DreamHack Open Winter 2019 is an A-Tier CS:GO tournament set to kick off this Friday, November 29 at Elmia Convention Center in Jönköping, Sweden. It will be the sixth DreamHack Open event of the year, once again featuring eight professional CS:GO teams who will compete for the lion's share of US$100,000 and the title of DreamHack champions.
The tournament will start with the group stage, featuring two double-elimination (GSL) groups, with all opening and winners' matches using a best-of-one (Bo1) series and Bo3 for elimination and decider matches. Top two teams from each group will then advance into the playoffs, where a single-elimination bracket will be in place, with all fixtures played as Bo3.
DreamHack Open Winter 2019 Betting Tips
The list of teams and their seeding into groups looks as follows:
Group A: forZe, FURIA, MARSKALK, Tricked Esport
Group B: CR4ZY, GODSENT, Heroic, SJ Gaming
The 100 Thieves were set to compete at the event, but withdrew on November 21, 2019, and were replaced by GODSENT, who on November 14, 2019 signed the entire roster of SMASH Esports.
With the basic format of the tournament and the lineup covered, it's time to dig deep into the teams, look over their strengths and weaknesses which will help us with predicting which team will claim the title and take home US$50,000 in prize money.
When it comes to discussing which team can claim the title, Marskalk ($201.00 at Skrilla) are unfortunately not a team worth mentioning. While they proved their worth in the Swedish qualifiers, where they came out on top of 23 other Swedish teams, Marskalk are still a C-tier team. They deserve all the praise for making it so far, however, we can't see them producing any surprises here. They are objectively the weakest team out of eight and we would be surprised if they manage to win a single match. We would advise against betting on Marskalk, as there is no way they can make anything happen here.
SJ Gaming ($51.00) are in a similar position compared to Marskalk when we talk about their chances to triumph. The Finns qualified for the event by winning Finnish Esports League S7 and while they are arguably a stronger side compared to Marskalk, SJ Gaming will have a hard time making it out of group B.
ForZe ($8.50) are priced as sixth favourites at DreamHack Open Winter, which we believe is fair. The Russians claimed third-fourth place finish in DreamHack Open: Rotterdam after losing to Heroic (1:2) in the semi-finals, which was a solid result. That said, forZe did not impress with their performances at ESEA S32 and later at WePlay! Forge of Masters S2, where they failed to make it out of the group. In our eyes, forZe are capable of making something happen here, but their poor form ahead of the tournament makes us doubt in their strength.
CR4ZY ($7.50) won DreamHack Rotterdam, but have since then dropped in form and overall quality. The departure of Nemanja "huNter-" Kovač and Nemanja "nexa" Isaković severely weakened the team, which was noticeable in Atlanta, where they lost in the semi-finals against Sprout (0-2). We don't trust CR4ZY to impress here, as even making it out of the group could prove to be a tough task.
GODSENT ($6.00) will enter the tournament as fourth favorites to claim the title, and while we believe the odds here are spot on, we see no value in backing them to do so. GODSENT and CR4ZY are, in our eyes, two main candidates to claim the second seed in group B. That said, we would not count on GODSENT to surprise anyone here and claim the title. They are a solid team, but considering there are other stronger teams present at the tournament, we do not feel like GODSENT have a legitimate chance to triumph.
Tricked ($5.00) are in a similar position. They are a solid team, who should have no issues making it into the playoffs. Going further, however, will prove to be a tough task. Looking at their most recent results, Tricked look to be very inconsistent with their performances, which makes us believe they won't be able to compete with the tournament favorites.
FURIA ($4.00) are priced as the second favorite to win the event and we believe that assessment is fair. At the end of October, FURIA finished third at StarSeries & i-League CS:GO Season 8, which was a huge achievement for the Danish squad, who are set to produce a title-winning run in Sweden. While they did underperform slightly at ESL Pro League S10, the lineup here should not cause them too many problems. Expect FURIA to at least make it to the finals, and possibly even win the whole thing.
Heroic ($3.75) made it to the finals in both of the last two DreamHack Open events and even went on to win the whole thing in Atlanta. Based on their performance this season and overall form, Heroic are rightfully seen as the main favorites to claim another title here and we can't argue with that. We believe backing up Heroic to win the whole thing is not a bad bet, especially at the given odds.
