NEWS
Dreamhack Summer 2012 Preview
Dreamhack is back and will be the hottest tournament in Europe this June, with Moscow 5 returning to the offline competition and Fnatic trying to “take” the #2 Spot in the European Circuit.
By David 'darthsexy' Figueira
Jun 15, 2012 01:11
Dreamhack is back and will be the hottest tournament in Europe this June, with Moscow 5 returning to the offline competition and Fnatic trying to “take” the #2 Spot in the European Circuit.After MLG last weekend, all spotlight is on Europe, where we are now days away from Dreamhack Summer 2012, powered by SteelSeries. The event always spawns upsets like last year’s Dreamhack where 
Epik Gaming were one of the surprises for the big plays and display on this offline tournament; winners, like the Season 1 champions Fnatic, and legends in other videogames since 1994.
Dreamhack Summer 2011 was marked as the ending of Season 1 of the League of Legends competitive circuit, with Fnatic featured as the Season 1 official winners beating aAa in the final, for the big $50.000 prize. This year things are much different - with Moscow 5 on the top of the chart, they will dispute this event with Fnatic to improve or change things in the Season 2 European Challenger Chart. Featuring both #3 and #1 of the European Circuit, it will be an interesting tournament to watch.
This year’s event will take place on 16-18 June - the first day will feature the BYOC Tournament, the second day will feature the Group Round and the last day will feature the Knockout Round of the tournament with the Grand Finals as the Main Event!
365 teams participated in the online qualifier to Dreamhack, but only four Top EU teams came up and will be fighting for the total prize pool of $40.000. They are:
Team Curse EU – The former AL.eu team, which is now a member of the Curse organization, won the first seed in the qualifiers. With short history to tell as Curse.eu but bigger as the former AL.eu, the team changed its name on June 1st, participated in the Reign of Gaming International Invitational where they came up in 4th place, had a poor run in MLG Anaheim placing themselves in 9th-12th position but won the Dreamhack online qualifier. The team was very disappointed with their performance in MLG and decided to release their top laner 
Joey 'YoungBuck' Steltenpool and take back their ex one
Aurimas 'Angush' Gedvilas.
Moscow Five – The current #1 in the European Circuit, the IEM World Champions will have to show the other seven teams in the tournament why they are currently one of the best “Team Playing” teams in League of Legends. With Alexey 'Alex Ich' Ichetovkin back and their recent achievements, which include winning the SK Trophy in May vs. the current AL.eu and coming in second place in the Medion Challenge 2012 where they lost 3-1 to CLG.eu, Moscow 5 must be ready for the serious action this weekend, or are they?
Absolute Legends – The exHCL team has always been one of the good ones, but lately they’ve really stepped up their game qualifying for DreamHack, winning one of the SK Amateur Trophies and placing second in the Pro Trophy for May. Their efforts didn’t go unnoticed and they finally found their new sponsor – Absolute Legends. With this being their first big offline event, there’s a lot on the line for the team – the chance to prove themselves as one of the big names in the European scene and what’s even more important, to win circuit points and with them the chance to attend the European Regional Qualifier for the S2 Championship.
fnatic – After Maciej 'Shushei' Ratuszniak’s departure from the team, Fnatic debuted their recent acquisitions, 
Patrick 'Pheilox' Walpuski and 
Paul 'sOAZ' Boyer, at MLG Anaheim. With a decent performance there, placing themselves in 5th/6th place, after long struggling exhibitions in the past tournaments, Fnatic slowly regains their fans trust again. They must be really excited to come back to the same event that proclaimed them the Season 1 Champions. Will they use that motivation and do well in their second offline tournament with both new players?
These four teams came on top of some great names in the online tournament like SK Gaming , Counter Logic Gaming EU and against All authority . There’s a lot of expectation for them as the D-Day comes closer.
As the event is just around the corner we gathered some opinions about it from several members of the SK Staff.
Who has the highest chance to win this tournament (only between those 4 teams qualified) and why?
With the BYOC Tournament before the main event, will any team have the capability of impressing and shocking as they progress through the event?
From the four teams qualified, who do you think is likely to have troubles compared to the others? Why?
Well, the attention isn’t only for the already qualified teams, but also for the four teams that will qualify from the Bring-Your-Own-Computer Qualifying Tournament on the first day of Dreamhack Summer 2012.
Still not knowing who's confirmed, a lot of teams have signed for the Offline qualifiers in Dreamhack, looking for a chance to be in the 8-Team offline Dreamhack tournament. This early “preview-like” offline qualifier will spice things up for the huge tournament!
