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A report by consulting firm Geelmuyden Kiese shows that about 77 percent of visitors to Malm? were in the city solely for the League of Legends event. About 19,600 tickets were purchased for the finals, which ran from September 10-11, with 85 percent of viewers attending for each of the two days.
Due to the sellout crowds, extra seating had to be installed in Malm? Arena. Over half of the audience members were foreign guests, including representatives from 30 different countries.
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The Chief Executive Officer of Events in the Swedish county of Sk?ne, Pehr Palm, also noted that a significant numbers of the attendees either worked in or studied technological fields.
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“As many as 98.38% of visitors were under the age of 35. Something else that stood out among the audience was the percentage who either study or work in technological fields. – LEC is a reason for travel that targets a clear target group and strengthens and develops Sk?ne as an e-sports and event destination,” said Palm.
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The Chief Executive Officer of Malm? Arena, Karin M?rtensson, stated that the city is conveniently located for such events.
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“The numbers in the report speak for themselves – Malm? is a popular and easily accessible city to visit in connection with events,” she said.
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The recreation director in Malm?, Johan Hermansson, added: “Once again, Malm? has shown itself as an event city for the really big world events.”
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The Director of EMEA Esports at Riot Games, Alberto Guerrero, said the company was dedicated to ensuring its live finals events not only give fans an amazing experience, but also add value to the partner cities’ economies and cultures.
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“We look forward to continuing to bring our live shows to fans across the EMEA region and working with our incredible partner cities to replicate the success we saw in Malm? and put League esports on the map across our region,” he said.
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?More esports news
Six J?nk?ping Major 2022 tournament format
The Six J?nk?ping Major 2022 will use the same format as the previous R6S Majors, with 16 R6S seeded into four double round-robin groups of four. Every team will have a different regional seed, while all matches are played as best-of-one.
After three rounds of play, the top two teams from each group will advance into the single-elimination bracket playoffs, where the remaining eight squads will compete for a spot on the big stage. The playoffs will pair each group’s first- and second-placed teams with randomised seeding, while all matches (except for finals) will be best-of-three.
The grand finals, scheduled for Sunday, November 27, will be played as a best-of-five series, without map advantage.
Six J?nk?ping Major 2022 group preview
The tournament organisers have done a good job with the group stage seeding, producing four very exciting pools, some with no clear favourite to make it into the knockout stage. But while there are some questions, namely how some teams will do on LAN, we have a pretty good idea of which eight teams will reach the playoffs.
Group A
Teams: Black Dragons e-Sports, CYCLOPS athlete gaming, MnM Gaming, Soniqs
Group A features three teams that have never made it out of an R6S Major group stage before. Moreover, it’s the first Major for Black Dragons e-Sports, who will surely want to leave a good impression.
Although it is hard to say how this group will go down, it’s fair to say that Soniqs will come out victorious. Soniqs placed top six at the Six Invitational in February and have since strengthened their roster with Emilio “Geometrics” Leynez and Shaun “Gunnar” Pottorff, who have looked good this season.
Moreover, Soniqs have Pablo “Gryxr” Rebeil, who always delivers on LAN, and if he can step up and enable his teammates, Soniqs can go far. While we can confidently say that Soniqs will win the group, it’s tough to say who will join them in the playoffs.
CYCLOPS athlete gaming deserve some attention for their domestic performances, but they’re also a team you wouldn’t trust on the international stage. Likewise, MNM Gaming have looked solid this season, but the lack of LAN experience makes it tough to trust them, so we have to give it to Black Dragons e-Sports.
Expected Group A result:
- Soniqs
- Black Dragons e-Sports
- MnM Gaming
- CYCLOPS athlete gaming
Group B
Teams: Heroic, Team Liquid, TSM, SANDBOX Gaming
Group B consists of four teams that have all made roster changes this season and are now trying to prove which has done a better job forming a strong squad.
But even though this could be a very competitive group, Team Liquid strike us as the clear favourites to come out on top. They bring excellent form into this tournament, due in no small part to the signing of Lorenzo “Lagonis” Volpi.
Another big advantage is Liquid’s schedule, which will see them play SANDBOX Gaming and Heroic in the first two rounds �C a perfect recipe to build some momentum and confidence. As for who we believe will finish the group in a second, picking TSM makes the most sense.
Although TSM are no strangers to choking, they have a very high ceiling, and the roster is highly experienced on LAN. Of course, there is every chance that TSM will slip and finish the group in third, but we wouldn’t count on that happening this time.
