for the future of NACS with a third/fourth place finish for Complexity the region's best side which included a win over one of the best teams in the world in VeryGames.