Epik Gaming were one of the surprises for the big plays and display on this offline tournament; winners, like the Season 1 champions Fnatic, and legends in other videogames since 1994.Dreamhack Summer 2011 was marked as the ending of Season 1 of the League of Legends competitive circuit, with Fnatic featured as the Season 1 official winners beating aAa in the final, for the big $50.000 prize. This year things are much different - with Moscow 5 on the top of the chart, they will dispute this event with Fnatic to improve or change things in the Season 2 European Challenger Chart. Featuring both #3 and #1 of the European Circuit, it will be an interesting tournament to watch.
This year’s event will take place on 16-18 June - the first day will feature the BYOC Tournament, the second day will feature the Group Round and the last day will feature the Knockout Round of the tournament with the Grand Finals as the Main Event!
365 teams participated in the online qualifier to Dreamhack, but only four Top EU teams came up and will be fighting for the total prize pool of $40.000. They are:
Team Curse EU – The former AL.eu team, which is now a member of the Curse organization, won the first seed in the qualifiers. With short history to tell as Curse.eu but bigger as the former AL.eu, the team changed its name on June 1st, participated in the Reign of Gaming International Invitational where they came up in 4th place, had a poor run in MLG Anaheim placing themselves in 9th-12th position but won the Dreamhack online qualifier. The team was very disappointed with their performance in MLG and decided to release their top laner Joey 'YoungBuck' Steltenpool and take back their ex one Aurimas 'Angush' Gedvilas. Moscow Five – The current #1 in the European Circuit, the IEM World Champions will have to show the other seven teams in the tournament why they are currently one of the best “Team Playing” teams in League of Legends. With Alexey 'Alex Ich' Ichetovkin back and their recent achievements, which include winning the SK Trophy in May vs. the current AL.eu and coming in second place in the Medion Challenge 2012 where they lost 3-1 to CLG.eu, Moscow 5 must be ready for the serious action this weekend, or are they?
Absolute Legends – The exHCL team has always been one of the good ones, but lately they’ve really stepped up their game qualifying for DreamHack, winning one of the SK Amateur Trophies and placing second in the Pro Trophy for May. Their efforts didn’t go unnoticed and they finally found their new sponsor – Absolute Legends. With this being their first big offline event, there’s a lot on the line for the team – the chance to prove themselves as one of the big names in the European scene and what’s even more important, to win circuit points and with them the chance to attend the European Regional Qualifier for the S2 Championship. fnatic – After Maciej 'Shushei' Ratuszniak’s departure from the team, Fnatic debuted their recent acquisitions, Patrick 'Pheilox' Walpuski and Paul 'sOAZ' Boyer, at MLG Anaheim. With a decent performance there, placing themselves in 5th/6th place, after long struggling exhibitions in the past tournaments, Fnatic slowly regains their fans trust again. They must be really excited to come back to the same event that proclaimed them the Season 1 Champions. Will they use that motivation and do well in their second offline tournament with both new players?These four teams came on top of some great names in the online tournament like
SK Gaming , Counter Logic Gaming EU and against All authority . There’s a lot of expectation for them as the D-Day comes closer.As the event is just around the corner we gathered some opinions about it from several members of the SK Staff.
Who has the highest chance to win this tournament (only between those 4 teams qualified) and why?
"CaveMan: One month ago i would have said Curse.eu but they did not perform as expected in Anaheim. I’ll say Fnatic.They had some lineup changes recently, but after their performance in MLG which was really good considering that sOAZ was playing with the team for only two weeks and as a team,Fnatic were struggling for a long time. They have the will to prove that they can be better without Shushei and they are the defending champions so i will place my bet on them.
Viru5z: Moscow 5 definitely! From what I’ve seen, they play really well as a team in offline tournaments, and from all the teams, they’re the most hard working one. They make most out of their every single game.
Curlychan: We haven’t seen Moscow 5 in a serious tournament since IEM Hannover, but I’ll still bet on them, because they never fail to amaze people at a LAN and I’m sure they will be very well prepared. This said, I do think that every one of the 4 teams can win the tournament, if luck is on their side.
VANiLLACORE: Even though Fnatic has been through a lineup change lately, they seem pretty strong and confident to me. So i think that if they prepare for this tournament very well and focus on improving their team sync, they will be a strong team."
Viru5z: Moscow 5 definitely! From what I’ve seen, they play really well as a team in offline tournaments, and from all the teams, they’re the most hard working one. They make most out of their every single game.