Expected Group B result:
- Team Liquid
- TSM
- SANDBOX Gaming
- Heroic
Group C
Teams: FURY, Spacestation Gaming, Team BDS, w7m esports
The question for this group is not which of the four is the strongest, but rather which team will lose to FURY, whose only job is to play a spoiler.
If we compare w7m esports, Team BDS, and Spacestation Gaming, they all have a realistic chance to beat one another, so the results between them won’t play as big of a role as their showings against the group outsiders.
But as hard as it is to predict which of the three squads will slip, it will likely be Spacestation Gaming. That might sound strange, knowing that SSG are one of the top defensive teams in Rainbow Six Siege, but they’re terrible in the offence, which could be a problem.
In contrast, Team BDS and w7m are far more balanced but also very strong in the defence. It’s tough to call how the group will play out, but if we had to pick the order, w7m should come out on top, followed by BDS, SSG, and FURY in last place.
Expected Group C result:
- w7m esports
- Team BDS
- Spacestation Gaming
- FURY
Group D
Teams: Dire Wolves, FaZe Clan, Mirage, Wolves Esports
Group D is undeniably the easiest to predict, as there is a clear gap between the top and the bottom two squads. FaZe Clan and Wolves Esports are both priced at $2.37 with GG Bet to win the group, followed by Mirage ($5.00) and Dire Wolves ($5.00).
Even though it’s not fair to underestimate any team that qualifies for R6S Major, finding a solid reason to back either Mirage or Dire Wolves to reach the playoffs is tough. That is not necessarily because they are weak, but because FaZe and Wolves are so much stronger.
Dire Wolves could play a spoiler if Hou “Ed” Tsung-cheng and Wu “Reeps96” Weichen show up, and if either FaZe or Wolves slip, it’s not entirely unlikely that DW can claw their way into the playoffs. As for Mirage, they have shown some promise this season, but as their recent results suggest, it seems they’ve yet to figure things out.
Expected Group D result:
- FaZe Clan
- Wolves Esports
- Dire Wolves
- Mirage
Six J?nk?ping Major 2022 betting picks
If the group stage plays out as we expect, the Six Winter Major playoffs will be a bloodbath. The esports betting sites have priced Team Liquid ($6.00) as the most likely team to lift the trophy, closely followed by TSM and w7m esports at $7.00 apiece, with FaZe, Soniqs, and Wolves Esports all at $8.00.
There’s a lot of uncertainty about how the playoffs will play out due to the randomised seeding, but if we go purely off the teams’ quality, Wolves, Team Liquid, Soniqs and w7m esports are the strongest four teams of the bunch.
The four teams also have very different styles of play; for whereas Liquid and Soniqs play more structured, Wolves Esports and w7m esports are both very aggressive. So if the two pairs meet in the playoffs, the results will come down to a coin flip.
TSM, FaZe Clan, and BDS all have a realistic chance to reach the semis, but it depends on the bracket. Yet even if they make it through the first round of the playoffs, it’s tough to expect them to reach much further.
Barring any upsets or playoffs seeding that will collapse the power structure, w7m esports seem like the most likely Six J?nk?ping Major champions. They’re well rounded, experienced, and have all the tools needed to make it happen.
Soniqs could be a threat, and it wouldn’t be shocking to see Liquid or Wolves make it to the big stage. But at $7.00, w7m are an easy choice.
Bet365 is offering an odds boost on Soniqs to win ($8.00 < $9.00) the Major, which might make them an appealing pick for some. But we're sticking with w7m esports to secure Brazil its first R6S Major trophy since FaZe at Six Sweden Major 2021.
w7m esports to win
Maximilian Schmidt, Head of League of Legends Esports EMEA, stated: “We are absolutely thrilled to announce that we will be hosting our 2022
Summer Finals in Malm?, Sweden. Being the first roadshow we��ve hosted away from our Berlin studio in three years, we can��t wait to give the fans an
unforgettable experience. We��re pleased to be working with the City of Malm? again and look forward to bringing the breathtaking atmosphere to
their city.”
In addition, given that the Malmo Arena has the capacity to accommodate more than 20,000 spectators, the 2022 LEC Summer Finals will provide a
greater number of fans with the chance to see the game in person. Fans were able to see this event for the last time in 2019, when Riot brought the
LEC finals to Athens, Greece.
