NA CS at the Majors: DreamHack Winter 2014

With the BLAST.tv Paris Major just over two weeks away, Dust2.us is building up to the last ever CS:GO Major Championship by taking a trip down memory lane by looking back at the history of North American Counter-Strike in the top-tier competition. Last time out, we covered ESL One Cologne 2014, now let's look at the Major that was home to one of the most iconic and controversial moments in CS:GO history.

After the record-breaking success of ESL One Cologne, it looked like Counter-Strike was set to reach new heights for esports. However, the scene was thrown a major curveball when numerous professional players were handed Valve Anti-Cheat (VAC) bans in Valve's latest ban wave. These weren't just tier 3 or 4 players who were unlikely to ever make it, as some previous Major attendees were caught cheating with French players Hovik "⁠KQLY⁠" Tovmassian and Gordon "⁠Sf⁠" Giry bans leading to their teams, Titan and Epsilon, being disqualified from participating in the tournament.

These bans led to a massive rise of accusations from the community aimed at pro players who looked 'fishy', chief among the accused was Swedish star Robin "flusha" Rönnquist who went so far as to make a Facebook post addressing the witch hunt he had been the victim of. With DreamHack's decision to disqualify the French teams, it was clear they wanted to enforce a zero-tolerance policy for cheating moving forward and the tournament would kick off with the game, and the scene overall, in a delicate state.

The two North American teams in attendance would be the same cores as the previous Major, with Cloud9 still the region's best team as the core made it to the playoffs of every Major so far. Cologne was the side's debut under the Cloud9 banner and despite having lost their generational talent Braxton "swag" Pierce to rivals iBUYPOWER, the team had once again pulled off a playoff appearance, only being stopped by eventual winners NIP.

The other North American side that found themselves in Sweden would be iBUYPOWER, a team that had vastly differing fortunes in the run-up to the event. After adding swag the squad reached new levels, making a Grand Finals appearance at FACEIT Finals Season 2 and winning the North American qualifier for Dreamhack Winter. Despite the success, the team decided to freshen things up by removing IGL Sam "DaZeD" Marine and Josh "Steel" Nissan in favor of Derek "⁠desi⁠" Branchen and a nineteen-year-old future Captain America Nick "⁠nitr0⁠" Cannella.

The team came into DreamHack Winter 2014 off the back of some poor results in Europe with group-stage exits at FACEIT Finals Season 2 and ESWC 2014. The team decided to make some changes which included returning the IGL duties back to Sean "seang@res" Gares ahead of the tournament and also getting some much-needed practice in Europe after a month-long bootcamp. Having failed to make it out of the groups at a Major, iBUYPOWER looked at DreamHack Winter as a great opportunity to break the curse and take Cloud9's NA CS crown.

Cloud9 found themselves in a tough group, with Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev's Hellraisers and the pre-tournament favorites fnatic both top tier opponents. After getting torn apart by the CIS squad, North America's number one team recovered to steamroll the South African Bravado squad and set up a do-or-die match against fnatic. Cloud9 came up short, losing 16-5 to the Swedish team, condemning the core to their first-ever Group-stage exit at a Major.

The failure to reach the playoffs, considering the quality of opponents, was not the most surprising result. A tough group and off the back of a poor run of form, Cloud9's failure to progress from the groups seemed reasonable. However, iBUYPOWER's failure to progress was a lot less forgivable. This was a team that was challenging Cloud9 for the top spot in the region, had been in much better form, and had the easier group, by far. iBUYPOWER were drawn alongside CPH Wolves and PENTA - two teams who should have been good matchups for the American squad. They dismantled CPH Wolves in the opening match but after a loss to Dignitas, the team choked a 13-2 lead against the German PENTA roster to lose 13-16, failing to win a single round on their T half.

NA CS was maybe fortunate that the tournament isn't remembered for the poor performance of the NA teams in attendance. For that, they can thank the Semi-Final match between fnatic and LDLC with the now infamous 'Olofboost'. The entire controversy took the community by storm and ended with the Swedes forfeiting the final map of the series, paving the way for the French team to claim the trophy after beating NIP.

It's hardly surprising that both Cloud9 and iBUYPOWER decided to make changes after their poor showings in Sweden. Cloud9's roster lacked a serious dedicated AWPer, with seang@res and n0thing having split the responsibility at DreamHack. The team decided that picking up a star sniper would be the way forward, as they signed Shahzeb "ShahZaM" Khan to replace Hiko, who only managed a 0.94 rating at the event.

On the flipside, iBUYPOWER decided that what they needed was some proper leadership, no doubt the T-side collapse in their final match contributed to that thinking, and they decided to bring back DaZeD to replace desi. DreamHack Winter 2014 will, fortunately for NA, not be remembered for the region's poor performances, but instead for the controversial fashion in that LDLC managed to lay claim to the trophy.

Tomorrow we will be looking at ESL One: Katowice 2015.