Curlychan: We haven’t seen Moscow 5 in a serious tournament since IEM Hannover, but I’ll still bet on them, because they never fail to amaze people at a LAN and I’m sure they will be very well prepared. This said, I do think that every one of the 4 teams can win the tournament, if luck is on their side.
VANiLLACORE: Even though Fnatic has been through a lineup change lately, they seem pretty strong and confident to me. So i think that if they prepare for this tournament very well and focus on improving their team sync, they will be a strong team."
With the BYOC Tournament before the main event, will any team have the capability of impressing and shocking as they progress through the event?
"CaveMan: From the teams that play on BYOC event, I can say that CLG.eu can go far but CLG.eu is not considered a surprise. If the tournament was online, 99% they would win. They have insane skills, from Krepo to Froggen, Wickd to Snoopeh and of course Yellowpete,CLG.eu can go all the way to the finals and win the tourney. The only thing that can hold them back is the lack of circuit points. Time is pressing them to get some and this can be frustrating in a live event.
Viru5z: Well, any underdog team has the capability of winning any tournament they want, it all comes down to how much practice you have and how good you are at a game. There may be a small team wanting to get big in this tournament and it would be great to see new teams making their way up in the e-sports community.
Curlychan: CLG.eu just has to go through the BYOC and secure a top 3 finish at the main tournament, if they want to have a chance at the Regional Qualifiers for S2 Championship. As there will be only European teams, I think they can do it.
VANiLLACORE: As Dreamhack is a very big and popular event, i think that every single team is going to aim for big plays. The last Dreamhack has been full of surprises
and good games, so let's see what's going to amaze us this year. Maybe M5 are going to pull some real unexpected team combo and entertain us with it. :D"
Viru5z: Well, any underdog team has the capability of winning any tournament they want, it all comes down to how much practice you have and how good you are at a game. There may be a small team wanting to get big in this tournament and it would be great to see new teams making their way up in the e-sports community.
Curlychan: CLG.eu just has to go through the BYOC and secure a top 3 finish at the main tournament, if they want to have a chance at the Regional Qualifiers for S2 Championship. As there will be only European teams, I think they can do it.
VANiLLACORE: As Dreamhack is a very big and popular event, i think that every single team is going to aim for big plays. The last Dreamhack has been full of surprises
and good games, so let's see what's going to amaze us this year. Maybe M5 are going to pull some real unexpected team combo and entertain us with it. :D"
From the four teams qualified, who do you think is likely to have troubles compared to the others? Why?
"CaveMan: Curse.eu will probably face some troubles during the event. Angush is back in the team but these changes are against the team's performance. In addition, Curse.eu seems to be unable to manage bad performances and losses and after what I’ve seen from aAa that had the same problem, I can say that they will face some troubles.
Viru5z: Fnatic, because they have a new roster so they are still playing around with comps/ play styles, and this will be their time to show that they have put in the hard work and prove that they are serious about the team.
Curlychan: I guess Curse.eu will have problems considering they took their ex-top laner Angush back and haven’t had enough time to practice with him again.
VANiLLACORE: I am not sure about this, as surprises come with every event. Sometimes, a team that usually is really strong and confident starts having trouble when facing another team even tho they normally beat them in scrims etc. This is kind of a worst case scenario in such a big tournament. But on the other hand, it also happens that a team that seemed kind of "not so strong" before the tournament gets in a great shape shows real big plays. We'll see what happens ;)"
Viru5z: Fnatic, because they have a new roster so they are still playing around with comps/ play styles, and this will be their time to show that they have put in the hard work and prove that they are serious about the team.
Curlychan: I guess Curse.eu will have problems considering they took their ex-top laner Angush back and haven’t had enough time to practice with him again.
VANiLLACORE: I am not sure about this, as surprises come with every event. Sometimes, a team that usually is really strong and confident starts having trouble when facing another team even tho they normally beat them in scrims etc. This is kind of a worst case scenario in such a big tournament. But on the other hand, it also happens that a team that seemed kind of "not so strong" before the tournament gets in a great shape shows real big plays. We'll see what happens ;)"
Well, the attention isn’t only for the already qualified teams, but also for the four teams that will qualify from the Bring-Your-Own-Computer Qualifying Tournament on the first day of Dreamhack Summer 2012.
Still not knowing who's confirmed, a lot of teams have signed for the Offline qualifiers in Dreamhack, looking for a chance to be in the 8-Team offline Dreamhack tournament. This early “preview-like” offline qualifier will spice things up for the huge tournament!
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Hope you guys get what you want!
Ceraco :)