The finals of both splits in the year 2020 were likewise among G2 Esports and Fnatic, and they were contested remotely. In 2021, the LEC allowed the
finals to take place in the studio in Berlin; however, there were to be no spectators in attendance for the matches between MAD Lions and Rogue
in the spring and MAD Lions and Fnatic in the summer.
In addition, Riot has disclosed that it has interesting preparations for the LEC XPO that will take place at the MalmoMassan Exhibition & Congress
Center, which is situated in close proximity to the venue of the finals.
According to Riot, beginning on July 1, individuals will be able to buy a ticket for the game at lec.gg/malmo. The website will become operational
during the RDYCHK session. Since the LEC’s last “on the road” event prior to the epidemic took place in Athens, 2019, League supporters must be
overjoyed with the opportunity to return and support their favorite club inside of a venue.
The announcement surfaced on Wednesday when NiP took to Twitter to unveil Malkolm “Bonkar” Rench, KenLeander “isbittenner” Aspestrand, Alex “Alex” Suchev and Dylan “DiGeDoG” Chainski as their inaugural VALORANT roster.
The quartet is mostly known for its success in the Paladins esports scene throughout 2019, when they won Paladins Premier League (PPL) Phase 1, reached the finals of the Mid-Season Invitational, picked up a fourth-place finish in PPL Phase 2 and won the Paladins World Championship. Despite their immense success, Ninjas in Pyjamas decided to pull the plug on the team in December.
After the roster disbanded, Erik ��Bird�� Sj?sten, DiGeDoG and isbittenner retired from the competitive scene. Bonkar and Alex moved to District 69, who qualified for PPL 2020 with a top-six finish at the Paladins Pro Circuit 2020 Season European Qualifiers in February, but both players stepped away from Paladins earlier this month.
“I’ve decided to move on from Paladins,” said Alex.
“I learned a lot during the time I competed, most importantly I found what I want to do in life. Thank you to all the people that were a part of it-fans, friends, teammates and competitors, and all the people behind the scenes!”
The time has come, I have decided to retire from Paladins.
I would like to thank everyone who supported me on this journey, thanks to all the great team mates i had and to all the friends i met in and outside the Realm— bonkar (@Officialbonkar) April 4, 2020
Alex ended his announcement by stating “Expect news!”, which suggests NiP’s VALORANT project was in the pipeline for some time. Now the team’s core Paladins World Championship roster is set to return with Bird appointed as the head coach of the new VALORANT squad.
“VALORANT is undoubtedly one of the most exciting titles in recent years, and it��s been clear to us from the beginning that it��s a game we would like to be heavily involved in,” said Jonas Gundersen, COO of NiP.
“Riot have some great ideas on how to evolve the community and esports specifically, and we��re very excited to have an integral part in shaping that with them.”
Bird expressed his excitement for NiP’s new project, which has given him the chance to reunite with his former Paladins teammates.
“With our previous experience and success we are looking to enter the game at the highest level and start our grind from day one,” said Bird.
“While I personally will be taking a step away from a player position, I will instead continue to support the team from an overhead view.”
Ninjas in Pyjamas are not the first esports organisation to have started scouting for VALORANT players, even though the closed beta for Riot’s FPS title only came out on Tuesday, April 7. Many former esports pros from Paladins, CS:GO, Overwatch, Call of Duty and even Rainbow Six Siege have announced their intentions to relaunch their esports careers as VALORANT players.
]]>Jonas Gundersen, a former Counter-Strike 1.6 professional player and the current Ninjas in Pyjamas’ COO, made the announcement in a Twitter post on Thursday, February 20, calling out for a LoL head coach prospect to join the Swedish esports organisation on their voyage.
“We’re exploring an entry into LoL with Ninjas in Pyjamas, and I am looking for the most passionate & hungry Head Coach prospect, to help build something amazing with us,” said Gundersen.
If their plans come to fruition, this would be Ninjas in Pyjamas’ third entry into LoL professional scene.
Their first LoL team was formed back in May 2013, when NiP acquired the former Copenhagen Wolves roster. That quintent featured several players that would go on to become iconic figures in the LoL esports scene, including Riot Games caster and current Origen general manager Martin “Deficio” Lynge, Team SoloMid captain and co-owner S?ren “Bjergsen” Bjerg, and 2019 LCS Summer Split MVP and Evil Genuises jungler Dennis “Svenskeren” Johnsen.
