Location Jönköping, Sweden Host(s) DreamHack | Administrator(s) DreamHack | |
Sport Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Dates November 27, 2014–December 29, 2014 Tournament format(s) 16 team round-robin group stage
Eight team single-elimination playoff | ||
DreamHack Winter 2014 was a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive major that was held from November 27–29, 2014 at Elmia in Jönköping. It was organized by DreamHack.
Contents
The tournament had a total prize pool of $250,000 USD. The eight quarter-finalists from the previous major, ESL One Cologne 2014 were invited, while qualifiers were held for the other eight spots.
LDLC was the winner of the event after beating Ninjas in Pyjamas 16-10, 16-4, 19-16 in the finals.
The tournament was casted by Auguste "Semmler" Massonnat, Anders Blume, Stuart "Tosspot" Saw, Robin "Fifflaren" Johansson. The analyst panel consisted of Scott "SirScoots" Smith (host), Duncan "Thorin" Shields (Expert). The Reporter/Stage host was James Duffield.
Format
The top six teams of the ESL One Cologne 2014 qualified as Legends. Five teams from Europe, one team from North America, and two teams from the Last LAN Qualifier qualified from the tournament. In addition, two teams were invited to the major.
Teams will be split up into four groups. All group matches are best of one. The highest seed will play the lowest seed in each group and the second and third seeds will play against each other. The winner of those two matches will play to determine which team moves on to the Playoffs; the loser of that match will play another match against the winner of the two losing teams. The loser of the lower match is eliminated from the tournament. The last two teams will play each other and the winner of that match moves on to the playoffs.
The playoffs bracket consists of eight teams, two from each group. All of these matches are a best of three, single elimination format. Teams advance in the bracket until a winner is decided.
Broadcast Talent
Host
Stage Host
Analyst
Commentators
Teams
1Bravado Gaming and myXMG were invited to the tournament. Bravado did not have to play in any qualifier. myXMG failed to qualify through the European qualifier but was still invited.
Prior to the major, changes took place.
The biggest change came after the scandal of three French players. Two teams that achieved Legends statuses at the previous major, ESL One Cologne 2014, were dropped from their Legends spots. Titan, which achieved Legends status with Team LDLC.com, was disqualified from the tournament after Hovik "KQLY" Tovmassian was found cheating. In the same incident, Epsilon eSports was disqualified after Gordon "Sf" Giry was found to be cheating. The two players and Simon "smn" Beck were then VAC banned by Valve and were permanently banned from any Valve-sponsored tournaments, including any majors. The two remaining spots were then filled up in the Last Call LAN qualifier, taken by Copenhagen Wolves and Flipsid3 Tactics.
After KQLY, Dan "apEX" Madesclaire, and Mathieu "Maniac" Quiquerez left for Titan, Team LDLC.com released Kévin "Uzzziii" Vernel and signed Nathan "NBK-" Schmitt, Richard "shox" Papillon, Fabien "kioShiMa" Fiey, and Edouard "SmithZz" Dubourdeaux.
Team Dignitas released Philip "aizy" Aistrup and signed René "cajunb" Borg from the Copenhagen Wolves. Copenhagen Wolves also released Finn "karrigan" Andersen and Nicolaj "Nico" Jensen along with cajunb and sign Casper "cadiaN" Møller, Markus "Kjaerbye" Kjærbye, and Jesper "tenzki" Mikalski.
HellRaisers drop Dauren “AdreN” Kystaubayev in favor of Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev
iBuyPower dropped Sam "DaZeD" Marine and Joshua "steel" Nissan despite being considered to be the best North American team. The team brings in Nicholas "nitr0" Cannella and Derek "desi" Branchen in their place.
Bracket
1The third map originally ended with a Fnatic win. However, the match was the be replayed due to both teams violating in-game rules. Fnatic refused to replay the map and LDLC was given the win