Epic map win helps Heroic advance at DreamHack Winter EU

Heroic advanced to the playoffs of the DreamHack Masters Winter 2020: Europe event thanks in part to a quadruple-overtime map win Tuesday, and Gambit Esports also booked a playoff spot.

In the upper bracket of Group A, Heroic topped Team Spirit 2-0 and Gambit got past Complexity Gaming 2-0.

Spirit face a losers-bracket matchup Thursday against Cloud9, a 2-0 victor over ENCE on Tuesday in a first-round losers-bracket contest. Complexity next oppose FaZe Clan, who eliminated c0ntact Gaming 2-0 on Tuesday.

Two Group B first-round matches were contested Tuesday, with G2 Esports sweeping Nemiga Gaming 2-0 and FURIA Esports routing North 2-0.

The $150,000 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive event began with 16 teams divided into two eight-team groups, with all matches in a best-of-three format. The top four teams from each group move the playoffs.

The playoffs will have a single-elimination bracket, with all matches best-of-three except for the Sunday grand final, which will be best-of-five.

The winner takes home $60,000 and 400 ESL Pro Tour points.

On Tuesday, Heroic beat Spirit 16-9 on Mirage but fell behind 11-1 on Nuke. Heroic rallied to force overtime, then squandered leads in each of the first three OTs before ultimately prevailing 28-26.

Martin "stavn" Lund led Heroic's all-Danish roster with 72 kills and a plus-19 kill-death differential. Russia's Nikolay "mir" Bityukov topped Spirit with 58 kills and a plus-2 K-D differential.

Gambit cruised past Complexity with 16-5 wins on Train and Mirage. Russia's Timofey "interz" Yakushin posted 41 kills and a plus-21 K-D differential for Gambit. Denmark's Kristian "k0nfig" Wienecke had 28 kills and a minus-3 K-D differential for Complexity.

FaZe topped c0ntact 16-11 on Train before dropping Dust II 16-13. On the decisive third map, Nuke, FaZe pulled out a 19-16 overtime victory. Latvia's Helvijs "broky" Saukants was the star for FaZe with 73 kills and a plus-23 K-D differential. Lithuania's Rokas "EspiranTo" Milasauskas registered 76 kills and a plus-16 K-D differential for c0ntact.

Cloud9 needed two overtimes to claim Dust II against ENCE 25-23, then closed out the match with a 16-9 win on Nuke. Great Britian's Alex "ALEX" McMeekin amassed 68 kills for Cloud9, and the United States' Ricky "floppy" Kemery had a team-best plus-20 K-D differential. Miikka "suNny" Kemppi led ENCE's all-Finnish squad with 59 kills and a minus-1 K-D differential.

G2 edged Nemiga 19-16 in overtime on Mirage before rolling to a 16-7 victory on Dust II. France's Kenny "kennyS" Schrub logged 48 kills and a plus-20 K-D differential for G2. Belarus' Igor "lollipop21k" Solodkov recorded 51 kills and a plus-8 K-D differential for Nemiga.

FURIA's all-Brazilian team throttled North 16-4 on Overpass and 16-6 on Inferno behind 38 kills and a plus-22 K-D differential from Kaike "KSCERATO" Cerato. Sweden's Jonas "Lekr0" Olofsson finished with 27 kills and a minus-7 K-D differential for North.

The Wednesday schedule features four matches, all in Group B. GODSENT will face mousesports and G2 will oppose FURIA in upper-bracket semifinals. Astralis will meet Team Liquid and Nemiga will match up with North in lower-bracket first-round action.

DreamHack Masters Europe prize pool and ESL Pro Tour points:

1. $60,000, 400 points

2. $30,000, 265 points

3-4. $12,000, 160 points

5-6. $5,000, 75 points

7-8. $5,000, 65 points

9-12. $2,500, 45 points

13-16. c0ntact Gaming, ENCE, two teams TBD -- $1,500, no points

--Field Level Media