Their first stint started to crumble in May 2014 following numerous roster changes and Deficio’s retirement. Although Ninjas in Pyjamas did their best to rebuild the team, they eventually gave up and disbanded the roster in September the same year.
Almost three years later in May 2017, Ninjas in Pyjamas took another swing when they acquired Fnatic Academy’s European LoL Championship Series (EU LCS) spot and signed a new line-up consisting of Kim “Profit” Jun-hyung, Ilyas “Shook” Hartsema, Kim “Nagne” Sang-moon, Martin “HeaQ” Kordmaa, Benjamin “Zhergoth” S��nchez and Benjamin “Zhergoth” S��nchez.
Their return to the Rift, however, did not bear any fruits. Ninjas in Pyjamas finished last in their group and were relegated out of the EU LCS, forcing them to spend 2018 competing in local Nordic leagues and European Masters (EM) events. Although they managed to pocket a silver medal at EM Summer 2018, NiP disbanded their roster on October 4, 2018.
Now, the Swedes are set to embark on yet another LoL journey, although their return to the Summoner’s Rift is still in the early planning phase and any information about their plans is very scarce.
If they are hoping to enter one of the major regions straight away, Ninjas in Pyjamas will have to follow in the footsteps of Evil Geniuses or Dignitas and splash the cash to buy a licence from one of the existing top-flight teams.
Evil Geniuses splashed out US $33 million for their entry into LCS, while Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment (HBSE), the owners of Dignitas and the NBA��s Philadelphia 76ers, bought out the majority stake of Clutch Gaming for $20 million.
While a place in the LoL European Championship (LEC) should come at a cheaper price compared to the LCS, which draws in more viewership, it will still cost Ninjas in Pyjamas a hefty chunk of change should they look to re-launch their LoL team at the highest tier.
]]>THREAT previously worked as a strategic coach and assistant to pita at NiP, helping him with tactical aspects of the game. His promotion is no great shock, considering there were already rumours months ago suggesting THREAT was in line for a more important role within the team.
Thank you for everything, @pitaCSGO. Good luck in your future endeavors!
Once a ninja, Always a ninja pic.twitter.com/Cg5yz6C3vR
— Ninjas in Pyjamas ?? (@NiPGaming) January 6, 2020
THREAT is a former professional Counter-Strike player who enjoyed a short stint in the CS:GO scene with Team Acer in early 2015 when he served as a player-coach.
The Swedish ex-pro took up coaching in January 2016 when he joined Ninjas in Pyjamas and led the team to three international titles, including DreamHack Masters Malm? 2016, DreamHack Open Valencia 2017 and IEM Oakland. Despite the immense success with NiP, however, THREAT resigned from his position in February 2018 to ��pursue other things in life��.
In mid-October 2019, THREAT re-joined NiP as an assistant coach and has now, less than three months later, returned to his previous position as head coach.
The announcement surfaced this Monday on NiP’s official website, where they bid farewell to pita and welcomed THREAT as their new leader.
“The competitive environment of CS:GO is evolving at an incredibly fast pace and it��s not slowing down anytime soon. Pita has done a good job for us but after not finding momentum we have decided that a fresh perspective is needed to adjust to the current state of competitive CS:GO,” said Jonas Gundersen, NiP��s Chief Operating Officer.
“Bj?rn is an incredibly insightful CS:GO coach and is someone that knows NiP from the inside. He��s won trophies with the team before and has a great understanding of what it takes to get back to winning ways. He is a great guy and I am very excited to have him back to help us deal with the challenges ahead. We have a great group of players with tremendous potential and mindsets which we strongly believe in.”
THREAT said he was happy and excited to return to his old position as NiP’s head coach and thanked the Swedish esports organization for giving him the chance to once more compete at the highest level of CS.
THREAT’s first test with NiP will come in the BLAST Premier Spring 2020 Regular Season, which kicks off on Friday, January 31.
NiP could enter the BLAST Premier with a changed roster, as there are rumours Patrik “f0rest” Lindberg could leave for Team Dignitas in order to reunite with his former teammates Richard “Xizt” Landstr?m, Adam “friberg” Friberg and Christopher “GeT_RiGhT” Alesund.
]]>MARSKALK
$201.00 at GG Bet
MARSKALK are an unknown team in the CS:GO esports scene because we rarely, if ever, see them winning any notable events. Currently ranked 88th in the global rankings, MARSKALK are a C-Tier team that won’t do much damage against the better sides. It will be surprising if they win a single map at the DreamHack Open, let alone advance from the group stage.
