Preview of DreamHack Open Rotterdam 2019

General information

DreamHack Open Rotterdam 2019 will be held from 18 till 20 October in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The prize pool of the tournament will consist of $100,000, а and its division will be done by eight teams. Five out of them became owners of the direct invitations from the organizers while the two others did it through the qualifiers. The female team Besiktas Esports will perform at the championship thanks to the win at DreamHack Valencia Showdown 2019.

Favorites

AVANGAR (HLTV rating position — #6)
Win odds: 3.30

AVANGAR looks like the main favorite of winning the upcoming championship. This team has been showing good results lately. Having won BLAST Pro Series Moscow 2019, the team did not get out of sorts and continued showing good performances and the first week of ECS Season 8 Europe resulted in a win for them while the second one helped the players to provide themselves with the first invitation to ECS Season 8 Finals.

We think that AVANGAR is the most dangerous participant among all of the others. We should not forget that there is a friendly atmosphere in the team. When some players had a chance to move to another team with higher salaries, they refused, opting for AVANGAR which was told in the interview. Apart from the strong individual skills of the esportsmen, the key to their win is team spirit and we expect to see AVANGAR at the final at least.

AVANGAR roster and rating of the players:

Timur ‘buster’ Tulepov — 1.11
Alexey ‘qikert’ Golubev — 1.10
Ali ‘Jame’ Dzhami — 1.26
Sanjar ‘SANJI’ Kuliev — 1.00
Dauren ‘AdreN’ Kystaubayev — 0.96
Dastan ‘dastan’ Akbayev — coach

forZe (HLTV rating position — #15)
Win odds: 4.00

forZe is similar to AVANGAR as their results have not changed for the better or worse lately. At BLAST Pro Series Moscow 2019, they took second place and at ECS Season 8 Europe, they also took the second position at the first series. They also became silver winners at GG.Bet Beijing Invitational, and at the online stage of WePlay! Forge of Masters Season 2, they took the first position in the group and earned a slot at the LAN final.

We think that forZe does not have good chances of winning the championship as AVANGAR, for example, but their entering the final will not a surprise for us, of course, if it happens.

forZe roster and rating of the players:

Dmitriy ‘facecrack’ Alekseyev — 1.07
Andrey ‘Jerry’ Mekhryakov — 1.05
Almaz ‘almazer’ Assadulin — 1.05
Bogdan ‘xsepower’ Chernikov — 1.19
Evgeny ‘FL1T’ Lebedev — 1.09
Anatoliy ‘liTTle’ Yashin — coach

Heroic (HLTV rating position — #22)
Win odds: 5.50

Heroic’s situation is not really straightforward. On the one hand, the team has recently had reshuffles. At the end of September, blameF left the team, and on 11 October, cadiaN joined the roster. The players had been performing for North. On the other hand, we see that these changes did not balk the team to take the first place in Group B at ESL Pro League Season 10 Europe. There they beat Ninjas in Pyjamas 2-0 and Sprout 2-1, and also fought with Vitality well, losing against them with the result 1-2. At the second series of ECS Season 8 Europe, Heroic got a win and at the European qualifier for StarSeries i-League CS:GO Season 8, they took the first place.

In total, we can say that the Danish are in great shape and the players are the only opponents to make serious opposition to the main favorite of the championship AVANGAR.

Heroic roster and rating of the players:

Patrick ‘es3tag’ Hansen — 1.09
Martin ‘stavn’ Lund — 1.16
Johannes ‘b0RUP’ Borup — 1.07
Marco ‘Snappi’ Pfeiffer — 1.03
Casper ‘cadiaN’ Møller — 1.10
Frederik ‘LOMME’ Nielsen — coach

Others

HARD LEGION Esports (HLTV rating position — #23)
Win odds: 5.50

As a matter of fact, HARD LEGION Esports is a rather weak team. At the last several championships including StarLadder Berlin Major 2019, the players, representing DreamEaters, took 5-8 place and 15-16 position in the bracket which is not a good result for the participant that claims to win the championship. After the Major tournament, DreamEaters had disagreements and the esportsmen, being unable to find common ground with the organization, decided to continue their way separately from them. DreamHack Open Rotterdam 2019 will be a debut for the players from HARD LEGION Esports. We do not think that this attempt will be crowned with success. Especially if we take into account that the roster got to Group A together with AVANGAR and Heroic, two claimants on victory.

