QuakeLive: DreamHack Winter group stage preview

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By Duncan 'Thorin' Shields

Nov 25, 2009 22:27

zappater gives his predictions for the group stage of DreamHack Winter's QuakeLive tournament. Will Swedish ex-pro Z4muz make it out of his group? Does ex-CS aim tournament winner Smaugy have what it takes to beat link1n or Cooller?

DreamHack Winter marks the next big event on the QuakeLive calender and the field is packed with well known names such as Cooller, Cypher, fox and Stermy. zappater gives the lowdown on who will make it out of each group in this preview for the event which is only days away.

Group A
Tim 'DaHanG' Fogarty
Alexander 'Z4muZ' Ihrfors
Reynir 'Reynir' Þorsteinsson
Travis 'Shase' Weedon

DaHanG placed 4th at Quakecon this year and 5th-8th at IEM IV Dubai. Back in 2003 Z4muz was a top Quake 3 dueler and his 2nd places behind ZeRo4 at Quakecon and Cooller at QLAN cemented him as a fan favourite. Shase was a WarCraft III player who played as a representative of South Africa in the 2005 WCG.

zappater's predictions: I find this group rather interesting having an old school player in Z4muZ, a new school player in Reynir, a total unknown in Shase and an obvious winner in Dahang. While Dahang will take this group with ease the question is who will be able to take the second place. My bet will be on Z4muZ simply because of his lan experience and routine.

1. Dahang
2. Z4muZ

Group B
Magnus 'fox' Olsson
Maciej 'av3k' Krzykowski
Aron 'siLw' Hommer
Karl 'Tybalt' Danielsson

fox placed 7-8th at Quakecon but 4th at IEM IV Dubai where he managed to beat rapha in the group stage. av3k placed 3rd at both of the Quake 3 ESWC Masters events in 2008 and won ESWC in Quake 4 in 2007.

zappater's predictions: Most will with all right say that this group is decided from the start, Fox and Av3k should go through. I however have my doubts when it comes to Av3k, he didn't do well at Quakecon and during the ESL-TV online tournament before he rage quit. It all depends on his mentality and if Tybalt or Silw is able to take the first map from him, if they do Av3k might not have the mentality to stay in the tournament.

1. Fox
2. Av3k

Group C
Brian 'dkt' Flander
Pelle 'Fazz' Söderman
Robert 'tox1c' Kopczynski
Emil 'rmd_' Esov

dkt finished 5th-6th at Quakecon 2009. Fazz was a top Swedish Quake 3 player a number of years ago and placed 4th at ESWC 2003. He finished 9th-12th at Quakecon.

zappater's predictions: DKT performed well at Quakecon, won his group in the American Championship and has a lot of experience, there shouldn't be any competition for him in this group. The second place is a bit harder, while Fazz is the obvious favorite and has the most lan experience the pole Tox1c has performed well lately and is a potential threat. But once again I believe experience will be the deciding factor and place Fazz at a second place.

1. DKT
2. Fazz

Group D
Anton 'Cooller' Singov
Pierre-Emeric 'link1n' Portier
Jonathan 'Kujiwa' Willman
Markus 'Smaugy' Sundqvist

Cooller is a Quake 3 legend having won ESWC twice, at IEM IV Dubai he took 5th-8th after losing to noctis in overtime on the last map. Link1n is one of the best CTF attackers in the world and took 3rd with fnatic at Quakecon 2009. In duel he finished 13th-16th at the same Quakecon and at IEM IV Dubai he didn't make it out of the group despite beating fox and Jibo. Smaugy is a CS player who won an Ultimate Gaming Tour 1v1 aim tournament in Sweden which featured the likes of f0rest and zet.

zappater's predictions: While Smaugy has done well in counter-strike because of his aim this is Quake and only having a good aim will not take you anywhere. Specially not when you have to face up against Cooller who knows how to play against this type of player. Link1n and Kujiwa are both more known for TDM performances and just as Link1n is the better TDM player he is also the better dueler.

1. Cooller
2. Link1n

Group E
Michael 'mAdix' Hindersson
Kevin 'Strenx' Baeza
Jeffrey 'draven' Debipersad
Norway Adrian "ado" Værnor

madix finished 5th-8th at IEM IV Dubai, being lucky to escape a three-way tie in his group. strenx was on the losing end of that three-way tie in Dubai.

zappater's predictions: Some people seem to be surprised at Madix high seed despite his good performance in Dubai and if he should be able to repeat it by beating Strenx he can consider himself an established player. What will be more interesting is the fight for the second place, both Draven and Strenx are good players with a lot of experience. However, Strenx has been performing better online and should be able to take himself out of the group.

1. Madix
2. Strenx

Group F
Sebastian 'Spart1e1' Siira
Eythor Eythor 'linkoo' Kristjansson Kristjansson
Joakim 'Nace' Åhfeldt
Sweden Stefan "Emp" Jarl

Spart1e finished 2nd at Quakecon 2009 and didn't make it out of his group at IEM IV Dubai.

zappater's predictions: Spartie has been practicing hard for this tournament and he should not perform as badly as he did in Dubai. Once again the fight for second place is a bit more interesting. Linkoo qualified for the Nordic GameOn finals by placing second while Nace placed eight and didn't qualify. Its going to be close between these two players but in the end Linkoo is better than Nace.

1. Spartie
2. Linkoo

Group G
Alessandro 'stermy' Avallone
Chance 'Chance' Lacina
Friðbjörn 'xrebzy' Davidsen
Sweden Magnus "Dronar" Jonsson

stermy finished 5th-6th at Quakecon 2009 and 5th-8th at IEM IV Dubai. Chance finished 9th-12th at Quakecon and didn't make it out of his group in Dubai.

zappater's predictions: Stermy and Chance will take this home, and unfortunate for Chance, Stermy will be the one taking first place. As Rapha has said about Chance, he is a player that can beat anyone, any day but he can also be beaten by anyone. If Chance want to be able to get far at Dreamhack he needs to become a more stable player.

1. Stermy
2. Chance

Group H
Alexei 'Cypher' Yanushevsky
Karl 'Fooki' Johansson
Iceland David "serak" Thorvaldsson
Sweden Dennis "SobriuS" Soderberg

Cypher finished 3rd at Quakecon 2009 and 2nd at IEM IV Dubai. In 2008 he won ESWC in Quake 3. fooKi shot to fame in 2004 by winning QLAN 2 ahead of the likes of czm and Cooller.

zappater's predictions: Its always fun to see inactive pros make a return and Fooki can perform very well despite having been inactive. But Cypher is the better player right now, he is the one who should win and the only thing that can stop him would be getting to Dreamhack unprepared and tired in which case he would have to settle for a second place. The other players in the group unfortunately do not stand a chance but expect Fooki to give Cypher a hard time.

1. Cypher
2. Fooki