SJ Gaming
$51.00 at GG Bet
SJ Gaming are in a similar position as MARSKALK. The Finnish team are ranked 64th in the CS:GO global rankings, which paints a clear enough picture of where they in the grand scheme of things. We do not trust MARSKALK to win a single map at the tournament and we have to say the same for SJ Gaming. We see no value in backing either of the two outsiders here.
ForZe
$9.00 at GG Bet
ForZe will enter the tournament hungry for revenge against Heroic, who knocked them out in the semi-finals of the DreamHack Open Rotterdam event, but their recent form is less than convincing. While ForZe won the EPICENTER CIS qualifiers last weekend, there were no big names present at the event. They will have a hard time making it out of the group and even if they do, finals seem way out of reach for the Russians.
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CR4ZY
$7.50 at GG Bet
CR4ZY are priced very generously at esports betting sites and it’s easy to see why. Since they parted ways with IGL Nemanja “nexa” Isakovi? and Nemanja “huNter-” Kova?, the Serbians have suffered a significant drop in overall quality. Thus, we won’t count on them to win their second DreamHack event of the year.
GODSENT
$5.50 at GG Bet
If there are no surprises, GODSENT should beat CR4ZY in the tussle for second place in Group B. Whether GODSENT can go further, however, is another matter. They have never met with Heroic nor FURIA, which does bring a level of uncertainty. The quality of the team seems decent on paper and while a lot will have to go right for them to triumph, GODSENT just might surprise us.
Tricked
$5.00 at GG Bet
Tricked are seen as third favourites to triumph at DreamHack Open Winter, but we can’t understand how they are priced shorter than GODSENT. The two sides met at WePlay! Forge of Masters Season 2, where GODSENT won 2-0. We gave GODSENT a very small chance to upset the favourites, yet we don��t see Tricked doing the same.
FURIA
$4.00 at GG Bet
FURIA are only a few cents out of outright favouritism, and we believe that is because Heroic are the reigning DreamHack Open champions. The Brazilians enter the tournament after an underwhelming run in ESL Pro League S10 Americas, where they finished ninth-10th after losing to eUnited and 100 Thieves. While a very poor display from them, we can’t forget FURIA finished third at StarSeries & i-League CS:GO Season 8 at the end of October. If they can recapture the form they showed in Belek, FURIA will be tough to stop.
Heroic
$3.75 at GG Bet
Heroic claimed a silver medal at DreamHack Open Rotterdam and won in Atlanta, showing they are more than comfortable at this level. There is nothing in their recent form to suggest they cannot clinch another DreamHack title this weekend. Heroic’s biggest obstacle will be FURIA, who they lost to at WePlay! Lock and Load at the start of the year.
DreamHack Open Winter predictions
It looks like a two-horse race for the title. Both teams have improved since FURIA beat Heroic back in January, but rankings, stats and form – especially against strong opposition – indicate the Brazilians are the better bet.
Prediction: FURIA to win – $4.00 at GG Bet
]]>The DreamHack Winter Fortnite will be a BYOC (bring your own computer) tournament, with no qualifiers taking place prior to it. That means anyone who can make it to the DreamHack festival in J?nk?ping and is at least 13 years of age can compete in the tournament, where they will get a chance to try out their skills against some of the best Fortnite players in the world.
According to the DreamHack official website, the tournament will be divided into three stages.
SEE ALSO: ESPORTS LEAGUES & TOURNAMENTS
Stage one will be open for all competitors and will be divided into three heats: yellow, red and blue. Red and blue heats will be played on Friday, one after the other, whereas the yellow heat will take centre stage on Saturday.
Any player can sign up and compete in all three heats, where they can play up to 10 matches in each heat. However, once a player advances into the next stage they may not play in any additional heats in stage one.
Only the top 200 players from each heat will advance into stage two, based on the accumulated points throughout the matches.
The points system for all three stages will award anywhere from one to 60 points, based on players’ final placements in any given match and the number of eliminations a player achieves.
First place: 60 pts
Second place: 53 pts
Third place: 49 pts
Fourth place: 47 pts
Fifth place: 46 pts
…
50th place: one point
Elimination: 15 points
The point system used at DreamHack-ran tournament will feature a glaring difference compared to tournaments ran by Epic Games. Unlike in Epic Games tournaments, where players earn one additional point for each elimination, this tournament will yield players five points.