HARD LEGION Esports roster and rating of the players:

Semen ‘kinqie’ Lisitsyn — 1.04
Svyatoslav ‘svyat’ Dovbah — 1.02
Anton ‘speed4k’ Titov — 1.04
Igor ‘Forester’ Bezotecheskij — 1.00
Vladislav ‘krad’ Kravchenko — 1.03

CR4ZY (HLTV rating position — #20)
Win odds: 7.00

On 4 October, CR4ZY got such an esportsman as SHiPZ and emi to their roster. The player had been a coach before that. Not so long time ago, huNter and nexa moved to G2 Esports to continue their career. The history of matches of the European team together with two new players of the roster is rather sorrowful. They can lose against the opponents who are no great shakes but meanwhile, they can also beat more serious opponents. But now CR4ZY is unstable and the players can’t boast about their teamwork. Nevertheless, the team can fight for getting to the playoff as CR4ZY got to Group B where Asterion, forZe, and HAVU Gaming are going to fight for the prize as well.

CR4ZY roster and rating of the players:

Nestor ‘LETN1’ Tanić — 0.91
Rokas ‘EspiranTo’ Milasauskas — 1.04
Otto ‘ottoNd’ Sihvo — 1.14
Georgi ‘SHiPZ’ Grigorov — 1.16
Luka ‘emi’ Vuković — 1.01
Neil ‘NeiL_M’ Murphy — coach

HAVU Gaming (HLTV rating position — #33)
Win odds: 13.0

HAVU Gaming roster was completed one month ago and during this period of time, the team took the first place at the European qualifiers for DreamHack Open Rotterdam 2019 and won the online tournament OGA Counter PIT Season 4. At LOOT.BET/CS Season 4, the Finnish took second place which is good as well. Let’s mark that despite the mentioned competition, DreamHack Open Rotterdam 2019 .will host a serious opposition from several participants in the tournament. If the group stage is successful for HAVU Gaming and they make it to the playoff, there they can meet AVANGAR, forZe, and Heroic with open arms that will not let the Finnish make it to the final.

HAVU Gaming roster and rating of the players:

Olli ‘sLowi’ Pitkänen — 1.15
Lasse ‘ZOREE’ Uronen — 1.26
Aaro ‘hoody’ Peltokangas — 1.12
Eetu ‘sAw’ Saha — 0.93
Joonas ‘doto’ Forss — 1.04
Taneli ‘diSTURBED’ Veikkola — coach

Asterion (HLTV rating position — #97)
Win odds: 101.0

Asterion is one of the main outsiders of this championship due to one simple reason. The Netherlandian got to 97 place in the list of the best CS:GO teams, the players have not played any official match since June. At the qualifier for Benelux countries, they performed well and now they have got a chance to perform at the LAN final. Despite their triumph at the qualifiers, the team is unlikely to oppose anything serious at DreamHack Open Rotterdam 2019. Asterion is likely to take the 7-8 place at the championship and will end up their way at the tournament having participated only in the group stage being unable to defeat anyone.

Asterion roster and rating of the players:

Steven ‘blacke’ Groeneveld — 0.00
Mark ‘NexFox’ Breetveld — 1.21
Nino ‘NiNo’ Roos — 1.12
Patrick ‘Pat’ van der Bijl — 0.00
Bernardus ‘Bernard’ Stornebrink — 1.27

Besiktas Esports (HLTV rating position — # N/A)
Win odds: 251.0

If Asterion is the main outsider in Group B, Besiktas got the same role in Group A. Juliano and her teammates are the only female team to perform at DreamHack Open Rotterdam 2019. It became possible thanks to their win at DreamHack Showdown Valencia 2019. Despite the fact that Besiktas is one of the strongest female CS:GO teams, their chance of winning the championship is rather low and to be exact, pitiful. Female and male CS:GO is different, which has been said in various interviews and was marked by representatives of both sides. Besiktas Esports got to Group А together with such teams as AVANGAR, Heroic, and HARD LEGION Esports. In the ideal case, the female roster can beat HARD LEGION, and if they destroy anyone else, it will be a real sensation. Otherwise, the team will take the 7-8 place in the tournament bracket as it is expected. The odds for Besiktas at sportsbooks are equal to 251 and it is not surprising.

Besiktas Esports and rating of the players:

Julia ‘juliano’ Kiran
Zainab ‘zAAz’ Turkie
Petra ‘Petra’ Stoker
Anastasia ‘kr4sylya’ Khlobystina
Meyssa ‘Missa’ Bellouati