Another huge difference is the number of points awarded to players who claim Victory Royale. In Epic Games tournaments, such players walk away with 15 points, but that number has been increased to 60 for the DreamHack event.
Stage two, which will take off on Saturday, November 30, will use a similar format as stage one and it will further narrow down the competition from 600 players to 100. The final 100 remaining players will then advance into the grand finals. There they will duke it out in eight matches to decide who will be crowned the DreamHack Winter Fortnite champion.
The top points-earner of the grand finals will take home US $30,000, with US $15,000 reserved for the runner-up and US $13,750 for the bronze medallist.
It took the Swedish outfit 19 months to break their title drought, which dated all the way back to their win at the 2017 World Electronic Sports Games.
While the squad has undergone many changes since then, the team that triumphed at Malmo Arena was almost identical to that which took out the WESG title nearly two years ago.
Robin “flusha” Ronnquist, Freddy “KRIMZ” Johansson, Jesper “JW” Wecksell and Maikil “Golden” Selim were all there, with Ludvig “Brollan” Brolin for Jonas “Lekr0” Olofsson the only difference.
Fnatic’s road to the finals started off the worst possible way, when they suffered a painful 7-16 defeat against ENCE in round one of the group stage. However, the Swedish outfit managed to bounce back with a dominant run in the lower bracket, where they defeated TYLOO (2-1), G2 (2-0) and FURIA (2-0) to secure a spot in the final six.
In round one of playoffs, Fnatic got paired with Ninjas in Pyjamas, who failed to put up much resistance against their compatriots, who dominated them on both Dust II (16-12) and Overpass (16-9) to win the series 2-1.
Entering the semi-finals, Fnatic met with Astralis, who were expected to be the toughest challenge the Swedes faced so far into the tournament but proved to be anything but. Fnatic crushed Astralis on Overpass (16-9) to which they added a closely fought 25-23 win on Nuke, to book a meeting with Team Vitality in the grand finals on Sunday, October 6.
Vitality kicked off the grand finals with a 16-14 win on Dust II, which put them in an excellent position to win their first LAN event since ECS Season 7 Finals in early June. However, things did not go as planned for the French.
On Inferno, Fnatic looked much stronger from the start, and while they almost ended up throwing the series by letting Vitality close the gap of six map points, Fnatic pushed through and came out on top (19-16) to tie the series at 1-1.
Despite starting the final map (Mirage) slow, Fnatic managed to bounce back in the second half to crush Vitality and secure a comfortable 16-13 win and the title of DreamHack Masters champions.
By winning DreamHack Masters Malmo Fnatic earned $100,000 in prizemoney, a direct invite to IEM Katowice 2020, their first IGS S3 point and a much-needed morale boost that will help on their quest to return to their former glory.
The best performing player of the grand finals was Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut who earned an impressive 1.38 HLTV rating, however, even that was not enough to help his team derail Fnatic, who achieved one of the greatest Cinderella stories in the history of CS:GO esports.
]]>Every team is bound to have its ups and downs, however, there are rare occasions where a team experiences anything like EG did this Wednesday in Sweden.
Only last week, Evil Geniuses entered ESL One New York as one of the underdogs and came away with their first win of the Intel Grand Slam season.
That impressive run featured a pair of shock wins over Astralis, including a momentous 3-1 victory in the grand finals.
Having shown immense talent and great form in the Big Apple, EG arrived at DreamHack Masters Malmo as the team to watch and were considered by many to be a chance for the title.
They were paired with Grayhound in the opening round of Group B, which looked like a very favourable fixture for a team fresh off a big tournament win.
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But when it came to execution, EG fell short.
A close 8-7 first half was succeeded by a rather one-sided second half (8-3) when we saw Grayhound walk over EG, who did not have an answer for Ozzie’s T-side strategy.
That 16-10 defeat saw EG descend to the lower bracket, where they met up with the ESL One New York 2018 champions, mousesports.
While EG were still considered strong favourites to win, mouz pushed them to their limits and secured a spot in round two with a 16-10 win on Mirage and a 22-20 overtime victory on Train.
With that, Evil Geniuses were sent packing from Malmo after only two days, joining Team Envy, TYLOO and North as one of the worst teams of the tournament.
Those four teams will take home a consolation prize of $3,000 and an unenviable 13th-16th place finish.